Spotted on Mrs Parkes blog was the following which I found worthy of filching (with her blessing).
Do you want to win a sure-fire bet? Take the average Catholic over fifty - and the average Catholic is over fifty - and ask her (the average Catholic is “her”) which of the following were ordered by the Second Vatican Council:
* that Latin should stop being the normal language of Mass and the sacraments.
* That pop hymns should replace Gregorian chant as the music of the Church.
* That there should be fewer prayers and less honour to Our Blessed Lady.
* That the Blessed Sacrament should be moved away from the main altar and hidden away.
* That statues should be removed from our churches.
* That it is all right to celebrate the life of saints but we must not ask them to pray for us.
* That the name of the Sacrament of Penance should be changed to Reconciliation so that we can be “reconciled to our neighbour and to living with ourselves.”
* That artificial contraception and even abortion are not really wrong.
* That nuns should no longer wear their habits but should wear ordinary clothes and lipstick and have expensive hairdos.
* That there should be no more Benediction.
* That Catholic should join CND and be in favour of unilateral disarmament.
* That devotion to the holy angels should be played down and all hymns concerning the angels should be removed from our hymn books.
* That there is nothing much wrong with remarrying after divorce and those who do so should be able to go to Holy Communion.
* That all religions are much the same.
* That no one goes to hell any more but at death everyone goes straight to heaven.
* That the purpose of a Requiem Mass is to celebrate the life of the one who has died not to pray for the soul of that person.
* That you should not pray for the holy souls in purgatory.
* That men and women are identical and everything possible should be done to minimise differences.
What is the correct answer to win your bet? Not one of the list was ordered by the Second Vatican Council. Most of the above are the exact opposite of what the Council actually said.
This article is based on one originally published in The Catholic Times newspaper.
Copyright ©; Eric Hester 2003
2 comments:
Mr Hester scores a bullseye here. A couple of years ago, at the church where I was then a regular worshipper, I was astonished on arriving for Sunday Mass to be greeted by the unfamiliar aroma of incense. Incense? At St ---'s? Surely not! At the start of Mass Father apologised for the assault on our nostrils, and explained that the drains had overflowed. Ever the practical man, he had dusted off a couple of thuribles and found some incense at the back of a cupboard, and the censers were now sitting on the floor in the side aisle, fumigating the air. That cleared up any confusion: but not before one average Catholic (female, 50+) had stormed out with the loud protest - 'Haven't these people heard of Vatican II?'
Great post.
ben:
LOL: the purification powers of incense appears to operate on many levels!
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