In <Apr.10.05.30.16.1993.14313@athos.rutgers.edu>


[ . . . ]

Having lived through the kicking and screaming in the 60s and 70s as the
Catholics were invited to participate in the liturgy instead of counting
their rosary beads during Mass, I find this comment interesting.  There
is a _massively_ longer tradition for proclaiming the Passion accounts
without active participation.  If you know the Latin, one really
beautiful way to hear the Passion is it's being chanted by three
deacons:  the Narrator chants in the middle baritone range, Jesus chants
in the bass, and others directly quoted are handled by a high tenor.
This is actually the basis for the common proclamation of the Passion
that John would prefer.

But there is always a judgement call based on pastoral considerations.
Each pastor makes his own decisions (it isn't a church-wide conspiracy
against participation).  The Palm Sunday liturgy, with its initial
blessing and distribution of the palms and procession, is already
getting long before you get to the Passion; some pastors feel that they
should not make the people stand through that long narrative.  Also, the
orchestrated proclamation with multiple readers and public participation
in the crowd quotations runs longer than the single-reader proclamation
--- in churches with multiple Masses for the Sunday, it might be
necessary to go with the briefer options just to "get 'em in and get 'em
out".

Each parish is different.  Catholics are no longer canonically tied to
their geographic parishes.  It is possible that another Catholic parish
in the Columbus area (based on the Ohio State address) has a liturgy
closer to your preferences.  Or talk to some of your fellow
parishioners and see how common your preferences are --- pastors
generally ARE willing to listen to non-confrontational requests.  Though
you probably should bring along a paramedic in case he reacts too strongly
to the shock of people asked for a _longer_ Sunday Mass.

Perhaps the problem is that recent liturgical development hasn't follow
the continuous evolution model (the accumulation of small changes, no
single one of which is too hard to take) but rather the punctuated
equilibrium model (things stay the same and we get accustomed to them,
then the marked mutation hits).  {My apologies if I am mis-remembering
the names of the evolutionary theories.}