Tuesday, June 09, 2015

The Cardinal v. The Catholic Musician

Yah, well, stuff happens.  But it happens for a reason.

...While Archbishop Chaput is a well-respected and highly articulate theological conservative – as well as a gifted homilist – he has never been known for liturgical traditionalism. This author recalls his time spent in Denver, where Abp. Chaput’s masses were often accompanied by a well-rehearsed but aesthetically deficient contemporary band. The kind of music presented on these occasions rarely reflected the wishes of the Church regarding proper liturgical fare....

,,, it seems that outside of the small community of competent musical authorities, few Catholics – let alone their clergy – seem cognizant of the fact that musical choices in the Mass are anything but a “matter of taste.”...

No doubt about it, and the author has more, which is dead-on:

....The “tyranny of taste” is part of the “dictatorship of relativism,” each boiling over, often with disastrous results, into the Church’s liturgical life. This situation is made worse by a strong lack of seminary education on Catholic liturgical music and aesthetics, along with a general attitude which precludes the competent Church musician’s natural authority in such matters. At the very least, a pastor or bishop should know that the Church has specific wishes in regards to music in the liturgy, and be able to hire a well-trained music director to execute the Church’s vision. The pastor or bishop should also be willing to consult with – and when appropriate,  defer to – the director’s long developed specialty. In the case of Mr. Romeri, we have just such a specialist whose clear, Catholic aesthetic vision seems to have been senselessly pushed aside....

We see that lack of education and blindness far more often than we should from priests.  In most cases, the result is nested in "hire cheap or free" musicians.  Most often, those musicians have no clue about Actual Liturgical Music.  IOW, it's a classic case of the blind leading the blind AND being led by the blind, too.

Oh, well.  No one promised you a rose garden.

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