The problem with addressing abuses in the NO is that it is very difficult to define what would actually constitute an abuse. Yes, most would agree that wearing a stole over a t-shirt constitutes an abuse, but, even then, exceptions exist. I believe the US military allows a priest to vest in just a stole over his uniform, when celebrating Mass in the field, and proper vestments are unavailable. Such …More
The problem with addressing abuses in the NO is that it is very difficult to define what would actually constitute an abuse. Yes, most would agree that wearing a stole over a t-shirt constitutes an abuse, but, even then, exceptions exist. I believe the US military allows a priest to vest in just a stole over his uniform, when celebrating Mass in the field, and proper vestments are unavailable. Such a thing would, presumably, never happen in a church, but that wouldn’t stop the average antinomian priest. And then, there is the lack of prescriptive rubrics at different parts of the Mass. I think it was over 40 years ago now that a dubium was posed to the CDW asking whether it was permitted to incense the altar and offerings in the way prescribed in the old missals, as the new was very vague on how to do it. The congregation responded in the negative, which is to say a priest could do it pretty much however he wanted, as long as it wasn’t in the traditional fashion. This attitude waned in the congregation towards the end of JP II’s pontificate, and seemed to be gone in the time of Benedict XVI, but, it wasn’t, and is back, in a big way. There will never be a cleanup of abuses in the Novus ordo.
