Under the pretext of celebrating the apparition of Our Lady of Guadalupe to Juan Diego, Fr. Manuel Chavez, pastor of Our Lady of Perpetual Help Church in the city of Calistoga, northern California, promoted a dancing Mass on Sunday, December 12, 2010.

It is not wrong for U.S. parishioners of Mexican descent to celebrate feastdays with their typical dress and dances in festivities outside of the Church. These dances, however, should not enter the Church, the sacred place where Our Lord is present in the Blessed Sacrament. The Church must be a place of prayer and recollection, especially when a Mass is being said.

It was an innovation of Vatican II to diminish the seriousness of the Mass and its sacrificial character by presenting it, as much as possible, as a festivity. This goal fits with Protestantism, which sees the mass as only a banquet.

Above, teenage girls from Calistoga's high schools perform the "pineapple dance;" below first row, girls perform another dance; third row at left, in dark pink apparel, a mariachi band plays full-steam, while Fr. Manuel Chavez, center in white, says the Mass.

Napa Valley Register, December 16, 2010

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