Headlines like Applause for Biden interrupts Catholic church service
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Biden and his wife attended mass at Holy Trinity Catholic Church in Georgetown. At one point, when newcomers and visitors were welcomed, congregants laughed and started applauding until Biden stood up. Then everyone stood up for sustained applause.
This adds to my list of why I hate Pastors asking about visitors. I once tweeted that I was tempted to stand up and say that I was visiting from Mars in hope this would discourage them. We go from the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass and Calvary to a lounge room act in short order as they ask about visitors, birthdays, anniversaries, etc.
For a group a Catholics to applaud a pro-abortion Catholic and soon to be Vice President and part of the probably the most extreme pro-abortion administration ever is beyond the pale. Applause just does not belong as part of the Mass, but when it celebrates a minion of Moloch it becomes a participation in evil. Bad enough that he is given Communion in the first place. Nothing like an act of sacrilege to start your week.
“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.” Ratzinger “Spirit of the Liturgy”
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If i was at that church and saw Joe Biden walk in I would have walked out and probably shouted “baby-killer” at him, but something tells me I wouldn’t be in that church. God help this country.
Nauseating. As intolerable as these so-called Catholic politicians are, I find something even more disgusting about Joe Biden and his smug face.
If I were less charitable, I’d say I’d love to knock the caps off his fake teeth.
But I wouldn’t say that.
(((sigh))) This makes me want to scream on a weekly basis…
Still, until it is in the GIRM – in red ink, underscored, and highlighted with a statement of “And We Really Mean It!” – it’s going to keep happening.
Even with all that, it will still keep happening because there is “nothing wrong with people applauding if the spirit moves them”… and, according to our parish priest, “We are all on a journey.” so we can’t say what is right or wrong because we don’t know (blah blah blah)…
AND our Deacon said unless it is an actual “sacrilege” he ain’t falling on his sword for ANYONE (actually said to my husband today at our parish’s annual meeting of liturgical whoosy-whatsits)
I won’t even go there with the handholding, sports talk, ruckus in the sacristy, priest-leaving-the-sanctuary, laity purifying the vessels, Haugen-Haas-Shutte nightmare that we suffer from week to week…)
We are planning to make a monthly “journey” to our nearest FSSP-lead extraordinary form of the mass. 76 miles seems a small sacrifice at this point!
Sorry for the rant. I pray and I pray, but I still struggle with this! Please pray for me, my family, and our parish.
Holy Trinity is one of the most left leaning parishes (and very well to do, I should add) parishes in this Archdiocese.
In fact, they host a monthly meeting of Voice of the (un)Faithful.
For many years the rumor has been that Cardinal Hickey attempted to get them in line. The parish then threatened to “out” a number of gay priests. Maybe he should have taken them up on their offer.
Malformed URLs make me scream
Yes, scream and in agreement with Thomas- vomit!Until ALL Catholics understand that the Mass is about Christ and His sacrifice this type of thing will continue. And applauding for a pro-abortion official well, if I were less charitable I would have rather thrown a hymnal at him! If people only knew where they truly were when at Mass.
You know, I hate to criticize our Pope, who is evidently a great man… but I have a hard time understanding why the pro-Abortion ‘Catholic’ politicians haven’t been excommunicated. If the USCCB won’t do it then His Holiness should do it.
I mean, Emperor Theodosius got excommunicated for the massacre of some Greek rebels. And he was a staunchly pro-Catholic emperor of Rome and champion of the Nicene creed. Whereas the Democrats have killed almost 50 million babies at this point… and nothing. Not even a slap on the wrist.
What gives?
I’d make one exception to the Pope’s statement.
At the end of Mass when a new alter server is serving the first time our parish priest just after the announcements and just before the closing prayer he introduces the alter server by name saying I think he did a great job don’t you? There is a short round of applause followed by the end of the mass.
This is terrible. Clapping at mass for a catholic who support abortion. If he did something to defend catholic virtue yes i can understand that, but this is just not right.
@Datechguy
Per the GIRM this is where the applause you speak of belongs. That being said, there is never a time for a lector (as the article says it was) to encourage a celebration! It’s time for some parish priests to stand-up and put and end to this kind of bologna! They need to do it before “Catholics” like Joe Biden, Patrick Leahy, Nancy Pelosi, etc., etc., destroy our church.
Holy Trinity is the “sophisticated Catholic” church in Georgetown. It makes sense that Biden would be applauded there.
I’m writing on this topic right now…It’s going to take me a while to get through this, but I despise applause during the Mass
@Datechguy
Applause doesn’t even belong there. Having trained and worked with alter servers, it is more effective if parishoners approach them privately and offer congratulations.
They’re already neverous as all get out, the last thing they want is attention drawn to themselves. And if they do want applause and attention then it falls right into line with the Pope’s statement.
But isn’t this a reflection of how our world operates today? They base life-decisions on the words of actors and actresses. They vegetate in front of the TV, demanding more and more entertainment. Too many churches are falling into the same trap: gotta make Mass or Sunday Services more entertaining, gotta introduce guitarists and singing groups and video and PowerPoint sermons and the like. It doesn’t surprise me in the least that the folks at that Mass thought it proper to applaud a ‘celebrity’ like Joe Biden. Though they may know his stance on abortion, it doesn’t matter to them, because, again, he’s a ‘celebrity’. I’m sad now.
I’m with you, Thomas! [and you, Jeff] If I were in that church, I wouldn’t have stood up and applauded! And Karin-I would have flung a hymnal at him, too! [And probably get ‘pounced on’ by the Secret Service!]
How STUPID can Catholics be? I am SOOOO BUMMED about Obama and Biden being elected! People are just falling over themselves in this false ‘adoration’!
Too bad the same numbers of people who are pouring into DC for the Inagural will show the same enthusiasm for the March for Life!
Aagh….
I meant to say ‘Catholics’, and ‘won’t’….
That’s what happens when your brain and your fingers aren’t in sync…
Sigh…
Watcher, Spot on!
I remember talking to a buddy of mine, who is quite conservative, about going to a Latin Mass & his repsonse was that “he didn’t get anything out of the Latin Mass.” What we forget is that the Mass isn’t about “what we get out of it”, but rather what we should be giving to God.
Nauseating is the right word. The City of Man encroaching on the City of God.
Congrats Jeff, for outing this horrendous liturgical (applauding) sacrilege. Don’t know if was added desecration of the Eucharist, to this shameful and defiant action.
My point: I have been a regular in Holy Trinity from 1987 to 1997; two blocks away from Georgetown University (were there survived fine Jesuits like my friend, Fr. Tom King SJ). Both, HT & G are controlled by the Jesuit order, and under the direct authority of Arch. Donald Wuerl: yes, who washed his hands in the massive sacrilege-scandal of the Papal Mass in April.
While the Nuncio and Wuerl are allowed to… keep washing their hands before the Vatican authority (there, the Prefect is USA’s Arch. Burke, who was very clear condemning this matter), THE SCANDAL WILL BE UNABATED.
Time to take RESPONSIBILITY AND ACT, with a massive letter appeal to Rome: MILLIONS OF CATHOLIC ARE MISLEAD HERE.
Cordially
Didnt anyone say anything to stop this ?
http://www.holytrinitydc.org/AboutParish/Contact/index.htm
email the pastor of your thoughts.
Clapping at Mass always seems very jarring to me. It is so obvious that it doesn’t belong at Mass. I wonder if the clappers would like to have their football game, movie or whatever interupted for a moment of silence and then prayer. They would complain loudly about the inappropriateness. I never participate and just close my eyes, refocus my thoughts and pray.
Is there a directive in the GIRM about all the gesticulating that goes on at Mass? In addition to the folksy hands-in-air holding that goes on during the Lord’s Prayer, now the folks are gesticulating back to the priest at other parts of the Mass. Yet, at the Nicene Creed where one is to bow one’s head at the Word being made flesh, very few of these fine folks humble themselves. What gives?
“For many years the rumor has been that Cardinal Hickey attempted to get them in line.”
It’s not a rumor. In the mid-1990s, two parishioners petitioned the Archbishop of Washington (then James Cardinal Hickey) for a Decree of Denunciation, concerning various liturgical and catechetical practices there. It was for the most part successful, but with Jesuits involved, you just know there’s gonna be a certain amount of back-door action. I was a paid sacristan at that parish in the early 90s (hey, I lived there, you got a problem with that?), so I had a ringside seat. For more, click here.
Hooray for the Extraordinary Form! How amusing it will be when at least a third of all Mass-attending Catholics, taking their contributions with them, make the switch to the TLM.