It pains me to do this review, but it has to be done. This Church has officially lost its reverent…read moreNovus Ordo card, why? Due to the fact that it has fallen to the modernists. Father Ben who I thought was a little querky at first, confirmed my suspicions that he was a fake and a fraud traditionalist Priest even though he himself claimed he'd uphold it here. Year after year that he's been here, he has modernized and contemporized a lot of this liturgy beyond what is acceptable to me in my humble opinion. Starting with the once beautiful traditional music, he's turned his back on that and had his new music director change it into contemporary cringe music like the rest of the multiple Novus Ordo Churches do, changing from the Organ to the Piano because the guy is bad at playing the Organ. But there's other aspects as well, specifically from this weasle of a Priest who I knew there was something amiss by his demeanor, the way he even speaks is so forced and fake to me that I knew he wasn't here to uphold the traditions of Good Shepherd.
From the music, to the prayers, to the homily, eucharistic ministering, subtle slight aspects just keep modernizing and modernizing, alter serving is being stripped of reverence, the gestures, the use of incense being diminished, the design and ornamentation is slightly being altered (although not as bad as other Diocesan Churches). The type of people entering into the congregation is also affecting the liturgy, because I believe that in this synodal style, the newer lay people here are influencing the way the liturgy and Church is being ran, it's being transformed into another hipster influenced dump honest to goodness. It was already bad enough that they had been using women alter acolytes, and extraordinary ministers, but I could tolerate that nonsense (because women will never, or at least should never become Deacons or Priests) due to the fact that a lot of other traditional elements were still there. Hah! Little did I know that they were hanging on by a thread and were going to be slowly but surely be eroded by unserious people and clergymen.
The Gospel talks about bearing good fruits, and bad ground will bear bad fruit, I believe this applies to the modernist clergy who ruin liturgies like this, bearing bad fruit because their hearts are hardened by the modernist influences, and tradition is enemy number one to them, as well as the liturgy and teachings of our Church Fathers and Saints that have blessed us and gave us something to appreciate, but these modernist hipsters despise because it's truly Catholic.
My Grandfather used to attend this parish, I only attended this Church because he attended this Church and I wanted to honor him. But the problem is that the Church didn't honor me or his and other predecessors blessings and honoring of this Church, and tossed them away for their cringe, unserious, irreverent, boomer, hipster takes on the liturgy. And I know this Church was built after Vatican 2 to adhere to its changes on the Church, but the Priests and lay here for the most part still adhered to traditional liturgical practices that I felt comfortable being in. But once again, they and their pride and ego couldn't stand the traditional liturgical practices and forced their nonsense upon it, which leads me to today.
I will no longer attend this Church until I hear that the Priest is either gone or gone through massive changes, and the modernization of the music, liturgy, design, and every other stain that has crept into this Church like many others is wept clean from here.
Sincerely~Reverent Church goer.