Mass Hysteria: Church’s Cultural Diversity Service Branded A ‘circus’

HORRIFIED Catholics are bandying about words such as ” heresy”, “sacrilege”, “apostasy” and “paganism” beneath a YouTube video of a recent Mass at Queen of Angels Church in Riverside, California.

Intended to be a celebration by the Diocese of San Bernardino of California’s “rich cultural diversity,” and a welcome to those on the “periphery” of the Church, the service instead produced a tsunami of fury, not least because one of two drummers positioned at the foot of the steps leading to the altar wore a jaguar costume, which some associated with the Aztec jaguar-demon Texcatilpoca.

To cap it all, traditional Mexican Indian dancers, called matachines, wearing bells on their clothing and tall, feathered headdresses, filed in front of the altar. After a final blessing, interspersed with loud drum beats, they processed out of the church, dancing.

“Paganism in full bloom,” read one comment on YouTube.

Another stated:

This is an absolute disgrace to God and His Holy Church.

A third wrote:

Are you kidding me, right off the bat a shaman around the altar!!! Then dancing! Such disregard for Our Lord and his sacrifice. This type of thing has no business in a mass! Abomination! I would have walked out right then!

A fourth stated:

This is a disgusting spectacle. A circus, not worship of God. Penance, penance, penance. May Almighty God have mercy on us. Where did they hide the tabernacle?

A fifth asked:

What do you expect considering the Pope had clowns dancing around during mass in Argentina?

And on Facebook someone wrote:

Hide your kids …

Bishop Alberto Rojas was the main celebrant of the Mass, which lasted about two hours. A lay minister who works at a nearby Indian reservation led the procession into the sanctuary, waving a large bird feather with one hand while carrying a basket in the other, to the accompaniment of beating drums.

After circling the altar and arriving at the lectern, Michael Madrigal, who the diocese identified as a lay minister at St. Joseph Mission Catholic Church on the Soboba Indian Reservation, removed a wooden rattle from the basket and shook it while chanting in a Native American language.

Then, in English, he recited the “Native American Prayer of the Four Directions.”

Contacted by the Catholic News Agency, a spokesperson for the diocese explained in an email that the prayer’s significance was two-fold. First, the prayer was meant to:

Reflect the multicultural character of the Diocese and to give voice to Catholic expressions that could be considered on the periphery.

Second:

This prayer, by its nature, helps the faithful reflect on the entire web of life that God has created – a central idea in Pope Francis’s [encyclical] Laudato Si.

I couldn’t resist adding this comment to YouTube and Facebook: