What Pope Benedict Tried to Warn Us About After Vatican II (Fr Dan Yasinski)

What Pope Benedict tried to warn us about... we’re living through today.

For over 2,000 years, the Church’s liturgy developed slowly and organically — until the 1960s, when everything changed. In this first episode of our new Liturgy Series with Fr. Dan Yasinski, we explore what the Second Vatican Council actually taught about the liturgy, and what was implemented afterward.

Pope Benedict XVI once wrote that the crisis in the Church today is largely due to the disintegration of the liturgy.

Was he right?

Did the Church go too far after Vatican II?

And how does the way we worship shape what we believe?

Join Ken Yasinski and Fr. Dan Yasinski as they discuss the heart of the Church’s worship, the meaning of true liturgical reform, and why the renewal of the Church always begins at the altar.

Transcript

For 2,000 years, the church's liturgy developed slowly and organically. [Music] Then in the 1960s, some say something changed. [Music] What happened?

Welcome to episode one on our weekly series on the liturgy where we are going to be examining what the second Vatican Council taught and what was implemented regarding the liturgy. Now this is important because how we worship shapes what we believe. Catholics are losing their faith at an alarming rate. So the question is are the two connected? First you'll see a homaly delivered by Father Dan Yusinski and then we sit down here with him and have a deeper discussion. Today we're looking at three big questions. Did something go wrong after Vatican 2? How does worship shape belief? And what is the reform of the reform? Stick around to the end with my interview with Father Dan. But first the homaly.

From 1962 to 65 the Catholic bishops of the world met at what is called the second Vatican council. And the very first thing they were to discuss was not evangelization. It wasn't the holy scriptures. It was the liturgy. the Holy Mass because they knew the key to church renewal always begins with the mass. And in the decades to follow, many reforms occurred.

Some 35 years later, 1997, Pope Benedict of happy memory wrote about the reforms which followed the Vatican Council in the state of the mass. He did so in his memoir entitled Milestones. He wrote, "The old building was demolished and another was built. This has caused us enormous harm. I am convinced right Benedict that the crisis in the church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy. He wrote that when he was prefect of the congregation of the doctrine of the faith. I first read that quote back when I was in first year university. When I read it, it hit home. I grew up in the 80s and the 90s where there is a great euphoria about the lurggical reforms after the second Vatican council. The reforms were to bring a a springtime to the church they said [Music] and hence to be critical of anything that happened after the council was seen to be critical of the council itself which is not true by the way. You can one and at the same time support the council and its beautiful documents and we do and critically reflect on what happened after it. And Pope Benedict knew that. We should recall he was at the council, assisted in writing some of the documents, an advocate of reform, witnessed the reforms thereafter, and he served the church at the Vatican for 40 years as Pope John Paul 2's right-hand man and then as Pope himself. It could be said that no one had a better grasp on the state of the church than Pope Benedict.

And with his discerning eye and his humble spirit, he said, "Something's gone arry. Something's not quite right. Instead of a springtime, there's a crisis. A decrease in mass attendance. A decline in the belief of the real presence of our Lord in the Eucharist, a crisis in vocations to the priesthood and religious life. There are of course many reasons for the decline, but I'm with Pope Benedict when he said it's due in large part to what happened to our liturgies and some of the reforms done in the name of the council. Reforms that were never called for by the council. By the way, that's the tragic thing. beautiful high ornate altars were removed and sometimes destroyed. The tabernacle, which for centuries was at the center of churches, was often put in a side room. Overnight statues were removed and sacred Latin, too. No longer was beauty at the center of church architecture, but simplicity and modern needs were the words of the day. in many areas kneeling and was discouraged during the consecration. Sometimes kneelers removed altogether. Vessels that looked like dinner plates and wine glasses were used for the holy celebration of mass. And all this was done in the name of the council. But we can say with certainty that much of it was not the will of the council. We know this because in 71 when the reforms were just starting about a year or two after the Vatican saw fit to release a letter to bishops around the world asking them to exercise caution in the renovation of churches. Here's what they wrote in their document opera artist. In disregarding the warnings and legislation of the Holy Sea, many people have made unwarranted changes in places of worship under the pretext of carrying out the reform of the liturgy and have caused the disfigurement or loss of priceless works of art. Bishops are to exercise unfailing vigilance to ensure the remodeling of the places of worship is carried out with utmost caution. In other words, priests and bishops, hold your horses, pull back the reinss a little bit. But sadly, the horses were out of the barn and cathedrals around the world were nonetheless severely renovated, including our very own St. Paul's downtown. But churches in Rome were largely untouched. I think it is time with all humility to acknowledge that some of the changes that occurred were against the council's wishes. The council's document on the liturgy sacro sanctum conchilium in fact encourages the use of Latin. It doesn't suppress it. It states that Gregorian chant should have pride of place and that no change should occur unless the good of the church requires it. And so could it be that when reforms were carried out, we were selective in what we chose to adhere to and what we chose to ignore. It's why I concur with the Holy Father's words. The old building was demolished. Another was built. And this has caused us enormous harm. But why is that?

Why is it when we change the liturgy hastily or unnecessarily, it can cause harm? It comes down to the nature of the liturgy which will be next week's homaly. But today it will suffice to present to you the following latex which I know you've heard before. Lexande lex credende that is the law of belief is the the law of prayer is the law of belief.

How we pray and worship forms what we believe.

Case in point, if there is no reverence in our mass towards the eukarist, then we will cease to believe in the presence of Jesus in the eukarist. How we worship affects what we believe. And if you change the liturgy enough, you you literally change who we are. That's precisely why the Protestant reformers changed their liturgies. And so this means as a church, if we don't do liturgy properly, we will have a hard time doing other things properly, including catechesis, evangelization, and promotion to the priesthood. It all begins here at the mass, at the liturgy. And so if there's a crisis in the church and the disintegration of the liturgies at its center, well, what's the way forward? I would propose it is what some liturgists call the reform of the reform. To rebuild the building that was destroyed and to rebuild it. Yes, in light of the second Vatican council, but also in light of what came before it. It's what Pope Benedict called the hermeneutunic of continuity. Any changes in the mass must be in continuity with what came before. That's sacred tradition. Doing things in continuity with the past on what has been handed on to us faithfully. Unless you think I'm I'm presenting something radical, I should let you know the reform of the reform has been happening at least since the year 2000. For example, in 2004, the Vatican released a document redemption sacramentum which addressed many of the lurggical changes and abuses that made its way into the church. Don't use glass and clay vessels and dinner plates, said the Vatican. Go back to what was used before, precious metal. You'll recall in 2012 we received a new translation of the mass. In this the church was admitting her mistake in a hasty translation of the mass from the Latin. It was done hurriedly and wasn't faithful to the original Latin. A reform was needed. In the year 2000, there was a restoration of the ancient vigil of Pentecost, which was suppressed in ' 69, but restored. We're going to celebrate it this year, by the way. A reform of the reform in the arms of the church. It's in this context that I would like us to see our practices here at Lords. The practices introduced by my predecessors, Father Fong and Father Jeff, namely the tabernacle in the center, the practice of adorientum worship, the use of Latin, the installation and use of altar rails, the focus on beauty and reverence. In one sense, these are part of the reform of the reform. These are practices that were never suppressed by the church. Instead, they were ignored. They are ancient practices supported by the liturggical laws of the church and in my mind are essential to addressing the crisis in the liturgy. One last word, then I am done. Some of you were done the moment I began talking.

Sometimes when it comes to the liturgy today, there can be a danger of developing a a prideful or a phariseic attitude that that I'm better than others because I I celebrate this way. That's not my intention in carrying out this homaly series. My intention in this homaly series and focusing on the liturgy is because we must pay attention to it. The liturgy It's the source of the church's renewal. As the second Vatican council said, it is the source and it's the summit of our Catholic faith and we give thanks for it. God bless you. God love you. Amen. Thank you for the homaly, Father Dad. You're welcome, Ken. Um, why are we doing this series on the homaly? because in our parish you've had a number of homalies on this topic and I thought before we go too far down this episode like you know could you share with us what was the inspiration behind this? I think the inspiration is twofold. There's one primary reason, but as priests, we don't often preach enough and teach enough on the liturgy. As the Second Vatican Council says, the the liturgy, the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. We're preaching on God's word a lot, which is important, right? But we don't often preach on the mystery of the mass and and catechize about it. And we don't do that often enough. So I came to the con conclusion I I should be doing that more early on. But the primary reason is this is my predecessor of father Jeffrey Young in 2019 and 2020 at at our lead of Lord's Parish in Saskatoon began an an extensive renovation and renewal of the church sanctuary. Beautiful stonework. Yes. installation of the altar rail and and many other things done along with the renovation. He introduced some lurggical changes uh namely at Orientum worship, the use of Latin communion while kneeling. All very praiseworthy things and in line with the in line with the tradition of the church and lurggical law. And these things were introduced during a time he gave some katakesis on them but they were introduced during a time when not everyone was able to be at church. Yeah. Yes. It was such an unusual time during co Yeah. Yeah. And so not everyone got the catechesus or they got pieces of it. What then I wanted to do, I just wanted to give the the big picture to everybody to give a foundation of the church's liturgy and then to go into some of these specific topics of these things that we do at Our Lady of Lord's Parish and why we do them and why they're a good thing and why they can be a source of of renewal for the church and in her liturgy. Yeah. And so, Father Jeff is the reason for this lurggical uh series here. So if it goes bad, we'll blame it on Father Jack. Yes. But he did great work and I was happy to inherit the parish that he was at before, right? And uh so yeah, I'm I'm happy to give this series. Okay. Okay. There was one line in your homaly that really struck me and I have to repeat it to you. You quoted Pope Benedict who said, "I'm convinced that the crisis in the church that we are experiencing today is to a large extent due to a disintegration of the liturgy." Okay. So, we're going to break that up into two parts. What is the crisis that you think Pope Benedict was referring to in the church? Right. I think one could say many things concerning the crisis. I the crisis is primary primarily twofold and they're connected. The the first crisis we see with our own eyes is a decline in church attendance. In the western church, not true in other parts of the world, but especially in the western church in Europe and in North America, there's a decline in church membership of of people going to church on Sunday, right? and and we see it with our eyes, right? And so that's the first thing. You just see it. Uh pastors know this, dasceses know this. And that's a crisis. So why aren't people coming to worship God to receive the Eucharist, Jesus's body, blood, soul, and divinity? Why aren't they doing that? What has happened? Mhm. And we all know stories of people falling away from the faith or grandchildren or grandparents saying my children no longer practice the faith and it causes them great pain. So that's a crisis. It's a big one. Connected with that though is a crisis of belief and it's connected. So, a crisis of of proper doctrinal belief, a crisis in proper moral belief in the moral teachings of the church. We've just seen a crisis in that regard. Case in point, I'm not sure I haven't looked at the stats most recently on Catholics belief in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist. Right? It's plummeting and it has plummeted. And then a crisis in the moral teachings of the church. All the hot button issues, homosexuality, transgendered, contraception, people are rejecting these beliefs. Catholics within the church. Yes. Or just walking away from the church. And so those are connected, right? and and so no attendance and then a crisis in in the belief in and and in the belief of the church and and her moral teachings, her doctrines. Those are the most evidence and and of course then the crisis is salvation, right? Uh it just carries on. Okay. Yeah. A relationship with our savior and drawing close to him. Yeah. Yeah. Well, I I knew obviously I was going to I knew he was going to ask you that question. So, I backed to 2019 to your reference to the belief in the real presence in in the Eucharist. Peer research survey came out and you know caused a big stir because it found that 69% of Catholics don't believe in the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist which is pretty concerning considering it's a source and summit of our faith. The greatest gift that God has given his church, Jesus himself. It makes sense that people wouldn't attend when they stop believing there's a great value there. But I I came across this after recently Pew Research did another survey in 2025. I'm not sure if you came across it, but I'd like to share some of that with you highlighting this crisis. Said over 80% of Catholics say the church should allow birth control just as many believe that in virtual fertilization should be permitted. Almost 60% think women should be ordained as priests and about half say same-sex marriages should be recognized. When it comes to practice, only three in 10 Catholics attend mass weekly and overall six in 10 Catholics say the church should change her teaching to be more inclusive. So to say that we're in a crisis, I just feel it's a little bit of an understatement. This is this is a disaster. I mean, just that la last one. Six and 10 Catholics think the church has to change their teachings basically to conform to the world. We got it backwards. Aren't we supposed to conform our lives to Christ? But no, no, no, no. We have to conform to the world. I guess to become relevant is what they're thinking probably. So I'm going to go back now to Pope Benedict because Pope Benedict said the crisis that we see is in a large extent due to the disintegration of the liturgy. So someone might be thinking okay well how is this connected? For example, contraception. You know 84% of Catholics out there think the church should allow contraception. Well what in the world does that have to do with the liturgy? Benedict is saying it's the crisis is due to a disintegration of the liturgy. Okay. Well, what's the crisis? Well, we don't believe anymore in the teachings of the church. Contraception is one. What does that have to do with right worship and a disintegration of the liturgy? So, with that's the big question here. Can you connect the dots and or can they be connected? We'll get back to talking to Father Dan in just a second, but first, if you've been blessed by this video, could you help us out in a few simple ways? Number one, like and share this video. YouTube's going to see that. Then push this video out to our larger audience, so that's something you could do. Number two, could you pray for us? We're always in need of grace, and we would greatly appreciate your prayers. And number three, if it is possible, supporting our mission at ken andjanel.com. Your support makes it possible for us to keep on producing videos just like the one you're watching. You know, all our content is free, but it's not free to make. Every contribution really does make a difference on our side. So, back to Father Dan. That's the big question here. Can you connect the dots and or can they be connected? Oh, yes. Yeah. It's why Pope Benedict Cardinal Ratzinger was so passionate about this. He wrote extensively on the liturgy and attempt to bring some reform to it, right? Uh the reforms to the reform. But the connection is this. It comes down there's a Latin axiom is uh lexarande lex credende that is the law of worship is a law of belief. Another way we can put is is right worship leads to right belief and then I some theologians add another one which leads to right living. So, right worship, right belief, right living, and and just case in point, we we've touched on on it a a little bit, how in our liturgies, how we treat the Eucharist, how we receive the Eucharist, if if we just treat it as if it's a a mere piece of bread, if we treat it as if it's a mere symbol of Jesus, what what happens? Well, we treat it like that in our worship. And then our belief goes down and then what happens? We stop going to mass. So you see the connection there. Right worship uh right belief right living it it comes this way even even in terms of how we pray. So a casual a casual liturgy celebrated a relaxed liturgy a liturgy that's not taken seriously. If people see that with their eyes, it then leaves, well, do I really need to take my beliefs all that seriously? You know, can I fudge on them a little bit? And then, you know, it's not all that serious. It's and so maybe I I I can stop going, right? And so that great axiom lexande lex credende, it's so true. H it's why and I'll I'll probably touch on this in subsequent homalies and with all due respect to our Protestant brothers and sisters but after the P reformation one of the first things they did was change how they worship because they knew if we want to change the faith of the people we have to change how they worship how we worship and so it's so important it's vitally important it's where we have to begin I think that's well put take your faith casually ually in the liturgy, you you have a casual approach to it. You you see it done casually. You're right. I mean, I never thought about it that way. You know, it's it it doesn't it communicates something. Yeah. There's another important word that uh Pope Benedict had in that quote. He said there's a disintegration of the liturgy. And right, we have to ask what is that? What happened? What does that look like? What does he mean by that? In his writings, there are two main themes that always come out and I I I think he's right on right on the money here. And and the first disintegration of the liturgy he mentions that we have to be aware of is that there were many good reforms after the second Vatican council, but many of them either went too far or we failed to implement some of the some of the reforms they asked for. And we'll get to that in subsequent homalies. But but but one of the great changes after the second Vatican council and how our liturgies were celebrated, how our masses was celebrated, we went from a liturgy that had God as the object, the center of the liturgy to the community that is the center of the church's liturgy. We've we've seen this. We can't have the tabernacle at the center in the sanctuary. We have to move the the Eucharist off to the side. So the priest can be at the center of the liturgy because the priest is, you know, the the leader of the community. And and then he needs to look at them all the time. And and so we have to have mass facing the people, right? And and then before mass begins, you know, we have to turn to our partner and and say, "Hey, how you doing? My name is Dan. What's your name today?" You know, and and and we have to sing only the hymns we like and that are pleasing to the ear, you know, that means bringing in contemporary, you know, praise and worship music into the mass, right? Because it's pleasing to the ear. And so there's been that there's been a flip. Sometimes it's been done probably intentionally, sometimes it's not intentional, but we've moved from having God as the object or the focus of the liturgy to the community uh being the focus uh more so of the liturgy. And that's flipping the liturgy around it. It was this was the sin of of the Hebrew people on at Mount Si. What do you mean by that? With the golden calf. Oh, okay. When Moses went up the mountain, Yeah. to receive the law of God, he re received, you know, the ten commandments, he received laws of worship. When God was passing on to him, this is how you shall worship. What were the Hebrew the Israelites doing at the bottom of the mountain? They were creating their own liturgy. They they they melted gold and made this golden calf and then were worshiping in it and dancing around it. They were doing what they wanted uh with the liturgy uh focusing on themselves where God is the object of our liturgy and we do what has been passed on to us. And so the first thing in the liturgy we should always be asking is how do we honor and worship God properly? uh not how we engage the community properly. We can ask those questions but those are always secondary. How do we perform uh right worship? So that's the first thing with the disintegration of the liturgy. What has gone wrong is this this flipping liturgy should always for lack of the better term scream God first. God first. That's what it should impart.

That's one aspect. The other important aspect of the disintegration of the liturgy, as Cardinal Ratzinger sees it, Pope Benedict is we've begun to treat the liturgy as if it's it's a project to be changed and molded in our hands instead of something that is received and we're to treasure it and to celebrate what has been handed on to us. And he said there's been a big flip in that regard because treating the liturgy as a project as something that can be changed for our own desires just makes it almost irrelevant. Why do why would I want to participate in something? It's nothing more than a sporting event then, right? something human beings have created and can change at a moment's notice to our fancies, you know, just to make it more engaging in the eyes of the world. Instead of we've treated the liturgy like that a little bit that we can mold it through our human hands, but instead we have to see the liturgy as something that is handed on to us from one generation to the next and to be held with sacred hands in the present. We do this with our doctrine. We're pretty good at it, not perfect. We pass on our doctrine from one generation to the next. and we hold it and we believe it today. The example I love to use and I may use in subsequent homalies is the term transsubstantiation. You know that developed came to use in the 12th century I believe and then we still use it today. We don't say you know what I don't like that word transubstantiation. We're not going to use it anymore. It was just for you know a pastime you know so we'll forget about it. We don't do that. We receive it reverently. This is how we have to view and treat our liturgies with trembling hands as something that has been passed on to us. I think most Catholics don't have this view of the liturgy. I think they see the doctrine and doctrine and liturgy as very distinct and separate things. Yes, we don't change the church's teaching because it's been handed on to us from Peter and the apostles, guided by the Holy Spirit. It's developed. It's enriched. But it's never changed. I I I don't think most Catholics today who sit in the pew have this understanding of how well, let me put it this way. Is this how the liturgy ought to be viewed in? Is this what the church intends us to see as the liturgy to see the liturgy as this thing that's just not supposed to be changed all of a sudden? Yes. I I don't think most Catholics in the pew uh see that. No. No. That's why Pope Benedict said it's a part of the disintegration and so important. Well, I know I didn't. Yeah. Well, I I feel like my understanding is really developed and changed more also more recently was partly your homaly and also we went to the traditional atmass as well. But also just like okay I I missed something and I'm I'm embarrassed to say that I I got frustrated with sometimes with these priests who didn't want to change mass sometimes. I'm like, it's it's crazy to think, but I just had no I had no understanding of this. So the cat the katakesis is so important and and these fundamental truths about the liturgy is so important. Right. If we don't get these things right, yeah, we won't get the other things right concerning the liturgy. So in the liturgy, God first, community follows from that. And the liturgy is something that we receive with trembling hands. And we don't just change it. We just don't mold it to our own desires. We don't do whatever we want. And uh but we receive it much like our doctrine. Mhm. Yeah. And we we're docile to it too. What what does the disintegration of the liturgy look like? Like concretely? What do you think uh Pope Benedict meant by that? Yeah, I mentioned a few of them, right? Yeah. And so give me a list. So anyway, the liturgy has failed to put God at the center. Okay. Yeah. Removing of the tabernacle from the center and and putting it off in a side room. Like you go into some churches and you're trying to find the the real presence of Jesus in the Eucharist and you have to ask St. Anony's intercession, where's Jesus, St. Anthony? And I would pause it also the moving of the priest then to the center. How it's just a strange thing that

you know the people say there's a clerical world out there that there's a big problem of clericalism in the church and yet we've moved the tabernacle and then we plop plop the priest in the center. Right. Right. And so again, that's a disintegration we see with with our own eyes. Other things could be the the choice of music we we make instead of following the church's directives in in in terms of music, approved music, we just bring in anything for our own desire, right? And as pastors, we struggle with this in our weddings that we celebrate. You know, some couples want to, you know, play popular music and, you know, it's just why can't we have Celindi on Father Dan? So, you know, anything that that relegates God to something second, you know, so many things. And then and then also the disintegration looks like change changing things to our own whims and our own desires. And there's a whole litany of of those things of lurggical abuses, you know, that we could go through. We don't want to use glass uh gold chalicees anymore. Let because, you know, it's too ornate and too fancy. Let's just bring in the glass, right? We we don't want to use the the the Eucharist that is normally provided for us, you know, the recipe for for the bread of the Eucharist. We want to create our own, you know, so let let's bake our own bread and put the ingredients in that we wanted. So this constant changing and molding of the liturgy into what we want and we desire is just alarm bells for dis. So that's what you think Pope Benedict meant by disintegration of the liturgy. Some of the things. Yep. So someone might be listening to this thinking, "Oh, come on, Father Dan. Like does it really matter? Come on. Okay, why can't we make her up our own host and have our own recipe? Why can't we bring in more engaging music? Why can't we have the priest facing and why does it matter if the tabernacle is right in the center or just a little bit off to the side and the priest is there? Aren't you being legalistic? Aren't you being kind of too stuck in tradition and strict like does this really matter to God? It it it it matters truly for our faith and again I come to this axiom right worship right belief right living so do we want to worship properly that's my question and so and I think we would all answer yes and so we have to ask ourselves then what is right worship what is right worship how best can we glorify God. I know of no better way to glorify God than to celebrate what is passed on to me that has been tried and true from one generation to the next. Things that have been celebrated and and practiced by saints, by great theologians and great liturggical thinkers and and found to be true and beautiful and passed on. Mh. And so these things matter because they provide us to give right and proper worship to God, the best worship. And some of these things we have gotten rid of without asking the question why we had them in the first place. It matters because we want to give the best worship to our God. And the best and proper worship has been is passed on to us from one generation to the next. and made even more beautiful with each passing generation. Uh so that that's one reason why it matters. Would you also say is this is this correct to say uh when you mess with the liturgy, you mess with people's salvation? Yeah, we could we could come to that conclusion right with these axioms that that we've been using. Uh for sure if you if you mess with it if you break it for sure uh even just harming it disfiguring it in a little way you can harm people's salvation for sure. Yeah. Yeah. There's truth to that for sure. Okay. So episode one, we have many more coming where we're going to get very specific on the disintegration of the liturgy, right? Worship, what did the church intend, looking at the sat second Vatican council. Um I'm looking forward to this. Me too, Ken. It's been great to be here with you again. Thanks for coming back. Thank you.

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