Mass failure: Brooklyn parish holds “Star Wars” Mass

St. Bernard Parish in Brooklyn scheduled, and apparently yesterday held, a “fun” Star Wars themed Mass.  Kids were invited to dress as their favorite characters – many adherents to a Buddhist-Shintoist religion, some of whom are guilty of genocide and other acts of depravity on an unimaginable scale – and further denigrate the sanctity and vitality of the Mass:

The theme in the Church these past few decades really seems to be: when you totally run out of ideas, ape pop culture!  Pop culture is popular!  Maybe some of that popularity will rub off on us!

More from Michael Hichborn:

We wish this was just a joke.  It is not.  It is pure sacrilege taking place in a parish in Brooklyn, New York.  Not only does the Diocese of Brooklyn know about this abomination … it actually helped advertise it on facebook!…….

……..According to the advertisement, the Mass itself was to be “Star Wars” themed.

First, this Mass did take place. Parishioners have confirmed it did.

Some of those tried to downplay the event, saying the Mass was not Star Wars-themed, itself, except for the kids dressed up like little Sith and Jedi.  They say there was a Star Wars party concurrent and after the Mass, instead.  But the flyer clearly spoke of a Star Wars themed Mass, so……..

As I said, when the Mass undergoes a transformation from the re-presentation of the Sacrifice of Calvary, the confecting of the Real Presence of Our Lord Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity, into a closed circle celebration of us, awesome, awesome US, this kind of thing is bound to happen.  Indeed, it is almost inevitable, and there is even room to argue it is surprising it doesn’t happen more often than it does (instead, we tend to see a proliferation of not-so-obvious abuses).  Such a fundamental dereliction of the ends of the Mass, from Adoration, Contrition, Thanksgiving, and Supplication, to “let’s cheer for the choir,” Eucharistic Prayer II, and “active participation means everyone scurry around” reveals a profoundly humanistic, even attention-seeking ethos.  Instead of reaching children by sharing with them the unspeakable glory of the Gift God makes available to us every time we assist at Mass, we get Star Wars, clown, and balloon Masses.

And the vast majority of those kids fall away.  50 years of abject failure have proven that to an irrefutable degree. Instead, those in the vast majority of the Church, be they lay, priest, or bishop, continue to try absolutely anything, no matter how disordered, no matter how irreverent, except that which worked – demonstrably, provably – so very well for 1950 years, give or take a few.

It’s very difficult to see in that steadfast refusal to return to what worked so well, for so long, something other than a revolutionary intent revealing the mindset of an incompatible religion.  It was through the Liturgy that I first came to recognize the crisis in the Church, and that continues through to this day.