Fr. Longenecker describes our new pope's liturgical style here. And I offer a bit from the article for reflection:
There are a couple of things to remember here. First of all, in the United States the liturgy wars are part of a bigger cultural divide within the American Catholic church. Liberal liturgy very often also means liberal theology. Often the big box Catholic Churches with their praise bands and “gather them in” style are also full of cafeteria Catholics and left wing Obama-voting ideologues, while the traddy congregations are full of right wing members of the John Birch society with “You’ll get my gun when you pry my cold dead fingers from around it” bumper stickers on their cars. (I’m exaggerating to make a point). Naturally, therefore, the liturgy starts being about much more than the liturgy…
In the developing world however, the more informal modes of worship are much more of a general cultural phenomenon. An informal style there doesn’t necessarily carry all the baggage it does here. Just because a priest, bishop or pope is a bit more informal in his style of celebrating doesn’t mean he is a theological liberal or will compromise the faith. Indeed, everything about Pope Francis indicates that he is not only completely orthodox in theology and moral teaching, but that he has suffered for being so.
I think Fr. Longenecker has "hit the nail right on the head" as usual and for the most part. Never-the-less, some Catholics in California who take part in the Charismatic Masses are very, very orthodox. It depends on the area, and who is giving the talks at such Masses and conventions. Jesse Romero is a charismatic, yet a very orthodox Catholic.
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