An E-mail To Lifeteen

[dUSt]

Here's an e-mail I sent to both the national and regional director of the Lifeteen program. Let's hope I get a response. I'm very curious as to what they'll say.

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Hello ----------,

I'm the webmaster of a Catholic youth website called phatmass.com where we help kids grow in their faith through the use of creative apologetics, hip-hop, etc. I'm writing to you today because of my love/hate relationship with the Lifeteen program. On one hand, I've personally witnessed the awesome effect it has on kids through its promotion of the Eucharist, but on the other hand, I've seen where it's left kids in a state of confusion because of the changes that occur in the Lifeteen mass. I want to promote Lifeteen via my website, but would like some assurances that I'm remaining completely orthodox to the magisterium.

On the Lifeteen website, I found the following, "All teens are welcome to gather around the altar as a family to intimately experience the Eucharistic celebration." I've attended Lifeteen masses where the altar gather happens as well. Now, from the EWTN website, Fr Robert Levis has this to say about it, "...to my knowledge the Lifeteen people have no special permits from Rome to bring the kids up to the sanctuary". Also from EWTN, Fr John Echert says this about teens gathering around the altar, "This is NOT in accord with the rubrics of the Mass and is contrary to the long-standing tradition that goes back even to the Old Testament Temple, that the sanctuary is the place of sacrifice and the domain of the priest, who is consecrated to function therein on behalf of the people."

Can you see why I'm a little scared to promote Lifeteen?

Also, after reading the recently released Redemptionis Sacramentum from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, it has made me even more apprehensive to promote the program. I notice that in Lifeteen masses, the closing prayer replaces “this mass has ended” with “the mass never ends”. Redemptionis Sacramentum seems to be discouraging this (and the altar gather as well), because in the section on priests, paragraph 31 states, “…They ought not to detract from the profound meaning of their own ministry by corrupting the liturgical celebration either through alteration or omission, or through arbitrary additions.”

Also, regarding episcopal conferences, paragraph 28 states, “All liturgical norms that a conference of bishops will have established for its territory in accordance with the law are to be submitted to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments for the ‘recognitio’, without which they lack any binding force.” To me, this means that unless the liturgical practice has a “recognitio” from Rome, it shouldn’t be practiced.

I'm in a tough spot because I would REALLY love to support Lifeteen. Is there anything that you can provide me with that will help alleviate my fears of becoming disloyal to Rome if I do so?

Thanks so much. I look forward to your reply.
Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam!

God bless,
Dustin Sieber - webmaster, phatmass.com

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What do y'all think?

[Thy Geekdom Come]

Well written...polite, but firm...good job...

Did you send it?

[cmotherofpirl]

Dust I emailed them awhile ago, and when I asked for specific documents giving them permission they just kept telling me the were working with the Bishops, which is a non-answer.

Edited July 7, 2004 by cmotherofpirl

[mmmerf]

That's some nice work there. I'm for that. Go you. Yes. Woot. Amen, amen.

[dUSt]

[quote name='Raphael' date='Jul 7 2004, 01:35 PM'] Well written...polite, but firm...good job...

Did you send it? [/quote]
Yes. I sent it to four different people. The first one to respond gets a free taco.

[Thy Geekdom Come]

[quote name='dUSt' date='Jul 7 2004, 02:45 PM'] Yes. I sent it to four different people. The first one to respond gets a free taco. [/quote]
LOL

Mmmm...free taco...

*hacks into Lifeteen email system and sends dUSt a response with my address at the bottom*

[Apollo]

[quote]Just got some info from a very good source. As of October 4th, LifeTeen masses will no longer be allowed to do the Altar Gather during the Consencrattion, and can't say 'The mass never ends, it must be lived' at the end of Mass. Apparently, it has been allowed. Rome has reviewed the results, and made this determination, giving some time for LifeTeen to diseminate these new rules.

I love LifeTeen, but always had a problem with the Altar Gather. Hopefully this will defuse many of it's detractors, and server to improve the LifeTeen program. [/quote]
-Posted by JasJis in the Lifeteen Breaking News thread on Open Mic

I think it is settled.

[RemnantRules]

lets hope they just get the message! I would've promoted the Website a little bit more though but that's just me. other than that very nice resources and well written all around

[BeenaBobba]

Hi dUSt,

I thought your email was good. You were straightfoward yet gentle. Many of us at phatmass feel the same way about LifeTeen, myself included. I think the organization's a good one, but I'm troubled by the abuses. When these abuses are curtailed, I feel I'll be able to be an unabashed LifeTeen fan. Now, though, it's like taking the good with the bad, and I'm not too crazy about that.

God bless,

Jen

[ilovechrist]

good job dUSt!
its a great letter. i'm very involved with the LifeTeen site, and i hope to continue that. keep it up!

[Lil Red]

good job!

[hopeful1]

sounds good dust. my church isn't a fullfledged LT church yet, although the youth mass wedo seems to be like a spin off of the program (I've never been to a lifeteen service, but am familiar with there website). We do have the alter gathering and the alternate ending, but i thought you'd like to know that since i have found out about the liturgical abuses i've stopped going up on the alter.

[Iacobus]

w00t.

[Carnanc]

pretty sweet. good job

[geetarplayer]

I heard straight from the mouth of the founder of Life Teen that there will no longer be altar gatherings at the Life Teen Masses. I also know that the webmaster for lifeteen.com is working on remodeling the site. I assume that the aforementioned change will be made on the site.

As for the alternate ending, he didn't say anything about that. On a very local level, I'll be talking to my youth minister about it.

-Mark

[Sinner]

A nice piece of work.

[dUSt]

A response! See below...

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[color=black]Dear Dustin:

Thanks so much for your email. I would like to say that LIFE TEEN has always done what is expected of us and has always taught all attending our training programs to be obedient to their pastor, their bishop and the Holy Father.

What LIFE TEEN had been doing liturgically was in accord with church law. Canon 846 had given a right to adaptation. We had followed what the Canon Law Society of American had discussed in detail at its 1999 convention on the question of adaptation as a right of the laity. We also followed the church's law that the diocesan bishop is the chief liturgists in his diocese. Thus what we did in Phoenix was with the bishop's approval, and thus we always told others to be sure that they had their bishop's approval. As you can see this clarifies some of the misconceptions that were given by EWTN that you quoted. Fr. Levis and Fr. Echart are not bishops and so have no right to say what a bishop can and cannot do.

Even you quote about the recognitio for the national conference begs a clarification. You will note that the new GIRM has required that nationally all kneel after communion. But in many dioceses this is not done, and the local bishop has made the decision and there was no recognitio obtained from Rome.

Finally we have been asked to make some liturgical changes by Cardinal Arinze and this we have already informed all of the pastor's of LIFE TEEN to implement with regard to them. Again you can see that we are doing all we are asked to do to be faithful to the Church.

Hope this information helps.

God bless you ministry.

Fr. Fred R. Gaglia, Ph.D.
Priest Liaison
LIFE TEEN INC.[/color]

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What do y'all think?

Oh, and I'd just like to add that Arinze rocks. I gotta make that into a t-shirt.

[Ash Wednesday]

I thought the jab at Fr. Levis and Fr. Echart was a bit snippy. "The bishop approved it" doesn't always make something necessarily right.

But I give them credit in their effort to follow Arinze's requests and be faithful in that respect. Arinze truly does rock.

Me, personally, I'm not really big on LifeTeen. I have mixed feelings about it.

[Mateo el Feo]

[quote name='dUSt' date='Jul 30 2004, 03:00 AM'] What LIFE TEEN had been doing liturgically was in accord with church law. Canon 846 had given a right to adaptation. We had followed what the Canon Law Society of American had discussed in detail at its 1999 convention on the question of adaptation as a right of the laity. We also followed the church's law that the diocesan bishop is the chief liturgists in his diocese. [/quote]
Here's the Canon that "gives a right to adaptation":

[quote]Can. 846 §1 The liturgical books, approved by the competent authority, are to be faithfully followed in the celebration of the sacraments. Accordingly, no one may on a personal initiative add to or omit or alter anything in those books.

§2 The ministers are to celebrate the sacraments according to their own rite. [/quote]

Just a point of reference. Back in 1999, someone sent a similar letter and received the same response. There are plenty of responses to his letter:

[url="http://www.cin.org/archives/cinapol/199908/0157.html"]http://www.cin.org/archives/cinapol/199908/0157.html[/url]

Enjoy!

[Madonna]

His response did not make me feel any better.

Thanks for mailing them though, Dustin. I'm on staff over at onerock.com, and lifeteen is a very big controversey there as well. Do you mind if I post your letter and their response over there as well? I'm sure everyone will be super interested.