THE SYNOD: John Foley Speaks

Here's an excerpt from the remarks of our beloved Archbishop-Dean of the Philadelphia Diaspora and President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications....

I would ask that bishops around the world take advantage of the opportunity to telecast the liturgy and to take great care about the manner in which such telecast liturgies are celebrated.

In many dioceses and indeed in many nations, there already exists a tradition of telecasting the liturgy on Sundays and holy days of obligation. From visits to many nations and from videotapes which I have seen, I can attest that most of these televised liturgies are celebrated reverently and reflect careful preparation. Occasionally, however, individual celebrants will be seen to depart from the liturgical norms of the Church, and this can serve at least to disorient and perhaps disedify some viewers, and give some priests and people the impression that departure from liturgical norms is justified, because they have seen it on television.

And who could Foley be talking about there?

Broadcast liturgies should be viewed as normative for what is to be expected in local celebrations of the Eucharist. The reverence of the celebrant and participants, the faithfulness to the liturgical law of the Church, the quality of the music and the participation of the faithful should be models of liturgical worship, inspiring for the faithful and edifying for those who do not share our faith but who may be watching or listening, even out of curiosity. While viewing a telecast liturgy does not satisfy one's Sunday obligation, it can and ought to help to deepen one's spiritual life. The telecasting of the liturgy is not merely a service for the sick and the elderly who cannot personally assist at Mass. Watching a telecast liturgy can be an appropriate preparation for personal assistance at Sunday liturgy or it can be a continued period of thanksgiving and reflection after the worshipper has returned home.

It is interesting to note that the most widely watched regularly scheduled religious program in the world is the telecast of the Holy Father's Midnight Mass at Christmas, which is viewed in about seventy-five nations. Quite a few people, including Protestants, have said that this telecast from Rome has become a Christmas tradition with them and entire families gather around the television set to be united in prayer with the Holy Father. While a number of nations in Western Europe do not transmit this telecast, preferring to telecast local liturgies, television executives in a number of nations in America, Asia and Africa have told us how delighted they are to receive such a program from the Vatican. With the deregulation of the media in the United States, the Christmas Midnight Mass from the Vatican remains the only - I repeat, the only - regularly scheduled religious program on major network television.

Thank God -- "the only regularly scheduled religious program on major network television" has had a superlative director for the last 17 years.

See, people love it.... Or, as Trump would say, "It's HUGE!"

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