The De-virilized Priest
June 24, 2013
JEWEL A. writes:
It just wears me out trying to keep the modern, revisionist’s narrative out of my mind. I have to purge myself linguistically several times a day!
Just before I read your brilliant letter to Jill Pasternak, I read this article, “The Devirilization of the Liturgy in the Novus Ordo Mass” by Fr. Richard G. Cipolla at Rorate Cæli.
Devirilization. A new word I plan to use often.
Laura writes:
Fr. Cipolla’s article is outstanding. I can’t recommend it enough. While I do not agree with him that it is insulting to women to lament effeminacy in men (effeminacy is good in a woman, not in a man), devirilization is also a good term. The phenomenon he describes is nothing short of catastrophic.
—- Comments —
Fred Owens writes:
Devirilization is a good and true concept, but I doubt the word itself will catch on.
“I am a recovering post-feminist. I am re-virilizing.”
What I just wrote in quotes is true, but it’s jargon.
Jargon is a principle tool of totalitarianism, we are urged to avoid such usage and to keep our writing fresh and clean. The Thinking Housewife sets an inspiring example of good English prose which lends powerful credence to its message. Let us experiment with new usages, such as “devirilization,” but cast them aside if they don’t work.
Laura writes:
It’s a mouthful of a word.
Mary writes:
Very good piece. His comments about the direction the priest faces hit home. I don’t believe I really understood the Mass until I experienced Mass said ad orientum. It was as if somehow a light went on. I was in my mid-forties. I suddenly understood that the priest was addressing Christ directly in the tabernacle; that we were in the presence of the divine; that we were there to witness an act of worship. The Mass can happen with us or without us. I was also struck by the masculinity of the cassock and the proceedings on the altar by the servers; very like the military. The boys just thrive on the altar. It’s hard to go to the new Mass anymore.
I finished A Bitter Trial a few months ago. Waugh’s frustration, even heartbreak, are palpable; Cardinal Heenan tried to walk a tightrope. Waugh died on Easter Sunday after attending the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.
James P. writes:
Why use “devirilized” and “devirilization” rather than “emasculated” and “emasculation”? This is not clear from Fr. Cipolla’s article.
“Weakening of what it means to be a man” sounds like emasculation to me.
“Elimination of the virile nature of the Liturgy” is emasculation of the Liturgy.
