(We publish a Press Release that speaks of the new opportunities for our teens to obey the church during our LiveTeens Mass.)
Press Release. For Immediate Release.
Arizona- In “joyful obedience” to the Church, the “LiveTeens” officials say they now must cease the gathering of teenagers around the altar during Mass. Teens, normally pressed up against one another and the presider, must now remain in the pews. After nearly twenty years of teens around the Priests, the practice must cease in order to be in compliance with liturgical and civil law.
The LiveTeens program will also refrain from using the catchy phrase, “The Mass never ends, and you gotta come back!” at the conclusion of the liturgy.
In a recent letter to U.S. bishops, priests and diocesan youth offices, LiveTeens! office staff have asked member parishes to joyfully comply with the directives in an “obeying spirit.”
“We now know that the sanctuary space around the altar is to remain separated from the parishioners or at least now we are supposed to enforce that. We’ve come to understand that the sanctuary space should not be tainted by lay people.” said Kippy Bannister president of LiveTeens International.
“It’s all about the obeying. Mother Church in her Wisdom wants order and uniformity for all her little children. This is part of the new written directives from Rome, ‘On Precluding Maculate Supplication,’ or shortened, the ‘PMS document,’ he said.
A video was sent to all Roman Catholic parishes by the U.S. Committee on Liturgy, “We have just learned that LiveTeens is like a precious gem in the Church’s familial crown. But the family jewels sometimes need to be sacked and sucked up while their owners are told, ‘Don’t touch your jewels until we look more closely at them,’” one priest said on the video.
In the video, the Committee members stated that although LiveTeens jewels are precious, especially those of the young participants, it was more important that the parishes have the PMS in place at all liturgies. The bigger jewels of conformity have now been restored.
Charles Biddable, 19, a seasoned, veteran core member for the last six months at the LiveTeens master church of St. Thames Parish in Mesa, said not gathering the kids around the altar was at first confusing. “Monsignor DC always insisted we make the teens, oops, invite the teens to come around the altar. I mean, he’d just go off the hizzy if there were any of the kids still out in the pews. I am sure he wanted them close to the Sacred Presence out of his love for teenagers.”
Prior to the implementation of the changes at St. Thames, he said core members were “always having to be sure the teens behaved and didn’t talk” during the Eucharistic Prayer. “But it wasn’t all of them, maybe only like 200 or so that had a problem. But up to this time we weren’t allowed to say we ever had a problem ‘cuz then other parishes might not purchase the LT programs.”
“But change is always good,” he added. “So we are just welcoming it.”
Cria Soat, a LiveTeens core member at St. Palter Parish in Arizona, said she heard no complaints from teens when the Scottsdale parish implemented the changes.
“Whatever. The teens have responded for the whole obeying thing,” Soat said. “The change doesn’t affect them really. Some kids liked it because they could text message more freely in the pews during Mass. But for those type of kids we aren’t letting them get Confirmed anyway so it doesn’t matter.”
The LiveTeens board of directors looks forward to more opportunities to obey the Mother Church’s commands.
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