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A Glimmer of Hope?

CARDINAL INSTRUCTS SEMINARIANS TO KNEEL

By Carl Molitor

Ever since the mid 1970's seminarians at St. John's Seminary (Theologate) have been forbidden to kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass--a practice required of all Catholics in the United States. At the initiative of Fr. Charles Miller, C.M., the long-time "resident liturgist" and past rector of St. John's, seminarians have been consistently told that kneeling is an inappropriate posture for anything other than penitential practices.The practice of standing during the Eucharistic Prayer was extended to the college seminary community during the mid-1990s during the administration of Fr. Rafael Lluevano, whose term as rector was not renewed. In addition, the neighboring parish to the seminary, Padre Serra Church, since its foundation in the early 1990s to the present, has always required its parishioners to stand during the Eucharistic Prayer.

During these years, seminarians consistently protested this deviation from the rubrics of the Church only to be told that--

1) The seminary community was not bound by the liturgical laws on this matter thanks to a "dispensation" from the ordinary of the Archdiocese of Los Angeles (at the time, Cardinal Timothy Manning). Although much spoken about and frequently cited, this "dispensation" was never made public to the students, and so its very existence was always seriously doubted.

2) It is inappropriate to kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer for a variety of historical, theological, and liturgical reasons. Because of these, the current legislation of the Church on this matter would soon be changing with the "next revision of the Sacramentary." We at the seminary were simply "anticipating" the directive that would soon come.

Both of these reasons were repeated to seminarians over the years. Knowing full well that kneeling has always been a posture of prayer and adoration in the Western Church, most seminarians found the reasons neither compelling nor convincing. Pragmatically, however, most complacently accepted them at face value or, facing fear of retribution, grudgingly obeyed them.

Even after the November 1996 meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, during which the American Bishops voted to retain the posture of kneeling for the Eucharistic Prayer, the seminary faculty continued to insist that this was in fact not what the Church really wanted and that standing was the correct posture. Although Cardinal Mahony sent a memorandum to all priests stating the decision of the American bishops and instructing them to restore kneeling where standing had become the practice. This memo, however, was not only ignored completely at the seminary, but also at several parishes in the archdiocese including the seminary's closest neighbor, Padre Serra parish.

This January, however, as seminarians returned from their Christmas vacation, Cardinal Mahony sent a new directive. Henceforth, His Eminence instructed, all seminarians (and by extension, other non-clerics in attendance) were to follow the rubrics of the Church and kneel during the Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass.

This surprising directive has caused great joy among the more orthodox seminarians who for years have suffered in silence; it has also offered them a glimmer of hope that perhaps the cardinal was finally getting serious about teaching obedience to the Church at his seminary. The directive, however, also caused regret and dismay among the faculty members who, for years, defended this practice of standing and enforced it. It remains to be seen, also, if this directive would also apply to parishes in the archdiocese such as Padre Serra Church, the "model parish" for seminarians.

But a variance has been found: the directive to kneel is supposedly mandated only for those Masses that are celebrated in the Seminary chapel itself. Any Mass outside of the chapel is exempted from the rule, according to the faculty. Consequently, the number of Masses to be celebrated in the "prayer hall" (a large multi-purpose meeting room) has now been increased. Since the prayer hall has only chairs without kneelers (the old chairs with kneelers were removed in the early 1980s and replaced with new padded chairs), it is seemingly "impossible" for seminarians to kneel on the floor, thus avoiding the intention of the new directive.

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