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IN THE NEVER-ENDING STRUGGLE
AGAINST THE LITURGICAL INSANITY
that has afflicted the Holy Church since the 1960’s / 1970’s,
we beg to acquaint our readers with the following letter that
was sent to a certain priest way back in the year 2000. This
certain priest had written to Rome to find out whether it was
permitted to empty the holy water fonts in the church during
the season of Lent and to substitute sand — just plain sand,
not even holy sand (if there is any such thing, which I doubt
very much.)
This priest who wrote the letter had no intention of putting
sand into his own church’s holy water fonts, but he was
aware that a neighboring parish church did substitute sand for
holy water during Lent and it seemed to him that this was a nutty
thing to do.
So, what do you do when you want to know for sure what’s
permitted and what’s not permitted in liturgical matters?
The answer, of course, is: WRITE TO ROME! That’s
what Rome is for! To give authentic answers to urgent questions!
To be more specific, one writes to the Congregation for Divine
Worship, which is a department (dicastery) in the Vatican chock
full of bright young monsignors and learned bishops and headed
by a Cardinal who reports directly to the Pope.
What a wonderful thing it is to have a central authority! Jesus
sure knew what He was doing when He made Peter the Head of the
Church! This gives us Catholics an enormous advantage over those
of our fellow Christians who — poor things! — are stuck
with diocesan synods or, God help us, with parish liturgical
committees. God so loved the world that He did not send a synod,
much less a committee.
So, in case you enter some Catholic church during this Lenten
season and go to dip your finger into the holy water font and
come up with sand instead of water, you might want to nail this
letter onto the front door of that church and then run like hell!
Dear Father:
The Congregation for Divine Worship has received your letter
sent by fax in which you ask whether it is in accord with liturgical
law to remove the Holy Water from the fonts for the duration
of the season of Lent.
This Dicastery is able to respond that the removing of Holy Water
from the fonts during the season of Lent is not permitted, in
particular, for two reasons:
1. The liturgical legislation in force does not foresee this
innovation, which in addition to being praeter legem (against
the law) is contrary to a balanced understanding of the season
of Lent, which though truly being a season of penance, is also
a season rich in the symbolism of water and baptism, constantly
evoked in liturgical texts.
2. The encouragement of the Church that the faithful avail themselves
frequently of the sacraments and sacramentals is to be understood
to apply also to the season of Lent. The "fast" and
"abstinence" which the faithful embrace in this season
does not extend to abstaining from the sacraments or sacramentals
of the Church. The practice of the Church has been to empty the
Holy Water fonts on the days of the Sacred Triduum in preparation
for the blessing of the water at the Easter Vigil, and it corresponds
to those days on which the Eucharist is not celebrated (i.e.,
Good Friday and Holy Saturday).
Hoping that this resolves the question and with every good wish
and kind regard, I am,
Sincerely yours in Christ,
Mons. Mario Marini
Undersecretary |
Saturday,
06 March