Dear John:

I am sorry to hear about the state of your diocese. Unfortunately this is not a unique story.

If the bishop has already been contacted about all this without a satisfactory result the next step is to contact the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.

When writing to the Congregation you must be business-like and professional. Do not mention rumors or what you "think" is happening. Report only that which you have personally witnessed and be sure to report that accurately without emotion or presumption of others motivations or thoughts. Just report the objective facts as you have witnessed them as you would in writing a newspaper report.

Include your correspondence with the Bishop (if you have not written a letter to the bishop, then you need to do that before writing the Congregation).

The address to the Congregation is:

Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Cardinal, Prefect
Congregatio de Cultu Divino et Disciplina Sacramentorum
Palazzo delle Congregazioni, 00193 Roma, Piazza Pio XII, 10

Once you write the Congregation it could be 6-9 months before you get a reply, assuming you get a reply.

This is all you can do. It is in the hands of the Holy See after that.

If nothing changes you can offer up the suffering of having to sit through abusive and illicit Masses. Offer your suffering to God for the conversion of the Bishop and the priest.

It is a great privilege to suffer for Christ. This is an opportunity for you. Not only can this mortification increase your faith and strength in the Lord, but it can help to bring the abusers to their senses. See this as an opportunity.

There is little to fear of a invalid Mass. As long as the consecration of the Mass is said with the intention of the Church (to convect the transubstantiation) by a validly ordained Priest, each species of the Eucharist is valid matter ("the bread must be only wheat and recently made so that there is no danger of spoiling" and "the wine must be natural from the fruit of the vine and not spoiled" -- Canon Law 924 §2, 3). The bread is also to be unleavened in the Latin Rite. If it is not unleavened it is illicit, but does not invalidate), and if the priest recites at least the essential words of consecration (this is my body, this is .. my blood), then the Mass is valid. The priest may commit all sorts of irregularities that makes the Mass illicit, but as long as the above is done, the Mass is valid.

Keep in mind that in the Eastern Catholic Churches the words of institution are different, but still valid.

It would be a rare thing for the Mass to actually be invalid.

It is rough to have to live like you are having to do, especially when Canon Law specifically says that we have a "right" to experience the Sacraments properly. Indeed, the Vatican II Council affirmed that "no one, not even a priest, may change anything in the Mass on his own authority." A bishop also does not have the authority to change the Mass in rebellion against the Holy See.

We will pray for you, your parish, and your diocese.

Let us know how this turns out.

God Bless,
Bro. Ignatius Mary