Video: Austrian Cardinal participates in grave liturgical abuse

Your Eminence, Cardinal Schonborn, I love and admire your previous good work for the Church.

... but what are you doing?!



This video depicts grave liturgical abuses. Someone who wrote the Catechism of the Catholic Church should know better. I know things are bad for the Church in Austria - but this is not the solution to the problem of young people straying. The Cardinal looks hardly happy about the whole situation, but he remains complicit in it.

As a personal contribution, I studied in Austria for several months. I've participated in Masses across Austria. They're not all this bad! There are people in Austria who love the Mass reverently celebrated. The Church can be a magnificent sign of contradiction to the pervading secularism of Austria - but only if it remains a contradiction.

This saddens me.

update: I'm seeing precious little reaction in the Catholic blogosphere to this video, AmP and Fr. Z's excepted. The video was recorded last Sunday in Wolfsthal (lower Austria). More details in the combox below.

Ph/t: Fr. Z.

update 2: Fr. Z received a statement from the spokesperson for Cardinal Schonborn which he posted.

Several people have contacted me asking me to clarify what I mean in my post title by "grave liturgical abuse."

The statement which Fr. Z has posted answers my primary concern, e.g., that the matter used in the consecration was invalid. It does not rule out, of course, the fact that the large "chunks" of Eucharistic matter provide an all-too-easy opportunity for crumbs to fall, be trample upon, etc.

The statement, however, also fails to answer the other ways in which I would consider this Mass to contain some grave liturgical abuses, such as....

• tie-dye vestments (which liturgically proper color is that?!)
• rock instruments, including heavy metal for the consecration response
• the injection of non-liturgical elements, such as the balloon-release
• violation of the sanctuary space by persons not ministering (you can barely tell where the sanctuary ends and the "church" begins)
• an extensive, and intrusive light show, complete with strobe lights and lasers (what is this, pink floyd?)

And those are just the ones that first come to mind, I could go on.

Back in February, Pope Benedict asked if outdoor Masses are "what the Lord wanted", and simultaneously took steps to reform them. I can say with a confidence gained from studying liturgy at some length, that the sort of Mass depicted above is not "what the Lord wanted." These sort of liturgical innovations have cropped up often in the past 40 years, but they take on a gravitas they do not deserve when Cardinals themselves participate and condone them.

At any rate, when you put together all the inappropriate elements represented here, the end result is a thoroughgoing violation of the sanctity of the liturgy, and that, to my mind, is a grave liturgical abuse. Maybe not technically, but if this celebration shows us anything, it's that one can complete violate the spirit of the Mass while arguably remaining inside the loosest interpretation of the liturgical rubrics.

Youth challenged to debate creation and evolution at WYD

Nice to see:

The organizers of World Youth Day 2008, which will be held July 15-20 in Sydney, are preparing a debate on creation and evolution which will be moderated by Cardinal Cristoph Schönborn of Vienna.

WYD Coordinator and Auxiliary Bishop Anthony Fisher of Sydney said, "This is a time for the youth of the world to come together and discuss the critical challenges and issues facing society today." Other issues to be discussed include the correct meaning of sexuality, the millennium objectives, the true role and identity of women, among others.

There will be total of 450 events during WYD, with more than 100 ecclesial movements present to provide young people information on vocations to different ministries within the Church. (CNA)

It's good to see this happening because so much of education on this topic in the U.S. is little more than indoctrination.

Rumor: Cardinal Levada to be replaced by Cardinal Schönborn

The locals are strongly denying it:

In response to a report in the Italian daily “La Repubblica” that Cardinal Christoph Schönborn could become the new Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna, Erich Leitenberger, said on Stephanscom Austrian Radio that the rumor was unfounded.

On May 25, La Repubblica published an article by Marco Politi in which he offered a “general analysis” of the General Assembly of the Bishops’ Conference of Italy.

Commenting on the rumor about Cardinal Schönborn, Politi said a personnel change at the Vatican was possible but that “until the Pope has signed off” on any changes, “everything is subject to question.”

The German daily Der Standard, picking up on the report in La Repubblica, said that if Cardinal Schönborn were to take the post, Cardinal Levada would have to return to the United States.

In response to the speculation, the spokesman for the Archdiocese of Vienna, Erich Leitenberger, said on May 27 that “the rumor has been brought up numerous times” and “has no basis in reality.” (CNA)

My sed contra: it would be nice to see Cardinal Schonborn take a more active role in the CDF. I'm not sure what critical things he is doing in Austria that require his presence. Might Vienna adequately be handled by someone else, freeing Cardinal Christopher for curial work, one could hope?

I'd be interested to find out what others think about the idea....

Schonborn Sighting! (May 2nd)

CWNews:

Cardinal Christoph Schönborn of Vienna has led a pilgrimage for Austrian children and their parents to the national Marian shrine in Mariazell.

The pilgrims prayed for peace and the spiritual strengthening of families, as well as single mothers.

This year the Mariazell shrine marks its 850th anniversary. Pope Benedict will travel to Austria in September to join in the observance.

Ignatius Insight has an excerpt from Cardinal Schonborn's reflection on the Fourth Sunday of Easter here.

Schonborn Sighting!

From this morning's VIS:

"The Holy Father yesterday received in audience Cardinal Christoph Schonborn O.P., archbishop of Vienna, Austria."

Tom Heneghan, religion editor for Reuters, recently published this article reexamining the status of Benedict and Schonborn on the evolution debate.

The article says Cardinal Schonborn just published a book on the topic of evolution. I believe what is being referred to is really a collection of his ongoing homilies on creation that he has been delivering in Vienna (some of which are available at the Schonborn Site, which will hopefully be updated soon).

A little dose of Cardinal Schonborn (Schoenborn)

This time he's talking about the 2005 Dover decision.

Meanwhile, Gerard has a good post of the ongoing Austrian abortion clinic debacle.

I hope that the Schonborn Site gets a good updating soon... I have a feeling it will.

Update: And if you want some video of Cardinal Schonborn ... here ya go:

"The video archives at the Vatican website seem to have been updated, a video stream (RealPlayer only, the Media Player files don't seem to work) is available here.

There is another video stream of a mass presided by Cardinal Schoenborn on St. Peter's Square available here (RAM)."

... thanks, Monika!