 Send in the Clowns
If anything, "Clown Masses" are even more common in America than
dancing girls in the sanctuary. Sometimes the celebrant is dressed as a
clown, sometimes members of the congregation adopt the role. The
phenomenon can be traced back at least to the late seventies. The 3
April 1978 issue of The Boston Globe
described a "Clown Mass" celebrated in honor of April Fools' Weekend.
The celebrant, Father Joachim Lally, put his clown make-up on before
the congregation to the accompaniment of "acts which consisted of
carnival music, dancing and showing the necessity of being free to love
and give." Other male and female clowns joined Father Lally who, during
his sermon, delivered an admonition which was not quite what one might
have hoped to hear from a Catholic priest during the Holy Sacrifice of
the Mass: Damn everything that is grim, dull, motionless, unrisking, inward turning. Damn everything that won't get into the circle, that won't enjoy, that won't throw its heart into the tension, surprise, fear and delight of the circus, the round world, the full existence. Damn everything but the circus! It seems unlikely that St. Bede would have found the antics or the sentiments of Father Lally very much to his liking. "What chastisement," he asked, "would our Blessed Lord have inflicted, if He had found people laughing or chatting, or indulging in any other unfitting practices, in the house which is concerned only with things Divine, in offering sacrifices and prayers to God, in reading, hearing, and singing the Divine word?" It must, of course, be admitted that St. Bede was a pre-conciliar Catholic, and so his opinion would probably carry very little weight with those like Father Lally who have the advantage of what are known as "contemporary insights." HOME
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