Dutch Bros. Coffee vs. Dutch Brothers Liturgies
Sandro Magister of Chiesa has penned a report about how some Dominicans in Holland are, in Magister's words, "inventing their own Mass." He writes:
In Nijmegen, Holland, in the church of the Augustinian friars, each Sunday the Mass is concelebrated by a Protestant and a Catholic, with one presiding over the liturgy of the Word and the sermon, and the other over the liturgy of the Eucharist, in alternation. The Catholic is almost always a layperson, and is often a woman. For the Eucharistic prayer, the texts of the missal are passed over in favor of texts composed by the former Jesuit Huub Oosterhuis. The bread and wine are shared by all.
No bishop has ever authorized this form of celebration. But Fr. Lambert van Gelder, one of the Augustinians who promote it, is sure that he is in the right: "In the Church there are different forms of participation, we are full-fledged members of the ecclesial community. I don't consider myself a schismatic at all."
Also in Holland, the Dominicans have gone even farther, with the consent of the provincials of the order. Two weeks before the motu proprio "Summorum Pontificum" went into effect, they distributed in all the 1,300 Catholic parishes a 9,500-word booklet entitled "Kerk en Ambt", "The Church and the Ministry," in which they propose to make into a general rule what is already practiced spontaneously in various places.
The proposal of the Dominican fathers is that, in the absence of a priest, a person chosen from the community should preside over the celebration of the Mass: "Whether they be men or women, homo or heterosexual, married or unmarried is irrelevant." The person selected and the community are exhorted to pronounce together the words of the institution of the Eucharist: "Pronouncing these words is not thought to be the sole prerogative of the priest. The words constitute a conscious declaration of faith by the whole community."
The booklet opens with the explicit approval of the superiors of the Dutch province of the Order of Preachers, and its first pages are dedicated to a description of what happens on Sundays in the churches of Holland.
Some of the details about this new "Mass":
The words of consecration are often replaced during the Mass by "expressions easier to understand and more in tune with modern faith experience." In the substitute rite, it often happens that non-consecrated hosts are added among the consecrated hosts, and all of them are distributed together for communion.
Within these practices, the Dutch Dominicans distinguish three widespread expectations:
– that men and women be selected "from below" to preside over the Eucharistic celebration;
– that, ideally, "this choice would be followed by a confirmation or blessing or ordination by Church authority";
– that the words of consecration "could be pronounced both by those who preside in the Eucharist and by the community from which they take their origin."
In the view of the Dutch Dominicans, these three expectations are well grounded in Vatican Council II.
The decisive action by the Council, in their judgment, was that of placing the chapter on the "people of God" before the one on the "hierarchical organisation built up from top downwards by the pope and the bishops" within the constitution on the Church.
That last paragraph is quite humorous—or, rather, the ideas of the Dutch Dominicans in question are rather humorous. First, because appeal to the order of chapters while ignoring the actual content is like saying that since the Christian Bible places Moses and David before Jesus, those men of God must be more important than the Son of God. And, secondly, the appeal to authority in order to denounce said authority leaves basic logic in shambles.
Here in Oregon there is a popular (and excellent) drive-thru coffee chain called Dutch Bros. Coffee. Normally, of course, I wouldn't compare coffee to liturgy, except in this case we are talking about really good coffee and a really irritating attempt to fake liturgy. Thus, I offer these reasons why I prefer Dutch Bros. Coffee over Dutch Brothers Liturgies:
1. The DBC coffee is real coffee. And it really good coffee. The DBL liturgies aren't real or good at all; they are invalid and illicit.
2. The DBC coffee tastes great. The DBL liturgies aren't so great. It sounds as though they stink, actually.
3. The DBC folks are trained and properly equipped to make espresso. The DBL folks—the laity—are not equipped (ordained) to make Mass happen.
4. You get your money's worth with a DBC beverage. You get ripped off when you attend a DBL "Mass."
5. The DBC folks, from what I can tell, obey their employer and respond positively to correction. The Dominicans in Holland don't seem to be interested in obedience or submission to Church authority.
There are probably even more apt comparisons to be made. If I think of more, I'll add them. In the meantime, I'm thinking about getting a Dutch Bros. mocha...
promoting homosexuality. Part of the evidence, according to BPNews, is on (not in, thankfully) the cup:
