> *[Church Militant](https://www.churchmilitantaction.org/) (a 501(c)4 corporation) is responsible for the content of this commentary.* If you also seek the truth, then please consider joining Church Militant today by supporting our work. Sign up for a [Church Militant Premium account](https://www.churchmilitant.com/gopremium) or simply [make a donation](https://www.churchmilitant.com/donate). Feel free to [contact Church Militant](https://www.churchmilitant.com/contact) with your questions, comments, or concerns, at anytime. And now, let's begin with today's [*Vortex*](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL91feG5gFxM80FB-x7ZBqmNbz3c7Mk0p8)... > > **Changing emphasis changes purpose.** > > The so-called "Liturgy wars" are raging in the Church these days. Frankly, most Catholics don't have the slightest idea that they are even happening, or for that matter, what the Liturgy wars even are. > > For the record, a decent way of understanding the concept is that the Liturgy — the Mass and other formal prayers of the Church — not only gives worship to God, but at the same time sums up and expresses what the Church believes. Therefore, the words, gestures and postures have a dual purpose. If you change or alter one, you necessarily change or alter the other. If, for example, you dumb down the words used to give glory to God, you will necessarily dumb down people's awareness of God's majesty, sovereignty and so forth. > > Dumb-downed Liturgies, in short, dumb down people's faith because their intellects become dulled. > > Now, why is there a war in the Church going on over this (perhaps best summed up generally as the raging battle between the Latin Mass adherents, a decided minority, and the supporters of the Novus Ordo Mass, translated as the New Order of the Mass)? In short, those who support and likely attend the Latin Mass, generally speaking, are aware that the New Mass has certain deficiencies in how it speaks to and about God. Those deficiencies do not cancel the efficacy of the Mass. They don't make the consecration *not* happen. They don't invalidate the Mass. But that's not the point, whether the Mass is valid or not. > > With the exception of breakaway [schismatic groups like the SSPX](https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/letters/2021/documents/20210716-lettera-vescovi-liturgia.html), which actually labels the New Mass "evil," no reasonable minds in the Catholic world spout that idiocy. However, that does not mean that just because it's valid, everything is OK and there are no problems with it. This is where things start to get somewhat into the weeds, because huge numbers of Catholics have a poor understanding of liturgy, both in its purpose and effect. However, for those who do grasp this extremely important point about the importance of liturgy, there is a massive battle raging. > > In short, there are those on the spiritually bereft side who actively seek to water down the Faith and replace its objective meaning with a more emotion-based understanding. They don't like or support, and in some obvious cases don't believe, Catholic teaching. They want the Church to be something other than She has always been, and so, in an effort to water things down, they water down the Liturgy. It's a pretty ingenious way, in fact, to accomplish their means. > > Since Catholics who supposedly believe the Faith attend Mass, **if they can present a dumbed-down Mass then they can create a dumbed-down laity.** They have been largely successful. In clear terms, why would a Catholic attending watered-down Masses for most or all of his life develop any authentic sense of the Eucharist, the need for confession, and so forth? Primary Video source and transcript continues here: https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/episode/vortex-from-sacrifice-to-meal > Please consider [Church Militant Evening News](https://www.churchmilitant.com/video/archive/evening-news) for daily hard-hitting news and analysis through an authentic Catholic lens, covering the latest developments in the Church, across the nation and around the world.