I think the Catholic Church is losing control . . . to the laity! While I realize our priests need help in and outside of the Mass, the laity at our parish seem to be taking over and putting the priest in second, third, or ignore him place. They forget that the priest is the one who can consecrate the bread and wine. There would be no Mass without this. Yet, more and more, the laity is being disrespectful of the the priest and what they represent.
Our parish has a daily Novena for vocations. This is nice but there are factions in the congregation who act like our Blessed Mother will strike us down and the world will end if the priest forgets to have this said at the end of Mass. It would certainly be more appropriate for someone to mention the omission to the priest AFTER Mass than to start yelling out the Novena so the priest knows he has goofed up AGAIN! Last I heard, the priest was still in charge of the Mass.
My 'favorite' erring extraordinary minister is one without training or proper manners around the altar. Her claim to fame is that she is an ex-nun. Actually, she isn't even that as she left before completing her studies. This, however, is why she feels she can just do what SHE perceives as 'necessary' at Mass. She should now better at her advanced age. The priest should be man enough to take her aside and tell her what's what. In the meantime, the congregation gets to watch her orchestrate Mass according to her personal drummer and we are the captive and often shocked audience.
The Church might become better organized and attract more vocations and converts if the laity butted out of what they don't know and left the process of the Mass to the priest's decision. This certainly hit home today. The priest was halfway out of the sanctuary at the conclusion of the Mass when someone decided they wanted to do a hymn. Since it was not anticipated, people each grabbed their own personal musical note and went with it. A particularly self-important woman decided to raise her voice in song the PROPER way and blared it out the 'right' way rather than trying to blend in with the rest. They had hit their third verse, the priest was long back in the sacristy, and I left.
