A Blog for Dallas Area Catholics

The suffering people experience in trying to find an orthodox presentation of the Faith is immense…….. October 30, 2014

……..especially in this Diocese, which is, strangely enough, somewhat on the liberal side of the spectrum as such things go.  Which fact is very odd, considering the overwhelming political (if not cultural, which is so much more critical) conservativism of this area.

A commenter and fellow blogger of this Diocese of Dallas has a post up that describes experiences I think many faithful souls suffer through.  Trying to find a parish home that provides the spiritual sustenance many so desperately need can be a very daunting prospect.  The vast majority of spiritual “product” out there is unnourishing pablum, as offensive to the aesthetic sense as it is to the sensus fidei, the sense of faith.

This blogger relates her own experience as a protestant convert to the Faith who left protestantism behind due to its internal contradictions and flight from reason in its theology.  This blogger noted how barren and devoid of sign and symbol the protestant experience is, at least in most of the US.  Expecting to find a much more enriching experience in the Church, she instead found almost exactly the same thing: casual, barren liturgies, ugly buildings, insipid music, and an appalling lack of an appropriate sense of reverence as beings in the Presence of God Incarnate.  While her experience has varied, she has f0und only one parish in the Richardson/Plano/Allen/McKinney area acceptable, and with rest being inhibited by the same litany of deficiencies so many of the rest of us have lamented and, ultimately, fled:

So I’ve tried three parishes close to my home, and here is a partial list, in random order, of horrible things I have experienced:

• Protestant style “worship music” with a full band, lead singer, and backup singers. Even the liturgical music is in this style, so that I am listening to a guitar and drums and a woman wailing like Christina Aguilera while the priest prepares the altar and I approach to receive Communion. This has been the case at 2 of the 3 churches I’ve attended, and at one of those the band included – I am not making this up – bongo drums. In one of them, the band blocked 1/4 of the congregation from being able to view the altar. In another, the woman – in a tight, low-cut tank top – canted the psalm Christina Aguilera-style, replete with making “I’m hitting a high note right now” faces. [Heh. Pretty apt description.  Choirs were put in a loft at the back for a reason.  It’s not a performance, it’s an act of service and, yes, worship.]
• People wearing t-shirts, yoga pants, shorts, flip-flops, and baseball caps to Mass. [Well I’ve literally seen women in a tank top over a bikini during the summer]
• In one church, there was a bathroom right off the sanctuary, and people constantly came and went – yes, throughout the liturgy of the Eucharist and even during the blessing of the Body and Blood. I glanced up from prayer at one point during this and saw someone standing there right outside a bathroom door pumping hand sanitizer onto his hands and thought Where am I?
• A priest looking at a cell phone in the confessional. [Just horrible.  Abomination of desolation, indeed.]
• A priest, after giving announcements before Mass, asking all the visitors to stand up and be welcomed. (I did not stand up.) When a few stood, everyone clapped. I do not go to Mass to be singled out and clapped for, or clap for other people – not even Christina Aguilera. I am here to receive Christ. That is the kind of crap I hated about the Baptist churches of my youth, and I was totally bummed that it happened at a Catholic church. [And this blogger noted that it was the lack of reverence and way over developed focus on me, ME, ME! that drove her from the protestants.  Expecting to find much better, she has been disappointed. Unfortunately, I know far more than a handful of Catholics who have fled the other direction for the exact same reasons.  They may find some relatively reverent small protestant community and it gives them at least some saccharine, if not the D5W they need in their state of spiritual emergency.  When you’re spiritually starved, you’ll take anything.  And that is the condition far too many souls find themselves in.  The NO Mass in most parishes is a thin spiritual gruel that neither nourishes nor appeals to the taste, when it should be the smorgasbord of the TLM with the finest in fare and 5 star execution.  How’s that for beating a metaphor to death!]
• People letting their children act like they are in a doctor’s office waiting room: taking off their shoes, digging around in Mom’s purse for gum, etc. [how about video games complete with sound!]
• A marked lack of reverence: hardly anyone genuflects; hardly anyone receives on the tongue; hardly anyone even seems to care that they are in the presence of Christ. They don’t sing (although young people seem to love singing along loudly to the horrific “worship music,” probably because they know it from the radio.) I’ve seen only two other women in veils throughout all these visits, and we get stared at like museum curiosities.[A woman walked up to my wife after Mass in Bandera, TX at a pretty little parish run by Polish priests that was actually pretty orthodox – at least for San Antonio diocese.  Anyway, she walks up to my wife and says “Are you Byzantines?”  And I turn around with a great big s—eating grin and say “NO, WE’RE TRADDIES!”  She had no idea what I meant.]
• Spaces that are at best modern and Protestant-looking, even if beautiful (St. Joseph is a good example) and at worst resemble converted gyms or community centers.

This is the same lament I made about 50 times on this blog in the period 2009-2010.  Then I found the TLM, and I was even more outraged. How could the Church have ever traded this glorious Mass for what we have now?!?  What were they thinking?!  

At the same time, I recognize that even for me it took some time to “build” to the point of assisting at the TLM.  That seems absurd now, but Catholics have been conditioned by hostile priests, laity, media, etc. for decades to view the TLM and the traditional practice of the Faith in general as something strange and alien, reserved only for kooks.  I recognize not everyone is ready to step from your average spare to fair NO Mass to the glorious TLM.  So, in the interests of helping souls find better sustenance short of the only TLM parish in the Diocese (ever?  It’s been threatened!), here are a few alternatives in descending order of orthodoxy and reverence, at least so far as I know.  Note, this list is biased towards the northern suburbs because that’s where the commenter lives:

1. St. William the Confessor, Greenville: Far and away the best non-Mater Dei alternative. Fr. Paul Weinberger has been pastor here since 2003.  A very good priest and even better man, Fr. Weinberger makes his NO Latin Mass as traditional and reverent as he is allowed to make it.  He would offer the TLM if he were permitted.  NO Latin Mass on Sundays.  Chant in Sunday morning Masses.  Communion received kneeling and on the tongue at the altar rail.  Benedictine arrangement of the altar (again, would offer Ad Orientem, but not allowed to do so).  Takes Confession very seriously and it is available almost every day, and for hours on Sunday.  Fr. Weinberger has endured many sufferings and unjust persecutions.  Please pray for him.

2. Saint Sophia Ukrainian Catholic Church, The Colony:  Reverent liturgy.  Consecration behind iconostasis, per Byzantine custom.  Old Slavonic liturgy, at least on Sundays. Beautiful eastern liturgy.  Very small but gorgeous church.  Confession not nearly so frequent as St. William.

The video below gives you some idea of what the parish looks like.  I cannot vouch for the content of the video, just watch the first bit to see how the iconostasis looks!

3.  Our Lady of Lebanon, Lewisville:  Parish somewhat famous for being Fr. Mitch Pacwa’s “home” parish.  Maronite Rite.  Some or all of the liturgy in Aramaic, the language of Christ.  Another pretty church.  I really can’t comment too much as I’ve never been but I know those who have and they would probably put Our Lady of Lebanon somewhere between St. William and Saint Thomas Aquinas for overall reverence, beauty, symbolism, and orthodoxy.

From here things drop pretty fast.  Really, the more time I spend at a TLM parish exclusively, the more the rest of the Novus Ordo parishes seem pretty much the same.  I’ll list a few more, in no particular order, that are either pretty, tend toward the orthodox side, and/or are known for not being very abusive:

St. Mark the Evangelist, Plano:  Horridly ugly church, built as a descending pit/amphitheater with the altar BELOW most of the people, at least there is a large true stained glass window, but full of modernist imagery.  However, the liturgy on Sunday especially at 9 and 10:30 is pretty orthodox as are the priests.  Incense generally used at 10:30.  Choir is improving and I think mixing in some chant.  Don’t go to the yute Mass at 6:30, many others in Spanish.  Also avoid those, they are less reverent and orthodox.

St. Thomas Aquinas, Dallas: Nice old church, somewhat wreckovated, I understand the liturgy swerves all over the map. I know my dear departed friend Vicki Middleton, God rest her soul, got very fed up with abuses here.  Still, it is generally known – or used to be known? – for being somewhat on the orthodox side.  YMMV.

St. Edward Dallas:  One of the most beautiful parishes remaining in the Diocese, it has not been wreckovated to death but the altar rails were ripped out.  I cannot vouch for the liturgy, it may be bad as the parish is almost entirely Spanish speaking now, but on the other hand the parish is still very traditional looking, so maybe it’s not so bad.  Only English Mass is at noon, Sunday.

Christ the King, Dallas:  Located near Highland Park and attracts the richy-rich crowd. Gorgeous parish, still has altar rails and high altar, Msgr. Zimmer is on the liberal side but the liturgy was OK 15 years ago.  Tabernacle in the right place. Lots of photos online, the parish is very popular for weddings, etc, for its traditional Catholic appearance and beauty.  But if you’re looking for real liturgical and catechetical meat, this is probably not the place.  Best for aesthetes who aren’t much interested in liturgy.

St. Anthony, Wylie:  Ugly church, can’t say the pastor is Mr. Orthodoxy, laity are actually quite faithful and well informed, by and large.  As for Mass…….meh.

I’m way out of time.  There are a few other pretty churches that haven’t been ruined like the new St. Cecilia (the namesake of my dear departed mother in law), but as for liturgy and homoletical catechesis, that list above is probably most of the tops north of say downtown Dallas, roughly.  You could pick a fight over some left out or included. This was just a real quick, super large brush-stroke presentation.