In an address to the Synod of Bishops meeting in Rome Cardinal Pell spoke out against the trend of “lay-led liturgies” being regarded as an acceptable substitution for Mass, reported in an article by Tess Livingstone in the Brisbane “Courier Mail” on Wednesday October 12. In this he pointed out that there is “no such thing as ‘lay-led liturgy’ because lay people can only lead devotional prayers and para-liturgies”

He added: “Such unnecessary substitutions are often not motivated by a hunger for the Bread of Life but by ignorance and confusion or even by hostility to the ministerial priesthood and the sacraments” He said further: “To what extent are regular celebrations of communion services Sunday after Sunday a genuine development or distortion, a Protestantisation which risks confusing even regular churchgoers”.

He pointed out that some of the difficulties experienced by the church throughout the world were caused by its own mistakes. He continued: “Two areas of decline in Oceania are the number of priestly vocations in Australia and New Zealand – but not everywhere in Oceania - and the confusion evident in the proliferation of Communion services”.

We are aware that a significant number of “Letters to the Editor” were sent into the “Courier Mail” in support of Cardinal Pell’s words spoken to his fellow bishops from around the world. However, for a reason only known to whoever it is in charge of the Courier Mail “Letters” page, only one letter was published (Fri 14.10.’05) and that one was from Elizabeth Harrington, Education Officer of the Liturgical Commission of the Brisbane Archdiocese. In it she patronisingly attempted to give Cardinal Pell a lesson on the guidelines: “on celebrating worship (liturgy) when a priest is unavailable to lead the mass”. For a start, Elizabeth Harrington is reminded, a priest is not there just to “lead” the Mass, he celebrates the Mass, he acts ‘in persona Christi’ in the re-representation of the Holy Sacrifice of Calvary.

There is no doubt that Cardinal Pell would be fully aware of the circumstances in which a lay person may lead prayers or even conduct a Communion service in the absence of a priest and would not need Elizabeth Harrington to enlighten him. However that is not the point. He considers it one of “two areas of decline”. His concern, which is shared by many other bishops and certainly by more and more lay folk throughout the Western Church, is that so-called “lay-led liturgies” are becoming increasingly the norm in growing numbers of parishes. Certainly this is the case in Queensland and is obviously being planned to become more and more the accepted situation. Elizabeth Harrington herself has been leading teams recruiting and training literally hundreds of people, mainly women, to carry out these functions.

As Elizabeth Harrington also rightly states, “the issue is not recent nor confined to Queensland”. In Queensland and in particular, the Brisbane Archdiocese”. It certainly isn’t recent! Planning for the days of a preponderance of lay-led parishes has been going on for over 25 or more years. Anyone who has been reading the series of articles, “The History and Promotion of the Queensland “NewChurch”, in the last four issues of “Lepanto” will be aware of this long term planning. Just to refresh your mind, here are the responses to a paper called Quo Vadis received from Parish Councils, consolidated into a document “The Archdiocese Tomorrow” and prepared by the Archdiocesan Pastoral Council. This was in 1989 - 16 years ago. It included the following:

• Acceptance of lay involvement in all ministries other than those which must be specifically reserved to the priest (e.g. saying Mass and administering the Sacraments)
• Wider use of the Third Rite of Reconciliation
• Introduce formation programmes for ALL MINISTRIES
• Introduce deacons (married or single, male or female)
• Revise entrance requirements for priesthood (e.g. educational standards, access by married men and/or women.
• Joint committees of clergy and laity to….appoint priests.

This wayward and outlandish thinking, expressed in an Archdiocesan document 16 years ago, highlights the second “area of decline” noted by Cardinal Pell – that of a paucity of priestly vocations in Australia and New Zealand. With an Archdiocese giving publicity to such ideas as those above, what young man would be challenged or encouraged to embrace the priesthood?

If half as much time and effort had been expended over the past 20 or so years to create a spiritual environment in which the Eucharist was the source and summit of the Life and Mission of the Church, vocations would have flourished and the need for “lay-led liturgies” would have proportionately diminished. This is no idle claim. It can be shown that where “NewChurch” ideology is banished and orthodoxy embraced vocations flourish. This has followed in a significant number of dioceses in the US where the challenges of secularism, relativism and outright paganism are perhaps even more intense than here in Australia.

Here is a specific example: ONE parish – yes ONE! – in an US Archdiocese provides 11 seminarians to its Archdiocesan seminary in one year. That is more than all that are now attending the Brisbane seminary from all FIVE Queensland dioceses. It is the Parish of St Agnes of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, Minnesota. (Access the St Agnes Parish website: http://www.stagnes.net/ or www.archspm.org )

The previous parish priest (now retired) resisted radical liturgical changes over the years proposed “in the spirit of Vatican II” and maintained a liturgical regime of fidelity and reverence. There has been a continuing stream of priestly vocations from this parish. (With acknowledgement to Michael Gilchrist [Editorial, AD2000, Nov. ’05], who visited this parish recently.)

The “NewChurch” culture is now so dominant that advertisements are now appearing in the columns of the CL for paid lay ‘Pastoral Associate’ positions. This one in the Catholic Leader of October 9 from a Brisbane parish calls for someone to:

1. Co-ordinate and implement Sacramental Preparation
2. Encourage vibrant and prayerful Liturgical life in the parish
3. Co-ordinate and implement religious education in State schools
4. Prepare the parish for the future with fewer ordained ministers.

So what does the priest do? Pop-in on weekends as scheduled by the “Pastoral Associate” to celebrate Mass and turn up for a half hour sometime or other to hear Confessions?

No wonder the Brisbane seminary has less than a handful of seminarians for all five Queensland dioceses.