"liturgical dance perverts the meaning of the liturgy&q

[Denise]

Outrage Over Liturgical Dance

May 2007 By Fr. Alvaro Delgado

The Rev. Alvaro Delgado is Pastor of St. Edward's Catholic Church in Stockton, California. Previously, he spent 17 years as a newspaper journalist.

As a priest who stands in persona Christi to offer the sacrifice of the Mass, I felt disappointed and betrayed when liturgical dancers appeared at the Mass that opened our diocesan synod. The believers present for this Mass deserved to partake of the liturgy under the proper rubrics outlined by the Holy See. It would not be an exaggeration to say these believers were ambushed by an act of spiritual and liturgical terrorism.

Three sets of liturgical dancers waltzed up the aisle at the time of the Presentation of the Gifts. First, three or four young girls and a boy, about 11 or 12 years old, pranced to the altar twirling lit candles through the air in a circular motion. The candle-bearers circled the altar and placed the candles in front of the altar. A second wave of youngsters, holding bowls of incense aloft, also paraded to the altar, repeating the same pattern.

Then came the climactic dance. A boy and a girl, about 14 or 15 years old, came up the center aisle, bearing gifts of bread and wine. I looked for our bishop, and the deacon seated at his side, to rise from their chairs, walk to the front of the altar, and receive the gifts. But they both stayed put. The boy and girl circled the altar, carrying the bread and wine. Finally, they stopped, dead set in front of the altar, facing the people, and hoisted the bread and wine above their heads. Solemn looks crossed their faces as they fixed their gaze upward on the gifts for a long moment. Then they placed the gifts on the altar and returned to their seats.

Moments later, the bishop proceeded to the altar and made the official, liturgical offering of the gifts to God. He lifted the gifts above his head, exactly as the boy and girl had done, as seen by hundreds of worshipers from the pews.

With few exceptions, the Holy See has said "no" to liturgical dance. James Akin, in his book Mass Confusion, notes that the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship, in an authoritative 1975 document, cited specific cultures in which liturgical dance has enhanced the liturgy and reflected the religious values of those cultures. But liturgical dance has never been part of the liturgical tradition of the Latin Church, and never been deemed appropriate in the West. The documents states: "Conciliar decisions have often condemned the religious dance because it conduces little to worship and because it could degenerate into disorders." The document adds that pseudo-ballet, or "interpretive dance," which has been tried in liturgy, is also prohibited.

Akin cites three conditions in the document that must be met where liturgical dance is allowed: (1) it cannot take place during the liturgy; (2) it cannot take place in strictly liturgical areas, such as the sanctuary; (3) priests must not participate in the religious dance.

The Church understands that liturgical dance perverts the meaning of the liturgy by turning an act of worship into a performance. This is particularly important in our Western culture, a culture steeped in narcissism and enamored of entertainment.

The Church understands that every symbol, every gesture, every movement of the liturgy carries meaning. That's why the Church lives by the axiom Lex orandi, lex credendi -- the way we pray and worship has a profound impact on what we believe.

The image of the teenage boy and girl at the altar, with gifts aloft, is now fixed in the minds and subconscious of the worshipers present at that synod Mass. I know I can't erase it from my mind. As I told my bishop in a letter of protest, this liturgical moment will influence the synod delegates' view of liturgy and Church in a most powerful way.

Proponents of liturgical dance say we're made to worship God in body, soul, and spirit -- with our whole being. But with liturgical dance, people's minds are fragmented by the attention they pay to the "performers." Liturgical dance becomes a distraction, an act of sensory stimulation. The pleasure of seeing Junior at the altar hoisting a decanter of wine overwhelms the duty to lift our souls to Almighty God.

Hence, liturgical dance undermines the primordial objective in true worship of God: To adore and place our whole being before Him who transcends our human existence.

We live in a culture that says entertain me, titillate me, stimulate me. If I'm not being entertained, I'm bored; if it's not fun and pleasurable, it's not worth the time or effort. In this culture, it can be exceedingly difficult for the believer to lift up his eyes to God, to worship Him, to prostrate and bend the knee before Him, to surrender to Him in an act of humble adoration.

The impetus of worship becomes not, "What can I do for God?" but rather, "What can God do for me?"

In his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger and future Pope Benedict XVI warns against the "creativity" of the community becoming the driving force in Western liturgy. The liturgy is not to be subject to any human control or contrivance. Narcissism has no part in the worship of God. Ratzinger writes: "In these rites I discover that something is approaching me here that I did not produce myself, that I am entering into something greater than myself, which ultimately derives from divine revelation."

Ratzinger compares the liturgy to a plant that grows and develops in an organic way. It is not a "specially contrived production," not like a piece of technical equipment that is manufactured.

The presence of liturgical dancers at the synod Mass was, however, a "specially contrived production" in disharmony, in disjunction with the Church's liturgical practice and teaching Tradition. A boy and girl mimicked the actions of the priest at the holy altar by lofting the bread and wine above them. This liturgical abuse was nothing less than a propaganda ploy to advance an agenda for women priests, whether used wittingly or unwittingly at this particular Mass. It traces its origins to the very liberal annual religious education congress sponsored by the Los Angeles Archdiocese, where a similar liturgical dance was presented this year. It is reminiscent of Mother Angelica's account of being ambushed during World Youth Day at Denver in 1993, via a television image of a "female" Christ-figure carrying a cross during the Stations of the Cross. Somebody choreographed that episode to advance the agenda for women priests. The image was beamed to millions of viewers on Mother Angelica's Eternal Word Television Network. On a smaller scale, the same thing happened to those who attended our diocesan synod Mass.

Then-Cardinal Ratzinger makes it clear that God is the primary Actor in the eucharistic liturgy, through which He seeks to transform us. We are drawn into the action of God, and everything else is secondary, Ratzinger writes. "The almost theatrical entrance of different players into the liturgy, which is so common today, especially during the Preparation of the Gifts, quite simply misses the point. If the various external actions (as a matter of fact, there are not very many of them, though they are being artificially multiplied) become the essential in the liturgy, if the liturgy degenerates into general activity, then we have radically misunderstood the ‘theo-drama' of the liturgy and lapsed almost into parody."

Ratzinger recounts how, around the third century, heretical Gnostics and Docetists attempted to introduce dance into the liturgy. "For these people, the Crucifixion was only an appearance. Before the Passion, Christ had abandoned the body that in any case he had never really assumed. Dancing could take the place of the liturgy of the Cross, because, after all, the Cross was only an appearance. The cultic dances of the different religions have different purposes -- incantation, imitative magic, mystical ecstasy -- none of which is compatible with the essential purpose of the liturgy of the ‘reasonable sacrifice.'"

We can argue that modern liturgical dance, like the Gnostic-Docetist attempts of old, detracts from the heart of the Mass, which is the sacrifice of Christ, the sacrifice of the cross. Modern man will do anything and everything to escape the cross and replace its pain with something soothing, something pleasurable to the senses. In a culture that tells us to avoid pain, inconvenience, and hardship at all costs, the liturgy it creates will of course be a feel-good, entertaining experience.

The future Pope writes that it is inappropriate to spruce up the liturgy with "dancing pantomimes" whose performances frequently spark applause. He writes: "Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of the liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment.... I myself have experienced the replacing of the penitential rite by a dance performance. Which, needless to say, received a round of applause. Could there be anything further removed from true penitence?"

These days, applause threatens to overrun the liturgy at every turn. One pastor at an Elk Grove, Calif., parish allowed liturgical dance, which caused predictable applause. He admonished the congregation for applauding, saying it was inappropriate for liturgy. He tried liturgical dance again, and the congregation again applauded. What was he thinking?

First Communion Masses easily turn into applause-fests. In Colusa and Angels Camp, Calif., every child is applauded for receiving First Communion, and so is every person who had the smallest part in training, teaching, and organizing the First Communion Mass. The focus of the Mass turns to what we have done, how we have acted, and how we should be rewarded. Worship, surrender, thanksgiving, and adoration before God becomes merely an afterthought, as then-Cardinal Ratzinger warns.

At a Pentecost celebration in the San Francisco East Bay several years ago, I experienced the epitome of the narcissistic applause-fest. In theory, on the liturgical calendar, we celebrated the gift of the Holy Spirit received by the disciples, the birth of the Church. But attention in the homily focused almost exclusively on Catholic Schools Week, and the teachers who were singled out at this Pentecost Mass with awards were showered with repeated applause. The Holy Spirit was overshadowed by human actors, the teachers, all of whom were feted and applauded. This was a mockery of the liturgy of Pentecost, a liturgy of thanksgiving for the gift of God received.

At Funeral Masses, the sacred paschal mystery of our Lord Jesus Christ is often a footnote to secular eulogies that canonize the deceased and draw exuberant applause and laughter. The liturgy becomes simply a going-through-the-motions of an irrelevant spiritual ceremony with no bearing on people's real lives, a prelude to the main, secular event that is this-worldly, "relevant," and entertaining.

The virus of narcissism has spread even to the Hispanic community, a community of traditional piety and reverence. Cameras flash away at Baptisms and quinceañeras, the coming-of-age Masses for 15-year-old girls. The participants in the liturgy become the center of attention, simpering and preening for the camera.

Liturgical dance is seen to add spice and interest to the Mass, helping make the Mass a viable, attractive consumer product in the American market. This leads us further down the road traveled by many Protestant churches, where the goal is an ever-larger share of the religious consumer market.

Religion becomes not the worship and adoration of God but a place to feel good. A place to be massaged, affirmed. A place for the wounded psyche. A place offering spiritual therapy and diversion rather than substance and a reorientation to God, to the transcendent.

A recent article in the Los Angeles Times referred to the Internet Evangelism Coalition, an amalgamation of different Protestant groups that promotes use of the Internet to spread the Gospel. The Coalition says you shouldn't sound preachy and you should avoid "churchy jargon" such as "ministry," "salvation," "redemption," and even "faith." The way to attract nonbelievers? Present church as an upbeat, uplifting community of friends.

A specialist in church advertising was quoted as saying that people often perceive church as boring, judgmental, and irrelevant. He said: "New media's a great way to reposition ourselves." While we're at it, throw in a few dancers to keep the people from getting bored. More than 60 percent of Protestant churches spice up their services with video clips on large screens, the article notes. But to what effect?

As a Catholic priest, I felt betrayed by the spectacle of liturgical dancers because the symbolism of the priest acting in persona Christi was diminished. If you diminish the priest, you diminish the importance of Jesus Christ. Remember that the boy and girl who brought up the bread and wine did not present the gifts to the celebrant at the Mass, the bishop, standing as the liturgical representative for Jesus Christ. They had no need of someone to receive the gifts for placement on the altar. So it seemed liturgically redundant for the bishop to hold the gifts and offer them up a second time.

The visual impression, its impact, was unmistakable. If a man who is a priest can offer the Body and Blood of Christ at the Mass, then why can't a layman, why can't a woman? Why only a priest? As I wrote to my bishop, one could conclude that anybody can lead the celebration of the liturgy. Why, then, a need for an ordained priesthood?

Why then the need for a Mediator between God and man, the Lord Jesus Christ? Reduce the importance of Jesus Christ and the community takes center stage. We're left with a community feeling good about itself, entertaining itself, making itself feel good. And we've whittled away the importance of adoration and worship before Almighty God, through Jesus Christ, the High Priest of the liturgy.

[KarlB]

Then-Cardinal Ratzinger makes it clear that God is the primary Actor in the eucharistic liturgy

I think Card. Ratzinger's statement summarizes many of the liturgical abuses.. by obfucating this tightly focussed primacy by communal charisms.