Chapter I:

The Problem and its Background

Introduction

Since the very beginning, The Church have recognized the liturgy's mystical and profound
reality; she also recognizes the importance of protecting, preserving, and maintaining its sanctity
throughout the ages to the best of her abilities. It is, however, still being attacked and corrupted
because of man's innate tendency to sin; thus, in the context of liturgical celebrations, it has been
contingent for both the lay faithful and the clergy to commit abuses in liturgy or generally called
"liturgical abuses" which is the conscious and intentional deviation from liturgical norms.
Consequently, the abuses have been seen to be a great evil within the Church. They have been
depicted as an obstacle to the Church's eternal mission of evangelizing and safeguarding the
souls of the lay faithful, which includes the seminarians, whom the Church encourages to love
the Eucharistic Lord in the Divine Liturgy.

According to the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), the liturgy is fundamentally our
participation in the divine life of the Triune God (para. 1822), such that the liturgy confers grace
through the sacraments. The liturgy is also the sacrament of unity, for the faithful are united
under their bishops (Sacrosanctum Concilium [SC], 1963, para. 26) and are gathered for one
purpose: to worship God. Secondly, the liturgy means where peace is achieved, for Aquinas says
in his commentary on the Gospel of John that peace is nothing else than the tranquility arising
from the order. To this aspect, the liturgy is looked upon as an act of undisturbed orderly
relationship of a person towards God, thus, creating tranquility to the whole human person. It is
also a place where grace and goodness flow, for the act and source came from God Himself, who
is wholly good. Finally, the liturgy initiates the profession of our love and fidelity to our faith,
for it is in the liturgy that we come to act upon what we believe, for there; we encounter the
source and the summit of our Christian life, the Eucharist (Lumen Gentium [LG], 1964, para.
11). In line with this, we can see how the liturgy plays a role in our salvific account, mainly that
we, by our means of participation in the work of God (CCC, 1997, para. 1069), can be edified by
His grace through worshipping Him in the holy mass wherein the work of our redemption is
accomplished (LG, 1964, para. 3).

On the other hand, liturgical abuses deprive the sacred nature of the liturgy and affect its validity
even to the utmost part. Moreover, since the liturgy manifests observable truths or commonly
known as external signs of faith, through its symbolic richness, starting from its arts to its
gestures, it is evident that liturgical abuses do affect not only the theological prospect of the
liturgy but also the proper dispositions of the souls and minds of every faithful that is
participating. The appropriate disposition of the faithful is demanded in prayer and especially in
the liturgy (SC, 1963, para. 14), for so that the liturgy may produce its full effects, it is required
that we encounter it with proper dispositions so that our minds may be attuned with our voices
(SC, 1963, para. 11).

Liturgical abuses are not new in the Catholic world, for the liturgical crisis has already been
happening since 1973; Archbishop Robert Dwyer wrote on, he says that faithful Catholics
numbering from thousands to millions are protesting against the degradation of the liturgy as
they react against so many displays of incapable or uncertain leadership among Catholic
authorities (Catholic Priests' Association Bulletin, 1973), which in effect causes grave divisions
like the so-called "radical traditionalist" and "modernists," which by their appeal detach
themselves from the Body of Christ, the Church (Mirus, 2007).

Therefore, liturgical abuses can be seen as grave evils that destroy the Church from within; it
produces divisions, confusions, scandals and ultimately ruins the dispositions of the faithful,
which in turn makes an impediment for the effects of liturgy to be fully manifested (SC, 1963,
para. 11).

In the context of the seminary environment, especially in this seminary at home formation, the
faithful seminarians are now able to access and see information about all kinds of scandals that
happens within the Church, like liturgical abuses; thus, a possibility of unguided distress may
come about on each one of them, leading to unfounded anger and resentment towards the
Church, because it fails to preserve the sanctity of the liturgy, which the seminarians looks up to,
and from which their vocations are rooted from. For minor seminarians, their spiritual formation
generally focuses on developing their prayer life through observing the habit of prayer and the
regular attendance of liturgies, which will ultimately bear the growth and strengthening of their
vocation (Philippine Program for Minor Seminaries, 2011). Still, seminarians cannot be
appropriately disposed of the liturgy because of liturgical abuses. The liturgical life of the
seminarians points out precisely why proper liturgy is vital in their priestly formation, for they
will partake in the priesthood of Christ since they will soon preside the liturgical action in the
person of Christ (Congregation for Catholic Education, 2003).

This study will provide more detailed data on the effects of liturgical abuses on the disposition of
Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary (OLGMS) minor seminarians as the lay faithful.
Identifying its impact of it is a need to conduct a study because it is crucial for us to know what
graver evil it could bring to the lay faithful that could hinder us from worshipping God fully in
the liturgy, to realize its grave seriousness, and for us to stop the growth of liturgical abuses, for
it so reflects our love for God and His Church. Although the lay faithful can encounter scandals
in their faith, they should make solutions to lessen and avoid acts of liturgical abuses.

The study's data will be obtained from the seminarians of Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor
Seminary, wherein the researcher gives them survey-questionnaire through online platforms.
Knowing that the seminarians are part of the so-called 'lay faithful,' the researcher aims to know
their thoughts and perceptions on liturgical abuses, for it can help the researcher have a good
foundation in this study. The researcher will analyze the outcome of the survey questionnaire and
determine what aspect of their disposition towards the liturgy is affected the most. The
researcher will also make suggestions to make Liturgical abuses unlikely to happen and make the
liturgy more effective.

Statement of the Problem

This study will identify and analyze the effects of liturgical abuses on the disposition of OLGMS
minor seminarians as the lay faithful, aiming to have an effective and fruitful liturgy by
militating against the evils of liturgical abuses. Upon desiring to identify its effects, the
researcher also wants to know if there will be a difference when grouped according to their level
of knowledge in the given topic of the study. He aims to understand the seminarians' encounters
with the given subject. The researcher presumes that if a participant does not know well about
the topic, there would be variations on how well they are being affected by it because ignorance
is bliss. In doing so, he will ask for their grade level and liturgical understanding. Given these
statements, the researcher desires to answer the following questions:

1. What is the profile of the participants in terms of:

-Grade Level

-Liturgical understanding

1. What kinds of liturgical abuses have the participants encountered?

1. What are the effects of liturgical abuses on the disposition of OLGMS minor seminarians
as the lay faithful?

1. Is there a variation in the effects of liturgical abuses towards the disposition of OLGMS
seminarians as the lay faithful when they are grouped according to:

-Grade Level

-Liturgical understanding

Significance of the Study

The researcher wants to discover the effects of liturgical abuses on the disposition of OLGMS
minor seminarians as the lay faithful. This study will serve as a testament against the ongoing
scandal within the Church's walls, and as a means of revelation towards the clergy, church
authority, seminary formators, seminarians, and the lay faithful. The study would help the
Following:

Clergy

This study will help remind the clergy to observe liturgical norms by knowing what will happen
if done otherwise. It will bring about their fidelity and the growth in virtue in their obedience to
the law of liturgy. Their prudent presiding of the liturgy will show the truth of faith towards the
lay faithful, thus fulfilling their priestly mission. It will make their office more fruitful and
meaningful. In their simple acts of obedience, many faithful Catholics could be more inclined to
go to mass because of their way of celebrating the liturgy- well-ordered and solemn, and making
God the center of worship.

Church authority

It could be the negligence of Church authorities that led the way to the start and growth of
liturgical abuses. Through this study, Church authorities will be reminded that there must be no
tolerance for this kind of evil that lurks in the centers of the altar. This study could even lead to
the desire for a minor renewal of the Church to improve how the liturgical law is observed and
unite what the scandal of liturgical abuse has divided.

Seminary formators

Since liturgical formation is integral to seminary formation, this study would benefit seminary
formators by knowing the importance of the observance of liturgical law by knowing what
effects it would bring if done otherwise. This will ultimately encourage formators to emphasize
and focus on teaching liturgy to the seminarians. Through their extensive teaching in the liturgy,
it could be the starting point of the bright future of the Church, for it will produce Holy priests
that faithfully fulfill their mission through the correct celebration of the liturgy.

Seminarians

This study will help the seminarians realize that liturgical abuse produces unpleasant effects;
therefore, they will be encouraged to improve their liturgical knowledge to avoid deviating from
liturgical law. This knowledge will be their first stepping stone towards their growth in their
priestly vocation. This will direct their desire for the common good of the Church, which is for
the good of their ministry and for all the lay faithful that participates in the work of God through
the priest who is in the person of Christ.

Lay Faithful

Since the lay faithful are in one accord in celebrating the liturgy, this study would help them
bring about their knowledge of their faith and to lessen their ignorance on the matter, for if the
lay faithful do not know the liturgy, so make the errors done on it, thus, if they do not know the
mistakes, they will tend to view it as normative or as a practice, if that happens it will continue to
spread among local liturgies. We want to avoid that because of the nature it manifests. This study
will also help them militate against this evil peacefully to reduce the chances of it occurring.

Scope and Limitation

This research covers the effects of liturgical abuses on the disposition of OLGMS seminarians as
the lay faithful. The researcher will focus on the four principal effects of the liturgy (unity, faith,
goodness, and peace), which he thinks that liturgical abuses affect the most; through this, he will
cover the antithesis of each effect, and he will elaborate on each principal effects, so to identify
more extensively its product.

The locale of this research will be Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary at EDSA corner
Bernardino Street Barangay Viejo Makati City. The participants of the researcher will be Junior
High School seminarians. The researcher will provide a survey questionnaire online using
Google forms from Grade 7-10 of Our Lady of Guadalupe Minor Seminary with 74 (not
including the researcher) seminarians from 2021 - 2022. The researcher will focus on the
experiences and perceptions of the seminarians when liturgical abuse occurs during the sacred
liturgy.

The participants' answers will allow the researcher to have an idea of the possible and feasible
programs/interventions that can be proposed to lessen and avoid the act of liturgical abuse.
Theoretical Framework

The privation theory of evil is a theological and philosophical concept of evil that was
famously proposed in the Catholic world by St. Augustine (426) in his book The City of God; it
simply says that evil is the lack or absence of goodness, just as darkness is the lack of light, and
coldness as the lack of heat. This theory can tie its practical knowledge to the context of a
liturgical celebration; that is, when a liturgical abuse occurs, it implies that it is an act that lacks
the fulfillment of proper act (proper liturgy), just as injustice is the lack or the failure of fulfilling
the justice that is meant to be given. The implication of this theory constitutes a fundamental
foundation for my method of thinking about liturgical abuses such that it deprives the effects of
the proper liturgy.

Aquinas further expounded on Augustine's idea of evil; he says that things are considered evil by
being improper or, as a more precise term, "inordinate," meaning it is out of their proper order,
i.e., existing in a way that is improper to its essence. Aquinas considers things inordinate
whenever it lacks a quality (privation) appropriate to their being; if so, an item can be inordinate
in many ways. For instance, in the context of the liturgy, there could be considered many
liturgical abuses, which are inordinate per se, like inappropriate dances in the sanctuary because
it is a privation of reverence to the real presence of Christ in the sanctuary or inappropriate use of
music during liturgy since it is a privation of the faithful's proper disposition towards the worship
of God, both have different privations. Still, both are inordinate about the essence of the liturgy
(Masilag, J., personal communication, April 20, 2022).

The act of transcendent justice is a philosophical concept within the philosophy of religion and
was timely emphasized by Dr. Scott Hahn (2020) in his book. Right and Just says that our
relationship with God observes the idea of justice or, as theologians call "transcendent justice,"
conceptually distinctive from material justice. This theory implies that: We give God His due by
religion or, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church put it: that the genuine love of God "leads us
to render to God what we as creatures owe him in all justice. The virtue of religion disposes us to
have this attitude" (CCC 2095).

This concept can have its relevance to liturgical abuses in this way: liturgy can be viewed as the
act of transcendent justice whereby we give God his due through worshipping Him in Liturgy;
this way, we see that liturgical abuses deprive the act of justice such that it does not fulfill the
good act, thus, to which I call it: "the act of transcendent injustice," or to put it simply: When one
fails to perform prudently the highest act of justice (the worship of God in liturgy) one also
actualizes the act of injustice.

Therefore, the act of transcendent injustice produces evil fruits. It is an intrinsic evil, such that no
good can come from evil (Matthew 7:18), and because not only it privates the act of justice but
also the graces and merits imbued upon that justice, such as unity, goodness, peace, and faith,
which will be antithetical to the effects of liturgical abuses.

As perceived by St. Jerome and Addressed by St. Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica, the
act of scandal is a theological concept. It is defined as an act that leads another to do evil or
causes a person's spiritual ruin. The person who gives scandal becomes his neighbor's tempter.
He damages the virtue and integrity of others; he may even draw his brother into spiritual death.
Jesus condemns scandal and even ties a curse to those who promote it: "Whoever causes one of
these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone
fastened around his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea" (Matt 18:6).

Conceptual framework

Figure 1: Conceptual Framework

The figure above is the conceptual framework. The researcher aims to know the effects of
liturgical abuses on the disposition of the OLGMS minor seminarians as the lay faithful. He will
know it by identifying the condition of the minor seminarians when liturgical abuse happens
during the sacred liturgy. The independent variable of the study is the act of liturgical abuse, and
the dependent variable, on the other hand, is the disposition of the OLGMS minor seminarians.

The researcher also strives to know how liturgical abuses affected their dispositions on the
liturgy by acknowledging first the principal effects of proper liturgy, which are unity, peace,
goodness, and faith, which then is being corrupted and deprived because of liturgical abuses,
which will also cause for its effects to be actualized towards the OLGMS minor seminarians. The
four principal effects of the liturgy are interconnected, as seen in my review of the literature. In
the framework, we can also see that the survey questionnaire was put in such place because it
indicates that the researcher wants to gather the data on the encounter of liturgical abuses since it
is the subject of my research.

The seminarians will serve as the researcher's data sources for the study. In line with this, the
researcher will use a survey questionnaire for gathering data, meant for computing the results
and ANOVA to know if there are differences when the participants are grouped according to
their grade level and liturgical understanding.

Definition of Terms

For a better understanding of the study, the researcher lists essential concepts which are defined
conceptually and operationally:

Deprivation/privation - Defined as losing something which a thing once had. This study will be
used as the process by which the graces and merits of the liturgy will go through, in a sense that
because of liturgical abuses, the effect of the proper liturgy is now taken away and now being
lost or deprived.

Disposition - The definite thoughts, attitude, and mood of a person's mind due to an observed
phenomenon. This study will be the dependent variable on the effects of liturgical abuses on the
OLGMS minor seminarians, whereby it will be the condition that will be changed in the minor
seminarians due to the independent variable, which is the act of liturgical abuse.

Evil - St. Augustine defines it as the privation of good. In this study, this will be referred to as
the essential nature of liturgical abuses, such that it is an act that has been deprived of good
because of its inordinance.
External signs – These are the outward expression of the faith. In this study, this will lead the
way for the effects of liturgical abuses to happen, wherein it is through this that led the way for
the liturgy to be communicated in the world or the physical dimension through its observable and
tangible usage of expression of truth, which is the Christian truth.

Lay Faithful - Refers to all Baptized Catholics except those who belong to the clergy or in a
religious state. This study will be the essential identity that the OLGMS minor seminarians
would hold on to, thus, not showing them as mere seminarians but as a complete image of a lay
faithful.

Liturgical abuse - Certain acts and practices in the liturgy deviates from the liturgical law. This
will be the independent variable of the study, where it be analyzed and will identify its effects on
the seminarian's disposition.

Liturgical Law - Laws that govern the flow of liturgy and how it should be celebrated. These
laws would help the study grasp how the liturgy is meant to be fulfilled and accomplished, thus,
drawing a boundary between what is proper and abused.

Liturgy - These are the public worship of the Catholic Church; this includes the Sacraments,
Holy hours, Novenas, and the Holy Mass. This study will be like the battleground of the
observed phenomenon, for it is through the liturgy that its effects are made and shown.

Magisterium - The Church's official, authoritative teacher vested in bishops under the Roman
Pontiff, the successor of St. Peter. The study acknowledges the authority it beholds through
observing its precepts, declarations, and instructions and by studying its living tradition on the
liturgy since Christ bestowed such power to them.

Scandal - An act that causes or influences another person/s to sin. This study will refer to one of
the principal effects of liturgical abuses that cause others to sin or fall into spiritual ruin.