Well, Unam Sanctam Catholicam has finally made it big! Check out Fr. Z's comments here on our write-up of NCYC. I would like to say that the aspirations of the kids who came to NCYC were not bad; wanting to come to a conference for 4 days to get closer to God is a wholesome and worthy thing, and many kids definitely received grace there and grew in an experiential relationship to God. The problem was not with the kids at all, but with many of the organizers, workshops and people involved who come to the event with a solid agenda that is anti-liturgical, anti-traditional and downright heterodox in some cases. Overall, the faith is presented in a very Protestantized way. A Protestant would have no problem with NCYC; they would applaud it. God is faithful: if kids come there seeking Him, then He will answer and grant them grace, ex opere operantis. But how much more could they have received had it been a Catholic conference faithful to the Magisterium and to Catholic Tradition?
Check out this promo video for NCYC (the same one featured on Fr. Z's blog) to see a little bit of what NCYC is. Below is a video of Fr. Tony Ricard, a keynote speaker at NCYC this year (this video is from 2004; I'm sure his 2007 address will be available soon enough). Notice the cult of personality, how much the person of Fr. Ricard enters into his talk, a factor which is eliminated in the TLM. The dance and talk you see below is not even half as intense as the one he gave in Columbus, but it did involve all the wild gesticulating:
Check out this promo video for NCYC (the same one featured on Fr. Z's blog) to see a little bit of what NCYC is. Below is a video of Fr. Tony Ricard, a keynote speaker at NCYC this year (this video is from 2004; I'm sure his 2007 address will be available soon enough). Notice the cult of personality, how much the person of Fr. Ricard enters into his talk, a factor which is eliminated in the TLM. The dance and talk you see below is not even half as intense as the one he gave in Columbus, but it did involve all the wild gesticulating:
I'm sure there will be much more discussion on NCYC in the future. I am truly thankful to God that kids grew closer to Christ and rededicated themselves to Him, I really am. I grew a bit as well. But it was not authentic Catholicism. It was wishy-washy, emotional, Protestantized Catholicism vacuumed clean of Tradition. I'm sorry if this offends some people, but this is the essential truth about it.
And I thought you would be hard to live with before..........
ReplyDeleteyour poor wife,... I will pray extra for this penance she must now indure.
:)
like you, i am glad that the TLM eliminates the priest's individual personality and elevates instead, as a Greek Orthodox priest described to me "the office of the priesthood." But it appears to me that this video was not from a mass, but rather a speech. Obviously, this isnt the type of personality i would go to for a speech on Catholicism, but is there anything wrong with a priest investing his personality into things outside the mass? Archbishop Sheen certainly did.
ReplyDeleteCongrats on making the big-time! I'm glad I followed Fr. Z's instructions to read your article. Great blog!
ReplyDeleteGreat post and great blog!
ReplyDeleteI did not claim this was a Mass, but now that I look at it, I think it may be some sort of liturgical function for one simple reason; Fr. Tony is wearing his vestments. What priest puts on vestments if he is not doing something liturgical? This seems to have definitely been in a liturgical setting.
ReplyDeleteI'm certainly not against putting personality into talks, homilies, etc. But Fr. Tony showed us videos in Columbus of his Masses in New Orleans and this is how they were, too.
I too found your blog via Fr. Z. This video was so bizarre
ReplyDeleteBTW, he is wearing Eucharistic vestments.
Help us.....
ReplyDeleteI teach the 7th - 12th graders at our church and will not support our state conference for the the very reasons you see at the national level. I actually get a bit nauseated when I see such goings on. Not very Catholic!
ReplyDelete