Liturgical Relativism

A certain Bishop here in these USA who has spent a good deal of time attacking the faithful who attend the Traditional Latin Mass, was recently moved to another diocese and quickly went about doing the same kind of thing again. Now he wants to make it difficult for anyone in his new diocese to kneel for communion. He has forbidden the use of a prie-dieu (a portable kneeler) for communion. This is because, according to him, it is no better to kneel for communion than it is to stand for communion (although the statistics on spiritual vigor contradict this!), and it might make someone think that it is good to kneel for communion (oh no! not that!).

This is one more instance of relativism, but this time it is liturgical relativism. To dilute the historic practices of reverence by saying "it is just as good" to do the "new thing" is not faithfulness to the Tradition of the Church. It is compromise. I am reminded of that wonderful quote from the late Pope Benedict XVI: "What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful."