Agony in Albany - The Roman Catholic Faithful

Roman Catholic Faithful, Inc. / AMDG May 2004 Albany newsletterwhile the priest played a cassette tape on a portablerecorder.The entire Mass, including the homily, tookjust under 20 minutes.“In lots of churches in the Diocese,” said alayman who viewed this film, “this Mass would seemconservative.”“How Can He Say Mass?”That opinion is borne out by the testimony ofa layman The Wanderer spoke with about the liturgiesin Albany.An Albany Catholic from a rural part of theDiocese reported that at a Midnight Mass this pastChristmas, a small rural parish built to hold 700 hadmore than 1,100 people attending, because that parishis staffed by an orthodox priest.Total attendance at Christmas Day Massesexceeded 7,000 — in a town with less than 5,000 inhabitants,most of whom are Protestant.“Where the Church is, people still come,”said the laymen, who added, “We all sit here in disbeliefat what is happening, at the things that are goingon. We cannot believe Rome is not doing anythingabout this.”He told of a priest who addressed his congregationbefore Mass started, saying, “How many peoplebelieve that what we’re going to do today willbring God out of Heaven?”There was a show of hands, the man reported,and the priest replied, “Well, it’s not going to happen.”After that incident, people stopped going toMasses that priest was scheduled to celebrate, andwhen the parish stopped printing the times of theMasses he would celebrate, people called up, becausethey didn’t want to go to his Masses. When the parishwouldn’t give out that information, people juststopped going to Mass,” the layman said.“I told a Cardinal in Rome about this incident,”the layman continued, “and he just sat therewith an expression of unbelievable horror on his face.‘How can he say Mass?’ the Cardinal asked me.“I said, ‘It’s simple. His whole reason forbeing a priest is to destroy faith’.”This layman, who asked that his name bewithheld, said, “Please don’t use my name. If theBishop found out I spoke with you, he’d destroy me.It’s not funny. This is the kind of fear people have inthis Diocese.”Contrary To Church RulesOne woman who is not afraid to use hername in this series of articles is Joanne Clough, amother of nine who prays before the Blessed Sacramenttwo or three hours every day in reparation forthe sacrileges committed in the Diocese.A self-professed “roaming Catholic” sinceher own parish became too intolerable for her to bear,she is worried about the number of invalid Masses.“There are so many parishes where the altarbreads — cakes — are invalid and contrary to Churchrules. But an even more grave problem is that in anincreasing number of parishes, priests no longer saythe words of Consecration during Mass,” she said.“One time I went to Mass — it was MartinLuther Day, and the priest gave a homily praisingMartin Luther. He left out the words of Consecration.I went back to the sacristy after Mass was over, holdingthe bread, and I asked him if this was consecrated.He just grabbed it and ate it and never answered me.“I wrote a letter to the Bishop, and he wrote aletter back and said he’d look into it. That priest wenton to have a nervous breakdown, but he’s back now,and has another parish.“I’ve talked to Betsy Rowe, a former nunwho runs the Office of Prayer and Worship (formerlythe Liturgy Office) and asked her several times forthe recipes the Diocese recommends for altar breads,because there is still so much experimentation goingon in so many parishes.”The use of invalid altar breads has been aproblem in the Albany Diocese since the InstallationMass of Bishop Hubbard in 1977; that Mass used invalidaltar breads.That fact caused such an uproar in the Diocesethat the scandal even broke into the secularnewspapers, and was debated in letters-to-the-editorfor some time after.The bread at the Installation Mass contained,in addition to wheat flour and water, honey and bakingsoda, as admitted by the late Mary Reed Newland,then a staff member of the Albany Diocese Office ofReligious Education.Her defense in a secular newspaper of the43