Fallon Discusses Faith, Liturgy

Jimmy Fallon a liturgical traditionalist? Who knew?

I was pretty surprised when I came upon this story. Late-night television personality Jimmy Fallon discussed his Catholic upbringing in this NPR interview, which was mentioned in Catholic Beat. It seems like he's a lapsed Catholic, but his observations on liturgy are worth noting. Asked whether he still attends Mass, Fallon said:

Mr. FALLON: I don’t go to – I tried to go back. When I was out in L.A. and I was kind of struggling for a bit. I went to church for a while, but it’s kind of, it’s gotten gigantic now for me. It’s like too… There’s a band. There’s a band there now, and you got to, you have to hold hands with people through the whole Mass now, and I don’t like doing that. You know, I mean, it used to be the shaking hands piece was the only time you touched each other. ... Now, I’m holding hand – now I’m lifting people. Like Simba. I’m holding them (Singing) ha nah hey nah ho. I’m doing too much. I don’t want – there’s Frisbees being thrown, there’s beach balls going around, people waving lighters, and I go, ‘This is too much for me.’ I want the old way. I want to hang out with the, you know, with the nuns, you know, that was my favorite type of Mass, and the grotto, and just like straight up, just Mass Mass.

Like most Catholics, Fallon is not a theologian or a liturgist, but he intuitively recognizes the shallowness of so much that takes place during many contemporary Liturgies. It's sad, but I would be willing to bet that many Catholics have simply tuned out as a result of the utter silliness that goes on at so many parishes.