A Liturgy That Attempts to Fill the Void It Created
LED screen installed in the parish of Wil
The parish of Wil in the canton of St. Gallen, Switzerland, has equipped itself with a semi-transparent LED screen, suspended above the altar. This screen, backlit by light-emitting diodes, can display images, texts, videos, etc.
The following is a commentary by Fr. Alain Lorans.
Its semi-transparency allows the altar, murals, and stained glass windows of the choir to appear through the screen, creating visual overlaps between the virtual and the real.
Until now the church of Wil used a video projector, but each ceremony had to install the screen and the device. Now the large LED screen and permanently placed speakers allow for “a near cinematic experience,” according to parish officials. To think that this liturgy “makes its own cinema”…
In December 2021, Le Figaro announced the worrying interior design projects for Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, after the fire that devastated it. FSSPX.News reported this:
“The lighting should vary according to the liturgical times, going from the darkest in times of penance, to lighter tones during major feasts. A choice that goes against the conception of medieval artists who knew how to play wisely with the light coming from outside, an image of grace that floods the soul of the believer.”
In addition, “illuminated phrases should adorn the walls of the side chapels, prompting visitors to think: will they be flashing? Fluorescent or phosphorescent?” One cannot help but think of a liturgy that attempts to fill the void it leaves deep in the soul, through an abundance of technical means in use in performance halls.
Here is another revealing fact of a deeper evil. On August 28, 2022, in the parish of St. Martin of Illnau-Effretikon, in the canton of Zurich, appeared Monika Schmid, a retired “parish leader” from Gemeindeleiterin. She arrived at the head of the procession, holding a staff in her hand, with a Capuchin priest and the new parish priest, accompanied by a deacon and a theologian.
All had taken off their shoes, like Moses before the burning bush. She gave the sermon, and this “sermon” was greeted with a standing ovation, as in a stadium. Then came a “concelebration,” because “Monika Schmid has never hidden that she sees her role in the Church to also be at the altar, breaking bread as Jesus asked: “Do this in memory of me,” the Swiss agency cath.ch reports without flinching.
And they recited an Our Father in inclusive, feminine-masculine language: “Maternal and paternal God in heaven,” before concluding with a triple Shalom which, in the Hebrew religion, means “go in peace,”
An old Capuchin, faithful to Tradition, once said about the missionaries adept at new theatrical stagings in preaching and the liturgy: “In the past we converted with the Gospel, now we convert with clowns!” Today he would more seriously say: “Take away the sense of the sacred, there remains only sacrilege.”
(Source : Le Figaro/cath.ch/DICI n° 429 - FSSPX.Actualités)
Illustration : © kathwil.ch