Catholics continue to stumble liturgically through the pandemic
Even Pope Francis is becoming frustrated with live-streamed Mass; says it's not ideal
Robert Mickens
One of the features of Catholic Christianity is its rich tradition of the sacraments and liturgy.
Since the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the Roman Church has tended to administer or celebrate the sacraments within the context of a liturgy, usually the Mass (hopefully with the exception of hearing individual confessions!).
That was not always the case. And in some places, lamentably, it is still not.
Before the Council, for instance, children were not usually baptized during Mass. Now they almost always are. That's not because the pre-Vatican II baptismal ceremony was a-liturgical or non-liturgical.
It was a true baptismal liturgy. But it tended to be a small affair that included only the parents, godparents and maybe a few immediate family members.
The I.D. card of Christians
The reason Catholics now baptize infants and small children at Mass (usually on Sunday) is because baptism is the principal sacrament of initiation into the Christian family. And this larger family, or a significant representation of it, should ideally be present at every baptism.
This is the ancient Tradition and it has been revived. Like the early centuries, the Roman Church today receives new adult members during the Great Vigil of Easter, joining them to the body of believers through the three sacraments of Christian initiation – baptism, confirmation and the Eucharist.
And baptism is the most essential. As Pope Francis has emphasized, it is a Christian's I.D. card or passport.
The pope often tells people to find out the date of their baptism if they don't already know it, and then to celebrate the anniversary of it every year, just as they celebrate their birthday.
Baptism makes people members of the Church family, brothers and sisters of Christ and one another. And the pope says all the baptized are called to develop an ever deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ throughout their lives. He says Christians need to become more and more familiar with the Lord.
However, he says believers cannot do that on their own. In fact, he says it's impossible.
Always in community around the table
"For Christians, familiarity with the Lord is always communitarian," Pope Francis said during the April 17 morning Mass in the chapel of his Santa Marta Residence.
He said becoming closer to Christ is obviously something intimate and personal, but it is never outside the context of the entire Christian community.
"A familiarity without community, a familiarity without the bread, a familiarity without the Church, without the people, without the sacraments is dangerous," he warned.
Francis looked and sounded pretty serious when he said that. And for good reason. There are not many Christians around the world who are able to physically gather as a community right now.
The anti-coronavirus confinement measures have meant that most Catholics have been in a liturgical lockdown for several weeks now. Most significantly, they have not been able to attend Sunday Mass, something long considered to be the litmus test for being a practicing Catholic.
So they are tuning-in to Mass on the internet or television. And by all accounts, it seems many of them are finding it spiritually nourishing. Who knows if they are following in real-time or "on demand"…
Either way, the pope is concerned that some of them may be getting the idea that following a virtual Mass (or viral, as he called it) is not really that different from physically attending the Eucharistic celebration in person.
He told the few people that gathered with him at Mass in the Santa Marta chapel to consider the example of the apostles.
The danger of this moment
"The familiarity the apostles had with the Lord was always communitarian, always at the table, a sign of the community. It was always with the sacrament, with the bread," the pope said.
Perhaps, some people may say that it is possible to experience this sense of community in a non-physical, spiritual way, just as the Church believes in the communion of saints – of all believers, dead and live, down the ages.
But Francis doesn't seem to be talking about that. He is clearly talking about physical presence.
"I say this because someone caused me to reflect on the danger (of) this moment that we are in, this pandemic that has made us all communicate religiously through the media… Even this Mass, we are all communicating, but not together, (only) spiritually together," he said.
The danger of this moment, Francis called it.
There is no doubt that he is growing more and more uncomfortable with the on-line Masses that, he must know, some people actually like.
Spiritual communion: this is not the Church
"You will get the Eucharist today," he told his tiny congregation in the chapel.
"But the people who are connected with us (via the media) only get spiritual communion. And this is not the Church: this is the Church of a difficult situation, that the Lord allows, but the ideal of the Church is always with the people and with the sacraments. Always," the pope said.
Again, in this concrete situation, he seems to be saying that Mass should always be celebrated with the people physically present.
Limiting people to spiritual communion is the not the Church. That is what he said.
"The Church, the sacraments, the People of God are concrete. It is true that at this moment we have to express our familiarity with the Lord in this way, but (only) in order to get out of the tunnel, not to stay there," Francis continued.
The tunnel, of course, is the coronavirus and the confinement efforts to stop its spread. But the pope is obviously anxious that not all Catholics see it this way.
He said a bishop complained to him just before Easter when learning that the papal liturgies for the Sacred Triduum were to be held in the massive St. Peter's Basilica with the participation of only a few people. Evidently, the bishop was furious and read Francis the riot act.
The pope said he didn't know, at first, what had gotten into the man, someone he knows to be a good bishop who is close to his people.
"Then I understood," said Francis, "He was telling me: 'Be careful not to viralize the Church, not to viralize the sacraments, not to viralize the People of God'."
We "viralize" something – that is, make it go viral – when we take written words, sounds and images (moving or still), and spread them, over and over again, on digital media.
The pope seems to be saying this is not working too well for a Church at prayer, even as it struggles it way through the tunnel called COVID-19.