by Fred Moleck
A Little List
The American Church is now under investigation by the investigative team designated by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
The team's task is to interview administrators in leadership positions in each diocese and archdiocese regarding the newly revealed sexual scandals, which swept through the Church.
They are the follow-up to the general audit issued to all dioceses and archdioceses in the past several months. As I understand it, the audit was very thorough as it asked for full documentation of each case of clerical abuse.
It is a fair and proper tool to aid in putting this diabolic catastrophe behind us.
Even our own little part of the kingdom was visited by the team this past week. It was not that disruptive, and the visiting investigators appeared to be pleasant and civilized. Everyone is glad that the audit is over and business-as-usual can continue.
The dark clouds seem to be breaking a little, at least, in our little part of the kingdom.
While the interviews were being conducted, I kept thinking of the character in Gilbert and Sullivan's Mikado. He was the official data collector. His song began "I have a little list."
For the life of me, I can't remember his name.
The Church's audit is deadly serious. Please God, we won't have to go through that type of business for another one hundred years. Gratefully, I was not one of the administrators to be interviewed.
The Gilbert and Sullivan "little list" started me thinking about what could go on if each Office for Worship in the United States supported a "Liturgy Police"
The "Liturgy Police" would answer liturgical 911 calls such as "The organist plays too loudly. Please come soon before we become completely deaf."
Or, the priest/presider who insists on greeting the assembly with prattle about the local sports team or the shopping days before Christmas before he begins, "In the name of the Father. . . ." Can you help?
The list would not be "a little list" but a computer printout of omissions and regressions. I know of one lector who gives a little spontaneous commentary-his own-before he reads the day's reading.
I thank God every day he is not in my diocese. I feel no compulsion to "report" him to our neighboring diocese's worship office. There are enough problems in our four counties without my snooping around the adjoining kingdom.
A Liturgy Police is not a new concept. In neighboring Pittsburgh in mid-twentieth century, the music commissioner and secretary made personal visits to judge the music program.
If the program and its director were found lacking, the music commissioner placed them on a "black list" in the diocesan paper, where they remained until they succumbed to his directives.
In the maintenance of such a Liturgy Police, a fine line would need to be drawn between what is principle and what is a taste choice.
The priest not giving a homily at the liturgies violates a principle and would have to be addressed as to why there was no homily. A musician choosing a praise chorus over a four-square hymn demonstrates a questionable taste judgment.
In the latter case, no dogma is violated and no liturgical action is negated. And how do I know that the assembly is not praying when they sing for the 240th time, "Praise, O praise our Jesus"?
Now that many dioceses are embarking the new General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), I am curious if there is any agency just waiting to be called upon to see what infractions the priests and ministers are committing.
I am equally curious to see if such agents would have a distinctive vesture, like a flak jacket and a baseball cap with LP inscribed.
Or, will there be plainclothes agents sitting right beside you in the pew, who occasionally pull out a small Dictaphone and describe whatever is going on? The intrigue would be fun and so, so wrong.
One has to trust the Holy Spirit and the good will of the clergy and ministers to do what is right-right in the sense of what the GIRM calls on us to do.
Perhaps, the concept of a Liturgy Police could be cast into a more discrete functionary-each office would compile a "little list" of reported liturgical malpractice. The list then serves as a source of what needs yet to be done.
Praise must be given. Thanksgiving celebrated. Forgiveness begged. The little list lists, it doesn't prosecute. That's God's job.
You can reach Fred Moleck via email at fmoleck@earthlink.net