| It is axiomatic that nothing well-written ever comes from a committee. So, I regard as miraculous the recent report, Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church, put forth by the doctrinal watchdogs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. It is incisive, intelligent, and precise, blessedly free of political correctness, and sensitive to the relationship between the work of the intellect and the delight in beauty that God has placed within our heart. |
….Taking their lead from Archbishop Daniel Beuchlein’s 1997 report on faulty catechetical works, the bishops give us six categories of error, and they dare to name exemplary names in each category.
Deficiencies in the Presentation of Eucharistic Doctrine. This category captures the greatest number of offenders, for reasons the bishops enumerate, each having something to do with a failure to see the bread and wine as having been made the real Body and Blood of Christ, emphasizing instead our action and our feelings. Out the door go “God Is Here,” “Now in This Banquet,” “All Are Welcome,” and “Let Us Break Bread Together.”
Deficiencies in the Presentation of Trinitarian Doctrine. Most of the mischief here springs from those whom the Lord’s referring to the Father as Father sends into anaphylactic shock. “Father” and “Son” name not only relations but Persons. They are not metaphorical. My being a father is, by comparison with the Father’s essential being, analogous and derivative. Jesus never says that God is like a father. God is Father, as well as Son and Holy Spirit. They are not modes of one person. The Father is not, by Himself, the Creator. The created universe is the work of the Trinity, and so is man. Out the door go, gnashing their teeth, “The Play of the Godhead,” the common doxology beginning with “All glory be to God, Creator blest,” and “Led By the Spirit.”
Hymns with Deficiencies in the Doctrine of God and His Relation to Humans. “Language which makes it seem that God is ‘beyond all names’ is misleading, and language that makes it seem that God is dependent upon human beings or any creature is incorrect.” Into Gehenna whence it sprang goes “God Beyond All Names,” with its daft and blasphemous claim that “In our living and our dying / We are bringing you to birth.”
Hymns with a View of the Church that Sees Her as Essentially a Human Construction. News to hymnodists: the Church is Christ’s creation, not ours. He it is who makes us into stones to build up a new temple. It is a gift to us. Into the empty YMCA building across the street goes “Sing a New Church into Being.”
Hymns with Doctrinally Incorrect Views of the Jewish People. The Jews as a people did not crucify Jesus. We crucified him. Here the bishops tag those goats “The Lord of the Dance” and “O Crucified Messiah,” and send them out of the camp. The problem here is not simply anti-Judaism, as the bishops understand it. It is a failure to admit the dire consequences of Original Sin. The problem is not hierarchy or clerisy. It is the person who looks at me from the mirror.
Hymns with Incorrect Christian Anthropology. The bishops say that this category intersects with several of the others, but might also stand alone, and for an example they give these lines from “Canticle of the Sun,” a modern corruption of the hymn by Saint Francis of Assisi. “Praise for our death that makes our life real,” this version goes; “The knowledge of loss that helps us to feel.” How our editors could bear lines so transcendentally inept, I have no idea—unless it is that when it comes to poetry, they know less than did a nine-year-old boy in 1900 opening his father’s Tennyson for the first time. That aside, the bishops remind us that “death is the punishment of original sin,” and that our sloping down to die makes us less real than was Adam in his innocence. We may add that our habituation to death makes us less able to feel the goodness and beauty that animate the world.
So far, so good. We owe the bishops a debt of gratitude.
Now let me venture to apply the bishops’ method to two more problems, as I suggested above. The first is simply that of bad poetry. I do not mean poetry that fails to attain greatness. A good solid Amish chair is not a sculpture by Michelangelo. It is sturdy, workmanlike, well-crafted, and fit to accomplish its humble task. A chair with a sagging bottom, or nails sticking out of the side, or spindly legs ready to spread and crack, is not sturdy, workmanlike, well-crafted, or fit to accomplish anything. It is not a good chair. It is hardly a chair at all. Why should it be controversial to say that lousy poems do not belong in a hymnal, any more than to say that leaky pipes do not belong in your bathroom?
Almost everything in our Catholic hymnals written after 1960 is lousy as poetry, as rotten as the rusted chassis of a car that you can see the road through. I will take as a mild example the opening lines of a Eucharistic hymn that the bishops allow to pass at least for being orthodox:
Seed, scattered and sown,
Wheat, gathered and grown,
The living bread of God.
Sorry, but there is no verb in that sentence, nor do the participles as ordered make sense:
“What are you doing there, Farmer Brown?”
“Me? I’m scattering seed.”
“What are you going to do after that?”
“Well, then I’m going to sow it. Everything in proper order, you know. The scattering comes first, and the sowing comes later.”
“I see. And what happens in the end?”
“These here seeds are going to become big tall stalks of wheat. I’m going to gather up that wheat, and then I’m going to grow it.”
“I think I’m getting the idea. So that you can eat bread, and bake it?”
“Exactly! And warm my hands before the fire, and light it.”
Some minor demon in the employ of Flibbertigibbet has persuaded teachers that it isn’t poetry unless it is ungrammatical, unmusical, irrational, or all three at once. Alas, the rules that govern good prose govern good poetry too; those rules, and more.
Then there is the business of what the hymnals exclude. I collect old hymnals from a wide variety of sources. I know what is in them, and what is not in Glory N Praise: hymns that rouse to action the manly Christian soldier; hymns of deep repentance for sins, our sins, and not the conveniently imputed sins of other people; hymns that present dramatically some event in the history of salvation and of the Church; hymns of awe before the holiness of God, or that celebrate some specific and magnificent revelation of his glory: No hymn at all like “Soldiers of Christ, Arise,” very few hymns like “Ah, Holy Jesus,” no hymn like “Blessed Feasts of Blessed Martyrs,” very few hymns like “O Wondrous Type.”
It is all white cake with pink icing. Even when such a thing is cooked all the way through and is not laced with arsenic, still, a diet of white stuff with pink icing does not a healthy body make.
The above comes from a Dec. 22 article by Anthony Esolen in Crisis Magazine. Esolen is a professor at Magdalene College and the author of Sex and the Unreal City (Ignatius Press, 2020.)
In regards to the ending paragraphs; People that can find no good music after the age they have time locked on to are either devoid of the ability to recognize true beauty or they are intellectually dishonest.
That being said the Bishops did us a favor killing these mentioned songs.
The Catholic music publishing industry of Oregon Catholic Press and GIA is corrupt and wicked. All of the following information about their major composers is publicly verifiable. These people’s songs shouldn’t be sung by Catholics, yet they constitute at least half of what is sung:
David Haas: revealed this summer to have been a sexual predator who used his star-status as a composer to seduce and abuse Catholic women
Marty Haugen: close associate of David Haas; isn’t Catholic; has expressed beliefs contrary to Catholic faith
Lori True: close associate of David Haas; writes songs about ecology and with left-wing social justice lyrics
Ray Repp: recently deceased; influential composer in the 70s; left the seminary and married another man, i.e., was in a gay same-sex union
Dan Schutte: part of the St. Louis Jesuits; left the Jesuits
Sarah Hart: composes praise and worship music for OCP; has supported gay causes on her facebook page
Both publishers, OCP and GIA, are managed by people whose facebook posts reveal them to be ardent left-wingers who support everything Democrat, BLM, LGBT and now racist “antiracist” ideology.
Don’t support their music. Don’t support their business. Don’t sing their songs. Don’t buy their music.
Ray Repp just passed away in April. May God rest his soul. I’m sad at the lifestyle he chose, but I did like his MASS FOR YOUNG AMERICANS.
Beauty is in the eyes [or ears] of the beholder. I continue to think some felt Gregorian Chant was too avant garde when it started out.
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How about Bishops going after bad Bishops, or is that asking too much of them?
I was a music major in college, and studied Sacred Choral music of my Church, in depth — all eras. Church music is written only to serve the needs of the Catholic Church, and the theology must be very correct, in all creative endeavors. Also, the music must be sacred in character — no “pop” music of the secular world, is appropriate! Yes — just like you can get a degree in any other subject — there are degrees given to properly prepare you to be Director of Music, at a Catholic church. Since Vatican II, the Church has “dumbed down” many things, which is so tragic — and has opened the doors to the Godless secular world– a huge mistake. Anyway — the non-intellectual Catholic guy in the pew who worked in a mill, or in carpentry, brick-laying, construction, or in the mines, or ran a small farm, (etc.) with only a couple of years of formal education (like Abraham Lincoln) more than 100 years ago — could understand much more than he ever was given credit for. He could learn his Latin responses, and be proud to be an altar boy, and he could learn his Catechism in detail — and teach it to all his children. He loved his Church, and was so proud of it. He did not need the Church to insult him, by “dumbing things down,” after the Council. He, too, wanted a very excellent Church, with an excellent Mass, and priests he could look up to, and be proud of– to help him get to Heaven. And Latin? Was that a problem? No. Are you kidding me? Many average working-class immigrants, with little education — could already speak several languages fluently. It is the highly-educated, intellectual clerics in top Church positions, who are often extremely “out-of-touch” with reality, and grab “gimmicks” instead of our True Faith. And aren’t really interested in us laymen in the pews, anyway.
Before the Council, there was a strict set of protocols and lists for Catholic Sacred Muisic, for all Catholic church musicians to follow. You could not include any non-Catholic Sacred Music from Protestant sources, it was all forbidden. In a few rare cases, in a mixed-marriage Wedding (of a Protestant and a Catholic) perhaps the Bride or Groom might petition the Pastor of the parish church where the Wedding was scheduled to take place, or the local Bishop, to allow for a special, non-Catholic musical piece to be included, for the couple’s Wedding– but the answer to that, in most cases, was almost always a flat “No.” That is because our religion is holy, it is from Christ, the theology is precise– and must be resbypected.
Sorry for the typo on my last line of the above post! It should read “— and must be respected.”
You’re right, Catholic theology must be respected. I’m curious though. So, were “A MIghty Fortress is our God” and “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” never sung in church prior to the Second Vatican Council?
What if Luther and Wesley wrote something that was consistent with Catholic theology (which seems possible because, though a heretic and wrong on some points, Luther was trained as a Catholic priest and the Wesleys were Anglicans, without valid sacraments, but none-the-less, not wrong about everything).
Your insight?
Deacon Anderson, I think the Anons at 8:11 a.m. and 11:16 a.m. Christmas Day were mostly right. Catholics learned Protestant hymns or carols in public schools or at other concerts, but not in any Catholic church or Catholic school. There might have been rare exceptions. They were told before Vatican II not to pray along with non Catholics when they attended their weddings or funerals, but to remain respectful without joining in on prayers or hymns in order to avoid heresy and scandal. It is still the usual advice.
And in regard to my last reply I wish a blessed St. Stephen’s Day to Deacon Anderson and all the Catholic deacons out there.
Deacon Anderson– Before Vatican II, the Catholic Church was very strict about every little thing, and absolutely nothing Protestant was ever allowed into the Church. Including Protestant music. We had an entirely different Mass, anyway, and a Protestant hymn would simply not fit anywhere in the liturgy. Impossible. The theology was very correct, in every detail, and musicians always had a strict set of rules and protocols to follow. There was no such thing as making personal decisions on things. The theology, church structure, and overall beliefs about liturgy and worship, varied with each Protestant denomination. You know– many religious leaders today, are very sloppy, but a long time ago, every little thing used to matter, to religious believers. Liturgical music was written strictly with that in mind– although various Protestant denominations did borrow church music from each other, if it fit their needs appropriately. Did you know, there was a short time in England (1647), when a Presbyterian group got into power, tried to get rid of the Anglican Church– and because that sect of Presbyterians didn’t believe in celebrating Christmas and other holidays– they were more “Puritanical”– lots of people got arrested for breaking the rules, and celebrating Christmas anyway? So funny, but true. Later, the Presbyterian group got thrown out, and the Anglican Church was restored. And the townspeople were all so thankful, that they could again celebrate Christmas, without breaking the law. Puritans in America didn’t celebrate Christmas either. Instead, for them, it was a very solemn day of strict fasting and prayer. They thought that religious celebrations were “pagan,” “too Pope-ish,,” “un-Biblical,” and invited carousing, drinking, and immorality.
I often have the opportunity to compare the music at my very large, population-wise Catholic church and my wife’s, Lutheran Church in the next city over. Ours is led by a part-time music director, who has a mediocre voice at best, who plays the piano, leads the horrible six-voice choir in songs that nobody wants to sing. My wife’s church has a full-time Music Director with a Masters’s degree in piano and choral music. His Assistantusic Director has a degree in music. The organist has a Ph.D. in music and teaches part-time at a local college. The main choir is about 30 voices, the contemporary choir is about 20 voices and there are twenty or so in the kid’s choir. This is a church of only 500 families. The most attended Christmas Eve service and the Easter morning service almost always begin with a presentation by the choir and a small orchestra of the Halleluia Chorus. You get what you pay for. The Catholic parish is in a very affluent suburb and the other church in mid-town of a small city.
In Protestant churches, the liturgical decisions come originally from the denomination’s top leaders, who make decisions on music and liturgy, according to their denomination’s particular beliefs. Some are more structured than others.
Many Protestant denominations dating back to the Reformation, or just dating back a couple of centuries, have lots of lovely, traditional Protestant music and liturgy, with the words and music also controlled by their leaders, to fit the beliefs of their denomination. Martin Luther wrote lots of hymns, and the founders of the Methodist church in America– Revs. John and Charles Wesley– also wrote lots of beautiful hymns. The Episcopal Church had an outstanding hymnal, of the year 1940, known widely for its excellence. Their denomination went through massive changes, too, in the 1970s– very tragic, to my way of thinking! Some Lutheran branches have also gone through big changes. In our Church, Vatican II dealt a serious blow to our Sacred Tradition, including Catholic music and liturgy. I have a friend, a soprano, from Leipzig, Germany (J.S. Bach’s hometown) who has a permanent lifetime membership in the Choir at Bach’s church, St. Thomas, over 800 years old, which once was a Catholic church. Her choir was once the same one directed by J.S. Bach, for which he wrote outstandingly-beautiful sacred choral music! Bach was the organist and Choir director, and taught at the boys’ school there, also, and directed the boychoir, for the church. As we know– Germany was once divided, and my friend grew up in difficult circumstances, in Communist-controlled East Germany, where Leipzig is located. Communists are notorious for their atheism, and rigid control and persecution of churches.
Music at Catholic parishes is horrible at least 80% of the time.
You are being too generous by 15%.
It is horrible 95% of the time.
Frank and Anonymous– Yes, that is true. And many Catholic churches of today, are deliberately built in horrible, ugly, un-sacred, “modernist” styles!
David Haas, whose ditties once grated upon Catholic ears at Mass is no longer a bother. His own amorous misbehavior earned a place for his music–in the dustbin.