What Exactly Is A Liturgist?

[L5]

What is a liturgist, exactly? Is it a lay person telling a priest how to say mass?

[p0lar_bear]

A liturgist is basically an expert on the liturgy, generally having a Master's in Liturgy or similar qualifications. A lay person can be a liturgist just like a lay person can be a canon laywer. A liturgist, in theory, would better understand all the provisions, rubrics, and nuances of the liturgy that aren't really common knowledge things.

[L5]

IF a liturgist supposedly knows all the provisions, rubrics and nuances of the liturgy, how come there's all this talk about liturgists destroying the liturgy?

From Curt Jester: Liturgy for Ignoramuses

The Liturgist has the difficult task of reading the plain words of the GIRM and then writing documents and instructing others into why kneeling really means to stand up. If you want to understand the saying "talk till you are blue in the face", then try arguing with a liturgist.

[p0lar_bear]

Like any educated professional, liturgists often bring their own hermenutics or points of view into their reading of the liturgy. If a liturgist has a bad ecclesiology (understanding of the Church), sacramentology (?) (understanding of the Sacraments), or theology (understanding of God), their understanding of the liturgy becomes skewed. What happens is that many liturgists come out of "Catholic" schools that aren't really Catholic, so their hermenutic is all wrong. They end up kind of missing the point of liturgy...

The problem isn't with the role of liturgist in and of itself, but with how many of the liturgists now active were educated.

[CatholicAndFanatical]

hiya Polar_bear hows everything going, havent seen ya on the boards lately. Good to see ya around.

God Bless,

CatholicAndFanatical

[L5]

I'm upset about this because "liturgists" are behind all the church renovations in the San Diego diocese and almost all of the redesign plans call for a community focused, tabernacle pushed offside type of design. Now, I know that the parish community held votes on these designs but before voting, I think the liturgist would explain the implications of either vote, obviously biasing it in favour of what the liturgist would like to see, which is usually the non-orthodox way ;)