The retired bishop of San Cristóbal de Las Casas, México, Felipe Arizmendi, 84, announced on 13 November on Exaudi.org that the Dicastery for the Novus Ordo Liturgy had "finally" approved some "liturgical adaptations" for the Eucharist in the Tseltal, Tsotsil, Ch'ol, Tojolabal and Zoque ethnic groups of his former diocese.
Arizmendi is responsible for the doctrine of the faith at the Mexican Bishops' Conference (CEM) and appears also to be a Cardinal. San Cristóbal de Las Casas has 1.6 million Catholics and 135 priests.
The prelate writes that "ritual dances" have been approved at the offertory, in the prayer of the faithful or in the thanksgiving after communion: "They are not folklore, but simple movements of the whole assembly, monotonous, contemplative, accompanied by traditional music," he points out.
In the Novus Ordo Eucharist, women, one, two or three of them, carry out a "ministry of incense-bearers" "instead of the priest", who only imposes and blesses the incense.
The women then incense the altar, the images, the Gospel book, the ministers and the assembly "with an incense burner appropriate to their culture".
A lay person of "recognised moral importance" leads certain parts of the community prayer, either at the beginning of the Eucharist, to introduce the community to the celebration, to name the intentions and to ask for forgiveness, or in the Prayer of the Faithful, after the presider has given the initial invocation and concludes with the concluding prayer, or after Communion as a thanksgiving, which the presider concludes with the post-Communion prayer.
Arizmendi shows that already the failed and outdated Constitution Sacrosanctum Concilium of the Second Vatican Council (December 1963) encouraged "adaptations in the liturgy":
"The Church does not seek to impose a rigid uniformity in those things which do not affect the faith or the good of the whole community, not even in the liturgy; on the contrary, she respects and promotes the genius and the peculiarities of the different races and peoples [with the exception of the venerable Roman Rite]."
While the Novus Ordo faction is indulging its liturgical fantasies, the local population is joining Protestant sects.
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