Bishop plans
to appeal Vatican
ban on dance

Catholics find themselves
in a spirited debate over the
liturgical use of hula

By Mary Adamski
Star-Bulletin

Dance as an expression of worship has been banned from services in Hawaii Catholic churches and schools in response to a complaint from an island resident.

The announcement last month by the diocesan Office of Worship, based on instructions from the Vatican, has brought both pro and con responses from local Catholics, who occasionally may see hula or modern interpretative choreography performed to express a prayer, psalm or song.

Hawaii Bishop Francis DiLorenzo will ask for a dispensation from the ban in September during a scheduled visit to Rome, said diocesan spokesman Patrick Downes. He is preparing documents for the Congregation for Divine Worship to clarify the cultural importance of dance here and what use of dance or movement actually involves.

"The bishop hopes to clear it all up," Downes said. "He said he has found an eclectic blend of dance here, not only Hawaiian. He hasn't found it objectionable."

Downes said most parishes don't have dance. "When we have it, it is likely to be a reflection meditation after communion, such as gestures to Our Father."

Hula was performed during DiLorenzo's installation as bishop in 1994, which was attended by the Vatican ambassador to the United States, he pointed out. It also was included at this year's celebration of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Honolulu diocese.

And, he recalled, an island hula halau danced before Pope John Paul II at the 1995 celebration of the beatification of Father Damien DeVeuster in Brussels.

A movement is afoot to circulate an anti-dance petition among local churchgoers, according to Catholic layman Dan McGivern.

"The Mass is a very holy sacrifice of Our Lord," he said. "The Vatican has spoken and said there should be no dance. I wholeheartedly agree with that, and I know those who agree number in the thousands. My bottom line is obedience. We're supposed to be obedient."

McGivern said the petition drive arose because "at least one individual and two organizations are irate" over a published comment by Downes that only two people have complained. "It made it sound like no one else cared."

He said the groups or individuals who plan the petition drive do not want to be identified. "They don't want to run afoul of the bishop. Nobody is trying to get in that position. I agree with them."

Chaminade University's Mystical Rose Chapel is one locale where dance is woven into a reflective song or prayer during Sunday Mass. Marianist Brother Dennis Schmitz is an organizer of the campus' sacred dance organization, which leads the congregation in movement. Several nuns are among its participants.

"It has been warmly received, it is very inspirational," said college spokeswoman Cheryl Niggle. "Movement puts you into a space where you can experience God in another fashion. It is another form of prayer, just like music."

She described the dance as "modern dance, reminiscent of a ballerina performing, with gestures -- you stretch your arms to heaven."

"We don't have hula but I have no problem with hula in church. It can be spiritual," Niggle said. At the school's recent anniversary luau, Maryknoll Sister Yoo Soo Kim did a meditative movement to the song "The Rose."

The diocesan memo quoted from a Vatican letter. "There shall be no dance of any kind in the churches of the Diocese of Honolulu, nor any dance during celebration of the Sacred Liturgy, in any circumstances whatsoever," said the letter from Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez, the Congregation for Divine Worship prefect.

Hula is featured at the annual Big Island Liturgy and Arts Conference at Malia Puka 'O Kalani Church near Hilo, which is attended by representatives from many parishes.

The Rev. Randy Roche of the Newman Center at University of Hawaii said he has heard from several people who are unhappy about the ban.

But the Jesuit priest said Roman law has to be interpreted narrowly "until someone in authority says it applies specifically to this."

Roche said that dance or movement is occasionally used at the campus services -- for example, to interpret the words of "Kanaka Wai Wai."