Clown Masses, cheesy hymns, priests riding hoverboards to the altar — there is much to complain about when it comes to modern liturgies. Some actions are outright abuses of the most sacred act of Christian worship.
Other things at Mass that offend us are matters of personal taste. We love to dogmatize our preferences and force them on others with a magisterial air.
But in the case of liturgy, we need to clearly distinguish between an abuse and a matter of taste.
Liturgical Abuse
Liturgical abuse is when you break liturgical law. If the Church says, “Say these words of consecration,” and you use your own formula instead, you’re committing liturgical abuse.
Sadly, such abuse has become commonplace since the liturgical reforms following the Second Vatican Council. Thankfully, some modern popes have reigned things in, but we still have a long way to go.
Liturgical Taste
Many aspects of the liturgy aren’t regulated, such as the type of music used. We just have general guidelines. You can have a personal opinion that such-and-such music is not suitable for the liturgy, but featuring it in Mass is not liturgical abuse.
This doesn’t mean you can’t be critical of things you find offensive in the liturgy. You can argue that certain music is distasteful and doesn’t move people to prayer the way something else might.
The Church could make things easier and produce a list of music that’s suitable for the liturgy. But that would be difficult because the liturgy must make use of available musicians of varying skill sets. You may want to lift up souls by hiring a professional choir to sing the music of Palestrina, but if you have one volunteer musician and a small organ, you’ll have to adapt.
The bottom line is this: Before yelling “abuse,” when you see something at your parish Mass you don’t like, find out if the Church allows it. If it does, you can still charitably share your opinion, but don’t get mad at your pastor because he doesn’t follow your liturgical preferences.
He’s ministering to many other people besides you.