A reader sends a link to the blog of the Orange County Register in Orange County, California, which highlights the actions taken by Bishop Tod Brown against a group of traditionalist Catholics. St. Mary by the Sea parish in Huntington Beach used to have the Tridentine Mass celebrated there, with the permission of the bishop. However Brown has revoked that permission and the parishioners have responded by distributing flyers critical of the bishop and the local pastor.
The response has been to tell the parishioners that they are to leave the parish and the diocese.
With full responsibility, authority and faculties of an Administrator of St. Mary’s by the Sea, appointed by Bishop Brown, for the sake of the common good of the Church, the parish and the diocese, with the approval of the Bishop, I (very sadly) officially invite you To leave the parish St. Mary’s by the Sea and the diocese of Orange.
Apparently, it’s not the protest over the loss of the Tridentine Mass that has really motivated the expulsions, but the fact that they wanted to kneel at the Agnus Dei. The pastor says that the USCCBureaucracy allows local adaptions of the Liturgy and in Orange, Brown has decided that standing is preferred to kneeling. However, Rome has said that such rules cannot be imposed.
Kneeling is OK
Technorati Tags: bishops, Catholic, liturgy, Mass, Traditionalist
