Speaking of liturgical abominations ...

To borrow a phrase from the Simpsons: "Well, I for one welcome our new White Robed Puppet Overlords."

You can't make this stuff up. It makes the Washington Nationals Mass seem almost liturgically tolerable by comparison. Just imagine if Call to Action had been running the show. Pope Benedict might have had put the entire country under an interdict.

Pour yourself a stiff drink, sit down, and watch the video: "Master of Muppets -- Call to Action Liturgy."

Amy Wellborn, "Call to ... Puppery?" (Charlotte was both, May 6, 2008) comments:

Playing “spot the liturgical abuse” is not the point. Nor is snarking at the average age of the participants. (Just heading off the predictable commentary at the pass here. Let’s go deeper.)

What I am just not grasping, despite my pretty strong powers of empathy, is the gestalt at work here.

Why does everyone think the giant liturgical puppets are so awesome?

This has got to be one of the oddest things I’ve ever seen.

My own observations are twofold:

First, notice that virtually all the Call to Action crowd "assisting at this Mass" (I use the expression loosely) are old people -- goofy geezers at that. There is very little about any of this that the younger generations would consider 'hip'. It's just goofy old people acting out their recrudescent nostalgic fantasies from the 'revolutionary' 1960s. If you want to find young families excited about assisting at Mass, you'll find many more at a Tridentine liturgy than at anything like this.

Second, as bizarre as this Mass may be, my own perception (based on my own experiences over the last two decades) is that most AmChurch parishes would find participating in such a Mass less alien than assisting at a Tridentine Mass. And that, if true, tells us more than we ever needed to know about where the last 45 years have brought us liturgically. Thank God for Pope Benedict VI.

Of related interest:

"The King of Glory" (Adventures in liturgical dance).