There was an article in today’s Times-Picayune commenting on the rise of popularity of the practice of Eucharistic Adoration, and it noted how the current pope and John Paul II both wrote in favor of a revival of the practice even though it marks a return to a medieval and potentially superstitious mindset. Why? Why support a tradition that marks a complete reversal of Vatican II’s theology of the Eucharist?

Yesterday I was reading about the priest shortage crisis, a shortage that has been predicted for some years, and today I read about the rise in Eucharistic adoration, and suddenly it made sense. How else could the Vatican prepare people for losing the availability of the Mass? They had to make people more comfortable with the presence of the consecrated host and the absence of a priest. Perpetual adoration chapels and eucharistic adoration hours fit the bill perfectly, and theVatican didn’t need a new ritual they just had to revive an old one.

What else could they have done? The only other options would be to allow married priests (another ancient tradition but one that is not currently in favor in Rome) or allow women priests (which some argue was also an ancient tradition but is considered by Rome to be more evil than the clerical rape of children.) Heaven forbid they should consider such radical solutions, far better to indulge superstition and magical thinking and lull people into thinking that by adoring the consecrated host they have done something that Jesus would have considered valuable. The Vatican is banking on the fact that Catholics still don’t read scripture and are therefore unfamiliar with Amos, and James.

“I hate, I despise your religious feasts; I cannot stand your assemblies … But let justice roll on like a river, righteousness like a never-failing stream!  (Amos 5: 21-24)

“My brothers, what good is it to profess faith, without practicing it…” James 2:14‑17

Perhaps what is needed is for a group of Catholics to adopt the methodology of the Gideons and start placing bibles not in hotel rooms but in adoration chapels. And maybe bookmarking a few passages?