Saturday, 21 July 2012
Gonna take a sentimental journey
Mgr Andrew Wadsworth, Executive Director of ICEL delivered the keynote address to the Church Music Association of America on 27 June at Salt Lake City. Vultus Christi has posted the full text in a blogpost. If you prefer a Scribd edition (which you can download as a pdf), thanks to NLM for this upload.
Mgr Wadsworth's address is a helpful, concise and balanced summary of the key issues that face us in the celebration of the post-Conciliar liturgy in its ordinary form. He has caused something of a storm because he illustrates some of the problems by referring to the closing Mass of the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin. The Mass was not a halloween/clown/beer-festival Mass of the sort occasionally featured on those dreadful blogs that show liturgical abuses (mea culpa.) Many priests and laity would see footage of it and wonder what all the fuss is about.
And that is the point. Mgr Wadsworth's criticism is precisely that the reforms promoted by Pope Benedict have been so comprehensively ignored that even many priests simply don't understand that a major occasion such as the closing Mass of a Eucharistic Congress should set an example by having the proper texts of the Mass sung, and by using sacred music, sung as sacred music and not a performance. His point is understood by the Italian press: Cattiva Liturgia. A Dublino la rivincita dei vecchi baroni (Bad Liturgy. In Dublin the revenge of the old barons.) The most obvious "old baron" was the President of the Commission for Eucharistic Congresses, Archbishop Piero Marini, whom Pope Benedict replaced with Mgr Guido Marini and a very different approach to Papal Liturgy.
Mgr Wadsworth has possibly aroused more fury than he meant to by criticising the postcommunion song by "The Priests" as "impossibly sentimental." That's rather like saying that Daniel O'Donnell singing "The Blue Hills of Breffni" is a bit saccharine. I hope the good Monsignor has his windows boarded up - Mrs Doyle and her nuclear-handbagged associates will be searching to see whether Ryanair do cheap flights to Washington. If you want to see how unfounded Mgr's suggestion is, go to 2:39:56 on the above video and see how much the song is firmly placed in the Roman tradition of sacred music and not even a little bit impossibly sentimental.
Neither is Daniel O'Donnell. Totally not sentimental at all. (Now will you keep away from my windows, Mrs Doyle?)
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14 comments:
The Mass was not celebrated by Archbishop Marini, but by the Prefect of the Congregation for Bishops, and Papal Legate to the congress, Marc Cardinal Ouellet.
Thank you for the correction, Dom Martin. I have amended the post.
How sad, at a "Eucharistic Congress" of all things, to see that Holy Communion is distributed by lay people when there are hundreds of priests present who should be distributing Holy Communion as ordinary Ministers.
I like The Priests, but that was the one moment that they should not have been the focus of attention. Sad.
The chief problem with the music was not, for me, the admitted sentimentality of The Priests' first song (their second item was a rather nice a capella setting of Panis Angelicus, which couldn't be criticised for sentimentality*), but... Well, the following clip from an Irish newspaper before the Congress will show what I mean:
"The Priests (above) will be among the acts performing at the congress’ closing Mass, Statio Orbis, which will take place at Dublin’s Croke Park on June 17."
The singers are 'acts' who 'perform': and of course, as we saw, there was applause throughout, as when people perform, the audience claps. But the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass shouldn't be a performance: it's precisely what Pope St Pius X was trying to stop a century ago.
Isn't it ironic that the introduction of the Novus Ordo - vernacular language, everything spoken audibly by the celebrant, and so on - which was meant to ensure total participation by the congregation, lends itself so easily to such performances? (Obviously, the traditional Mass wasn't exempt from this, or St Pius wouldn't have bothered with Tra le sollecitudini.)
*I dislike the crooning-tenor style which The Priests use, but that's personal taste.
While I did get good things from some of the presentations, I admit I stopped watching the Eucharistic Congress coverage b/c I wasn't edified by a lot of the liturgical events/concerts. I honestly tried to get positive things from what I saw, but it was difficult. But I just couldn't endure it anymore and stopped. So I didn't make it to the closing event, and sadly I have to say, I'm glad I didn't.
"The most obvious "old baron" was the Papal Legate for the Congress, Archbishop Piero Marini".
Sorry Father, not true, the Legate was Cardinal Ouellet
If one needed reminding how ghastly the Novus Ordo is, look no further.
@Cathy - many of the priests in attendance, both Irish & from overseas, refused to distribute Holy Communion, despite the best efforts of the man co-ordinating the distribution. There needed to be leadership on this issue from the top, which in Dublin is the Archbishop. We might have to wait a while for that, unfortunately.
EFpastoremeritus - thanks for the correction. I made a bit of a hash of that. He is in fact President of the Commission for Eucharistic Congresses.
Have corrected the post - again!
The sad but undeniable fact is that that Mass was probably as good as it gets, by the standards of at least 95% of the liturgy celebrated in Ireland. They sang Credo III, and that will more than likely have been the first and last time that'll be heard by the majority of Irish people participating there. They thought they were pulling out all the stops for the Big Day but in reality they only revealed to concerned eyes the depths to which liturgy has sunk in this country.
However... however... the small bright star on the horizon was the Dublin Latin Mass Chaplaincy, which was an official part of the Congress. This would have been utterly impossible up to SP - and Abp. Martin is to be thanked for establishing it. I'm very grateful that I managed to make it to 2 of the splendid evening Masses there (I don't live in Dublin). Fr. Deighan's very comprehensive report is here
http://www.latinmassdublin.ie/
(if link doesn't work go to LatinMassDublin in Google)
Ahhhh!! Apologies, Fr. - correction, the Credo III was actually at the opening Mass, on Sunday 10th June, not the closing one.
A brief scan through the music programme for all the Masses is bleakly familiar to most of us involved in church choirs here in Ireland. All the usual suspects: Lecot, Dechea, Fr. Liam Lawlor (if you thought The Priests were sentimental you ain't seen nothin'), loads of Taizé. Honestly, I'm surprised "Rise and shine and give God his glory" didn't make it in, because they're mired in that era. And unfortunately they mire the rest of us therein as well. It's called "inclusivity", I'm sure. In the way quicksand can be said to be inclusive.
As a harpist who plays Celtic traditional music, these events always take my breath away (and I don't mean that as a compliment). As a schola and choir director, I was constantly implored to use music that was "upbeat" and "warmed people's hearts."
If you are saying my blog is dreadful, I plead guilty.
Hi, Christopher. Yes, tua culpa as well ;-) (Though I admit to macabre enjoyment of the recent one with the rock priest. What a berk!)
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