The bishop of Columbus, Ohio, has highlighted the need for silence and reverence at Mass in keeping with the need for “Christocentric” worship.
Bishop Earl Fernandes, who has seen the number of seminarians in his diocese more than double under his watch, penned a commentary published by the National Catholic Register on Wednesday suggesting that many liturgies today aren’t fit for purpose.
Fernandes told how he first encountered the Traditional Latin Mass when he was young at St. Joseph’s in Toledo and realized that he not only craved the traditional liturgy but found it to be more reflective of what the Mass is.
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“For me, Gregorian chant at the Mass was much more consonant with what the Mass truly is: the beautiful, unbloody sacrifice of Our Lord. I was young, but I remember thinking, I wanted the old-time religion, just like my father did,” Fernandes wrote.
After he was ordained to the priesthood and became a pastor, he was “somewhat shocked” to find that much of what had drawn him “closer to God” was absent.
“Many people did not genuflect before Our Lord — because they had rarely seen anyone genuflect. Guitars and liturgical dancing were still common. Almost none of the more than 1,000 schoolchildren in my parish had even heard or knew how to sing the hymn Immaculate Mary,” Fernandes recalled.
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