Kneeling at Mass a mortal sin in Diocese of Orange, CA

The Diocese of Orange, CA comes up with one surprise after another, but to declare kneeling at Mass a mortal sin takes the cake:

Kneeling "is clearly rebellion, grave disobedience and mortal sin," Father Martin Tran, pastor at St. Mary's by the Sea, told his flock in a recent church bulletin. The Diocese of Orange backs Tran's anti-kneeling edict.

Though told by the pastor and the archdiocese to stand during certain parts of the liturgy, a third of the congregation still gets on its knees every Sunday.

"Kneeling is an act of adoration," said Judith M. Clark, 68, one of at least 55 parishioners who have received letters from church leaders urging them to get off their knees or quit St. Mary's and the Diocese of Orange. "You almost automatically kneel because you're so used to it. Now the priest says we should stand, but we all just ignore him."

The debate is being played out in at least a dozen parishes nationwide....

The controversy at St. Mary's by the Sea began to intensify late last year after Brown appointed Tran to lead the 1,500-family parish.

Tran took over following the retirement of the church's longtime pastor, who had offered a popular traditional Latin Mass.

Read the entire Los Angeles Times article, "A Ban on Kneeling? Some Catholics Won't Stand for It," by David Haldane, Times Staff Writer (May 28, 2006). Where would Dante place the souls of these California clerics, one wonders, were he to include them in his Divine Comedy?