Benedict starts cracking down on liturgical abuses

SANDRO MAGISTER writes ...

In the Neocatechumenal Way, communion is taken while seated around a large square table, with a large loaf of bread that is divided among the participants and wine that is passes from hand to hand and is taken in large swallows.

But communion is not the only area in which there is a departure from the traditional liturgy. There are significant innovations in other parts of the Mass.

In mid-December, the founders and directors of the Neocatechumenal Way – Spaniards Kiko Argüello and Carmen Hernandez, and the Italian priest Mario Pezzi – received a two-page letter from cardinal Francis Arinze, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, with a list of “decisions of the Holy Father” which they must obey.

Until recently, the founders and directors of the Way had shielded these practices by claiming they had received verbal authorization from John Paul II. But with Benedict XVI, playtime is over.

And it’s coming to an end for the liturgical abuses practiced throughout the Church. In this regard, pope Joseph Ratzinger’s document in conclusion of the synod of the Eucharist will be of great interest.

Go HERE to read Cardinal Arinze's letter to the leaders of the Neocatechumenate in which he informs them of "the Holy Father's decisions" regarding the irregular liturgical practices of the movement.

What little I know about the "Neocats" is that they are doctrinally orthodox, even if their liturgical practices heretofore have not been. Being the good Catholics that they are, I fully expect that their leaders will fully embrace the Holy Father's directives in a spirit of filial obedience.

What I'd like to know is when is Pope Benedict XVI going to start cracking down on the far more notorious liturgical abuses that go on in Los Angeles with the full approval and even endorsement of Cardinal Roger M. Mahony? Go HERE, HERE, and HERE for a few examples. And if and when the crack down comes, is there any reason to believe that such a corrective will be met with the same spirit of obedience? Sadly, the Cardinal himself has given us numerous reasons to answer that question in the negative.