EWTN Radio

Last Wednesday afternoon I had the great pleasure of speaking to Father Mitch Pacwa on his radio program from 3-4 pm on EWTN Radio.

This program is hosted by different people-but I wanted to speak with Father Pacwa in particular for reasons I will explain.

Since I am a revert to the Church after decades of absence, I at first dismissed the things about the changes in the Mass I found disturbing.

Four years later, however, I am still troubled. This is the reason for my call to Fr. Pacwa. I needed to speak with someone who had been a Catholic for a long enough time to remember Mass BEFORE all of these changes. Vatican II was in effect for years before my straying, but everything remained the same at that time.

In 2010, however I found the folllowing things horrifying:

1. The multitude of hymns (not all Catholic) sung at Mass. Before every reading,after every reading, during communion, and worst of all AFTER the Mass is ended by the Priest. We were even admonished a few months ago that there were "THREE verses" of the final hymn-lest we were tempted to leave.

There are now CHAIRS on the Altar. WHY? The Priests get tired? No.
They're for the Prients to sit down and wait for the music to end. Tail wagging dog?

Looking in the hymnal, I noticed that many of the hymns were not Catholic in origin. You can easily note the publishers.

Why so many songs, I kept asking myself. I'm afraid that the Catholic Church got the notion that the Protestant Churches were bringing in more members because of their music. Maybe so-but not THIS music.

2. Casual dress by women servers. I'm not against Altar Girls-if they are
dressed in proper vestments, with hair tied back. When there's a CHOIR,
they wear robes, no? But for some odd reason, the women assisting at the Mass wear whatever they choose. Green leisure suits, tight sweaters,
sleeveless dresses, anything goes.

It's simply a matter of respect for being on the Altar that contains the
presence of God. They should wear some sort of vestments if they are to
be on the altar.


When I asked Fr. Pacwa about these things, I truly thought he would chuckle and tell me to pray to accept the changes. He chuckled, all right, but said "There are more than a few people who feel as you do".

I short, he agreed with me, also mentioning the Latin Mass. (Yes! I would love to see the Latin Mass restored.) He said that my homework was to go out and make my feelings known; perhaps be instrumental in changing this.

It totally floored me; I had expected the usual "party line". But I am excited about this, now, and this is my first contribution to this cause.

Thank you, Fr. Pacwa.

Does anyone agree?