Posted on 06/27/2006 10:00:12 AM PDT by Ebenezer
The Pope has demanded an end to electric guitars and modern music in church and a return to traditional choirs.
The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of holding Mass to try to attract more people. The recital of Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy; in Spain it has been set to flamenco music; and in the United States the Electric Prunes produced a "psychedelic" album called Mass in F Minor.
However, the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music. "It is possible to modernise holy music," the Pope said, at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci the director of music at the Sistine Chapel. "But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."
His comments prompted the newspaper La Stampa to compare him with Pope Pius X, who denounced faddish classical and baroque compositions and reinstated Gregorian chants in 1903.
The Pope's supporters argue that the music played during Mass is a vital part of the communion between worshippers and God, and that medieval church music, with the liturgy, creates the correct ambience for perceiving God's mystery.
Cardinal Ersilio Tonini, the Archbishop of Ravenna, said:"Mass is the presence of Christ and the music adds so much more when the harmony allows the mind to transcend the concrete to the divine."
But Cardinal Carlo Furno, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, said it was "better to have guitars on the altar and rock and roll Masses than empty churches". The use of modern music was a "sign of the vitality of the faith".
The argument is part of a wider debate about the Latin Mass, restricted in the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s because it was seen to be putting worshippers off going to Church.
The Pope believes that if Latin Masses are reintroduced, more Catholics will learn the words to the Gregorian chants that he advocates.
I beg to differ with His Eminence. Churches that restore tradition to their liturgy and sacred music are the ones that attract faithful and show much vitality.
ping
The moore I see of this Pope, the more I like him.
The moore I see of this Pope, the more I like him.
"The argument is part of a wider debate about the Latin Mass, restricted in the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s because it was seen to be putting worshippers off going to Church."
If the Council Fathers thought translating the Mass to vernacular tongues would bring more people to church, their well-intentioned efforts backfired, at least in the United States.
Not only that, but my girlfriend and I really look forward to the youth Mass, partially because of the music, partially because the priest is really good.
Sheese. The good Cardinal has just provided the very recipe for empty churches: "guitars on the altar and rock and roll Masses." Or maybe he hasn't noticed what has happened over the last 40 years.
The latest issue of the newsletter of the Latin Liturgy Association (http://www.latinliturgy.com) features two book reviews which were originally published in "Extension" magazine back in the 1960s when the modernization of church music began. One of these books discusses a Bossa Nova Mass!
I guess that would make sense if Sergio Mendes were your parish's music director (or is it music minister?).
What, in 1969? What the?
you know, you can listen to electric guitars anywhere. That's not what Mass is about. And there really is no such thing as "Youth Mass." There is only Mass.
1Ch 15:16 David told the leaders of the Levites to appoint their brothers as singers to sing joyful songs, accompanied by musical instruments: lyres, harps and cymbals.
Psalm 100:1 & 2 Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness: come before him with joyful songs.
Same here, he seems very traditional. The way he's going he just might bring back the "Catholic" into the Catholic Church. Gob bless him.
Well excuse me. I guess I'm just not good enough for your Church.
Different times, different religion. David wasn't "proclaiming the death of the Lord until He comes again". (I Corinthians 11:26) The Mass is a solemn sacrifice, and so the Psalms are chanted sweetly and piously.
Guitars and drums are not only inappropriate to the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, they are an insult to it.
*The Pope should do to his guitar what John Belushi did to the folk singer's guitar in Animal House.
My prediction: His Holiness will be ignored as usual.
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