The Lutheran pastor and humorist Hans Fiene recently remarked “the most obnoxious Protestants in the world are liberal boomer Catholics.” The comment, both funny and true, was prompted by a video which surfaced of a June 30 protest at a Mass celebrated at St Francis Church in Portland, Oregon. The sparsely attended parish was filled mostly with older progressives who were angry that their new priest, Fr George Kuforiji, had been steadily introducing liturgical reforms aimed at restoring their liturgy to be in conformity with the Catholic Faith. Most of the protesters were women who shouted at this gentle African priest because he had removed their own supplement to the recitation of the Creed, and had taken down political statements from the front of their parish. The conclusion that these “liberal boomer Catholics” had drawn was that Father must be against love! “We are following the voice of Jesus, of love,” one woman chanted. “The Jesus of inclusion. The Jesus of resisting the authorities because when we resist the law, we are in the Spirit of God.” One of the protesters asked Fr George, “How can you be a priest?” Suggesting he did not have the authority to change their local customs of worship, she asserted her own authority: “I’ve been here for over 15 years. You’ve been here a year.” Without a hint of clericalism, Fr George simply asked in reply: “Do you have reverence for God?” The woman turned her back on the question, which is a pity because it’s the only one which matters. Some have suggested that Fr George has moved too quickly. People are creatures of habit, and so he should have moved more slowly to move their hearts and minds into conformity with the Church. There is a certain truth in this. I am not opposed to “gradualism” in forming a more reverent parish. Sometimes it takes a year or two to prepare a parish for an altar rail, or silence. But the early Church Fathers never took a “gradualist” approach to heresy embodied in liturgical irreverence, and when parishes as extreme as St Francis come along, bishops and priests must act decisively to guard the Mass against the abuses of local custom. As Chesterton says, some habits must be crushed underfoot. The question Fr George asks his own flock must become an ever more pressing one for each of us: “Do you have reverence for God?” If it be God’s will that only African priests can regularly ask us this question, then I say the African Church can’t get to America fast enough.