Franciscans and the Liturgical Life:: Let Us Praise, Adore, and Give Thanks

Chapter One: Is Liturgy the Heart of the Church Today?

CHAPTER ONE IS LITURGY THE HEART OF THE CHURCH TODAY? Catherine Dooley, O.P. Is liturgy the heart of the Church today? This is an interesting question and one that could be answered in many different ways depending perhaps on how one understands the meaning of the key words— liturgy and Church. A Statistical View If we understand the Church as an organization, some current sociological research indicates that perhaps the answer to the question would not be entirely positive. Although liturgy encompasses more than the Sunday celebration of the Eucharist, Mass attendance is often an indicator of the importance of liturgy. For example, from 2000 to 2004, the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate (CARA) conducted a series of ten national random-sample telephone polls on CatholiclifeintheUnitedStates.1 Oneofthequestionswas:“Asidefrom weddings and funerals, about how often do you attend Mass?” The results in 2004 estimated that about forty percent of Catholics attend Sunday Mass every week. The CARA report explains the long-term decline in Catholic Mass attendance in terms of a generational change. The older generation consistently attends Mass more frequently than the Vatican II age group (b. 1943-1960) or the post-Vatican II group (b. 1960 to present); but as this older generation dies, the percentage will also decline. Other statistics show that church membership has more than doubled in size in the past half century. This increase is primarily due to 1 The Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate, “Self-reported Mass Attendance of U.S. Catholics Unchanged during Last Five Years (Washington, DC: Georgetown University, 2004). (Internet: http://cara.georgetown.edu/AttendPR.pdf) Catherine Dooley, o.P. 2 the influx of immigrant populations that are traditionally Catholic. Recent articles in the Washington Post indicate, however, that many of these are joining evangelical groups, and some have converted to Islam. Studies also show that the rate of infant baptism has steadily fallen (or as the title of an article in USA Today described it: “Rite of Baptism Trickles Away”2 ). Other factors with regard to the Eucharist are an increase in the number of so-called priestless parishes, a decline in the number of seminarians and greater reliance on international priests to staff parishes. More Than an Organization Ifstatisticsareanindicatorofthehealthandstabilityofanorganization, then the view of the Church as an organization is fairly bleak. The Second Vatican Council reminds us, however, that the Church is more than an organization—it is a mystery of God’s love, the People of God, a pilgrim Church, a sacrament for the world, a servant Church, a praying Church, a hierarchical Church, a communion and the Body of Christ. In this broader context, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (SC) emphatically affirms the centrality of liturgy in the life of the Church, stating that the work of our redemption takes place through the liturgy especially in the divine sacrifice of the Eucharist. “It is through the liturgy especially that the faithful are enabled to express in their lives and manifest to others the mystery of Christ and real nature of the true Church” (SC, no. 2). In Chapter 1, the Constitution makes the bold statement: “The liturgy is the summit toward which the activity of the Church is directed; it is also the source from which all its power flows” (SC 10).3 Obviously, the Vatican Council documents affirmed liturgy as the heart of the Church. Why is this not obvious to all who are Catholic Christians? History and Catechesis as Key Perhaps one reason lies in history and another in the failure to provide the kind of catechesis called for in the Vatican documents. Historically speaking, there is a certain sense in which liturgical studies/liturgical 2 12 April 2006. 3 Austin Flannery, ed. The Basic Sixteen Documents Vatican Council II (Northport, NY: Costello Publishing Company, 1996.) Is LIturgy the heart of the ChurCh today? 3 theology is just coming of age and returning to the principles that were prevalent in the early Church. In recent church documents, there is more and more reference to the early Church, a return to the socalled “golden age” of the catechumenate. For example, the General Directory for Catechesis, published in 1997, states that the baptismal catechumenate is a model for all catechesis. In support of this assertion, the Directory rarely refers to the Rite of Christian Initiation but rather to fourth- and fifth-century bishops like Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose...