No Wonder There's an SSPX

This passage describing an "experimental liturgy" from the "60s" is quoted on the dotCommonweal blog.

"Experimental liturgies….are meeting a need that is deeply felt; to give thanks in community. At one such liturgy in which I took part, the priest was twenty-eight. The liturgy of the Word had been prepared by a boy and girl of sixteen and seventeen. The opening was unfortunate: a Donovan song which could not be understood because the record player was momentarily broken. The readings which followed were taken from Aeschylus’ Prometheus Bound, Heinrich Hesse’s Damien, Ezra Pound’s ‘The Ballad of the Goodly Fere’, and the first epistle of John. It closed with the playing of “Suzanne’ sung by Judy Collins. The eucharistic prayer, composed for the occasion, though not by the teenagers, reflected the content of the readings. It was read seriatim by those present. The priest recited the narrative of institution and all together said the words of institution over the loaf of Italian bread and common wine. Following communion the celebration dissolved slowly into conversation among the thirty or so people who had taken part.

"This kind of liturgy is not rare among the new generation. Ones like it can be found on many college campuses. I see the problems involved, of course. But I also see among the best of these young people an insistence on valid religious experience that has for a long time been rare in the Roman Church. And this is a sign of hope, of very great hope indeed."

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I'm surprised lightening didn't strike.

I wasn't around for Vatican II or the '60s, so, thankfully, I don't remember either one. For my money, the '60s could be read out of existence, never to be heard from again. What a waste. What a sacrilege.

Say anything you want about the SSPX (or the FSSP or IBP). When I read descriptions of the "experimental liturgies" that occurred after Vatican II, it's amazing to me that more people didn't join the SSPX.

It also makes me appreciate again the statement of Joseph Ratzinger that: "I am convinced that the crisis in the Church that we are experiencing is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy . . . when the community of faith, the worldwide unity of the Church and her history and the mystery of the living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else, then is the Church to become visible in her spiritual essence? Then the community is celebrating only itself, an activity that is utterly fruitless" (Milestones, Ignatius Press, San Francisco 1998, 148-149).

There's an anecdote about Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani (1890-1979) that's worth repeating in this context:

"Cardinal Giovanni Battista Montini, the then archbishop of Milan and future Pope Paul VI, went to that final meeting of the Central Commission and said that mercy, charity, and Christian witness -- not anathemas and condemnations -- were the way to reach the modern world. Realizing that Cardinal Montini spoke with the authority of the Pope, Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, one of the Council's more conservative voices and Secretary of the Sacred Congregation of the Holy Office (today called the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith), was heard to murmur: 'I pray to God that I may die before the end of the Council -- in that way I can die a Catholic' (Vatican II: Forty Personal Stories, Twenty-Third Publications, 2003, 6)."

Unfortunately, the Cardinal lived to see, not only the Council, but its aftermath. He outlived Paul VI. I'll bet he heard about some of these "experimental liturgies." It must have been exceedingly painful for him, a real Purgatory on earth.

Paul VI has a lot to answer for.