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Holy Family Catholic Community's pastor dancing during MassHoly Family Catholic Church screenshot

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INVERNESS, Illinois (LifeSiteNews) — A lay Catholic delivered a homily that included blowing bubbles, and parishioners danced in the aisles and on the altar during a Pentecost Mass in the Archdiocese of Chicago. The Code of Canon Law allows only a deacon or priest to give a homily.

Holy Family Catholic Community, which previously ended a Mass with its pastor, Father Terry Keehan, giving a blessing using a guitar, took it up another notch on Sunday.

The wealthy parish in Inverness, under the purview of new Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments member Cardinal Blase Cupich, caught the eye of social media again for its disrespectful liturgy.

Terry Nelson-Johnson, a lay Catholic who runs a retreat group called Soul Play, gave a homily after the Father Keehan’s homily. He also gave one at a February Mass that included a blessing of the congregants with a guitar. He specifically referred to his lecture as a “homily” and gave another “homily” at the end of Mass.

It included blowing bubbles in front of the altar. Several times, Nelson-Johnson appeared to take God’s name in vain.

“There were 60 people in those Zoom Hollywood soul squares, from all over the country, for three days, three days, for God’s sake, three days for God’s sake in those Hollywood squares,” the lay homilist said, sharing the story of a recent retreat.

He did not respond to a LifeSiteNews email on Tuesday morning that asked about how his homily conflicted with Canon Law, if he regretted taking the Lord’s name in vain, and for any other comments.

Parishioners and the priest and deacon ended the Mass by dancing throughout the church. LifeSiteNews emailed on Tuesday morning Paula Nowicki, the assistant to Keehan, to ask for comments from him on a lay Catholic giving a homily and the appropriateness of dancing throughout the church to end the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. No response was received.

Mass also included a singing of Cyndi Lauper’s 1983 “Time After Time.”

While Holy Family parishioners were allowed to dance throughout church to Kool & the Gang’s “Celebration” and lay Catholics were able to give multiple homilies, the faithful in the archdiocese who prefer the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) were not so fortunate on Pentecost.

That’s because Cupich ordered diocesan priests and the Canon Regulars of St. John Cantius to celebrate the Novus Ordo on the first Sundays of each month, at the Triduum, Pentecost and Christmas. Priests must request permission to say the Mass ad orientem. While Cupich justified the decision by referring to Traditionis Custodes, nothing in the document instructs bishops to restrict the TLM in this way.

LifeSiteNews contacted the media relations department for the archdiocese and Father Robert Fedek, the cardinal’s administrative secretary, to ask for comment on the videos but did not receive a response. LifeSiteNews also asked if the archdiocese had spoken to Father Keehan since the February guitar blessing.

While the archdiocese has cracked down on the Latin Mass, it has struggled with vocations from its non-Latin Mass parishes. The archdiocese, with more than two million Catholics, ordained only two priests this year, one coming from St. John Cantius.

Help Sr. Miriam’s work with the poor in a Kenyan slum: LifeFunder

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