The Catholic Closet - Ritual

The word "ritual" is an interesting one when used in discussions with Catholics.

We all participate in ritual, from our regular morning wake-up routines to how we make macaroni and cheese to how we worship. It's the context of religious worship where the problems arise. You never see a news account of the aftermath of a satanic "prayer service;" it's always a "ritual." That's why my long-ago GEnie person objected so much to her way of worship being labeled "ritual." After all, mass is "mass," not a ritual with mumbo-jumbo spouted off by people in unusual costumes, right?

Catholics use the Mass for many of the same reasons pagans perform their ritual worship, the most important being the increase/improvement in focus ritual offers the participant. Wiccans cleanse their working area; Catholics confess their sins. Wiccans call their God and Goddess; Catholics rewnew their faith in Jesus. All the preparation in both cases leads up to a magickal working. Wiccans/pagans vary the intent and desired outcome of their workings, while Catholics are consistent in theirs: changing bread and wine into the body and blood of Jesus. Still, both religions make extensive use of ritual to raise power.

It's a question of terminology. What should be a very benign word has taken on sinister overtones in the vocabularies of many. I can remember, going all the way back to the pre-www days of GEnie and CompuServe, when I said that the Catholic Mass was a lovely, mystical, ritual, I got back a two-paragraph screed on how it was no such thing. In that context, it was easy to mess with this gal, but the pagan in the Catholic closet is looking for an accomodation.

Simple language adjustments can easily defuse arguments and controversy. A sabbat "ritual" can easily become a "prayer service." They have "communion," the Wicca have the "simple feast." It's strictly up to the Wicca: do you want to get in someone's face, or do you want to smooth things out?

The similarities between pagan and Catholic rites aren't coincidental. The fathers of the early church were willing to adapt to accomplish a higher purpose, the spread of Christianity. Modifying language can be in a similar light in the modern times. The Wicca are willing to adopt, even co-opt, Christian terminology to fit in. In the case of the Wicca, it's not about evangelization or conversion, it's about peaceful worship.