Mass with dancer condemned by Cody

12/5/68: “Cardinal Cody and the mass dance”

Chicago Conference of Laymen (CCL) at Knickerbocker Hotel on the previous Sunday, Dec. 1. Black man danced stripped to waist carrying chalice to altar. “Thorough investigation” coming says Cardinal C., who strongly disapproved.

Mass alone (black dancer or not), outside church or other approved place requires permission (per standard practice). Yeshiva and the Utopians performed African, “soul,” and psychedelic rhythms.

Mass began with the offertory, the day’s previous talks and discussions taken as “The liturgy of the word,” a largely Vatican 2 invention, at least as a term. Communion was in the form of small slices of French bread, distributed in some 25 baskets.

“Theatrical,” Cardinal Cody called it. Not in keeping with the devotional spirit of the the liturgy. Experimental, said the organizers.

A day or so later, “Cody criticism of dance attacked: Layman ‘shocked'”

Shock and amazement professed at Cody’s comments…