Joseph Card. Ratzinger – now Benedict XVI – wrote in his Spirit of the Liturgy:

“Wherever applause breaks out in the liturgy because of some human achievement, it is a sure sign that the essence of liturgy has totally disappeared and been replaced by a kind of religious entertainment. ” (Spirit of the Liturgy p. 198)

I spotted this today at NLM from my friend Greg DiPippo.

His translation of the Italian in the video, below:

The fourth Sunday of Lent, John XXIII was once again among the crowd, at Ostia. (about 15 miles to the south-west of Rome.) Thousands of people were waiting for him along the street, in the piazza, in the church. They wanted to see him, to applaud him. They did not know that afterwards, he would rebuke them, in a good-natured way, in his simple , spontaneous, familiar way of speaking. “I am very glad to have come here. But if I must express a wish, it is that in church you not shout out, that you not clap your hands, and that you not greet even the Pope, because ‘templum Dei, templum Dei.’ (‘The temple of God is the temple of God.’) Now, if you are pleased to be in this beautiful church, you must know that the Pope is also pleased to see his children. But as soon as he sees his good children, he certainly does not clap his hands in their faces. And the one who stands before you is the Successor of St. Peter.”

How about this.

If there is applause for the pop-combo at “liturgy” in your “worship space”, get a copy of Spirit of the Liturgy and mark the passage I quoted above. Give it to the priest. Then send him a link to the YouTube video, above.

UPDATE:

A priest wrote, asking:

What about all the clapping at the Mass of Christian Burial for St. John Paul II?

You mean that Mass which was celebrated out in the big parking lot in front of the Basilica?

St. John XXIII was in a church. Benedict XVI was talking about “human achievement” (e.g., a well-sung solo).

So, what about it?