Wednesday, December 5, 2007

Narcissism, Priestly Style

With a swing of the thurible to Carl Olson at Ignatius Insight, he points readers to the following article on priests and narcissism:

Much of this change was long attributed to the “Spirit of Vatican II”, but in fact, our point is that the secular and narcissistic spirit of the times lies beneath these liturgical irregularities. This secular spirit, as described by Lasch, was explicitly self-indulgent and self-aggrandizing. The rationale of those who personalize the liturgy is clearly one that rejects the Church’s history and tradition — just as society in general has rejected its past. This is easily seen in the frequent neglect and sometimes even explicit disparagement of the Church’s liturgical tradition by those who should be most closely wedded to the Church — priests.

The article is a good read about how the underlying the narcissism of the wider culture has infiltrated its way into the ranks of the clergy. The authors (a father and son team, one a psychologist, one a brother and seminarian) point to the psychological aspects that help spur the advent of the 'happy, clappy Mass,' as some call it.

3 comments:

Adoro said...

Wait a minute. So you're saying that some clergy think it's all about THEM?

Uh uh. They're completely deluded.

It's all about ME!

:-P

Thanks for the link.

Unknown said...

I could have told you that without you having to read anything Fr.

Experience is a doozy!

Anonymous said...

So the irony of this post is that I had Mass in a parish this morning for an All School Mass. (I refuse to name the parish.) At the end of Mass, Father Associate, who is tremendously well meaning, led the students in a round of applause congratulating me.

I was almost as mad as the other day when the deacon at Mass had a petition 'For Fr. Kyle Schnippel as he celebrates his birthday today." I wanted to choke him.

Father