As my mother was dying this past October—and at age 100 and fading, she was obviously not going to be with us much longer—my greatest fear was: Would we really have to sing “Blest Are They” at her funeral Mass?
I didn’t realize at the time that this upbeat funeral favorite in “contemporary” Catholic parish music had recently been banned in many dioceses after dozens of women in 2020 accused its composer, David Haas, of sexual misconduct at a summer music program for teens that he had overseen. But that hardly mattered. There were plenty of other faux-folk post-Vatican II hymns that seem to be the standard repertoire at the Catholic funerals I’ve attended: “Be Not Afraid,” “On Eagle’s Wings,” “Here I Am, Lord.”
I dreaded all of this, but what I dreaded most was the prospect that my mother’s parish church in California wouldn’t have a choir or a music director able to handle anything else.
Many parish music directors are part-timers who love music but have little formal training. Their main familiarity with Mass music seems to come from Oregon Catholic Press (OCP), which, along with its Chicago-based competitor, GIA Publications, seems to have a lock on the distribution of the disposable paperback missalettes. The OCP has its own stable of affiliated composers, whose easy-listening religious “songs,” attuned to three-chord guitar accompaniment, typically focus on friendly feeling or social justice rather than transcendent mystery. Many Catholic Mass-goers know only the OCP offerings, and music directors in turn tend to cater to those expectations. It is a seemingly endless feedback loop that can make attending Sunday Mass in many parishes a banal and dispiriting experience: the plodding monotony of the “four hymns” mumbled by the congregation.
So as my mother’s end drew near, I sent a diplomatically worded email to Steven Ottományi, the music director at St. Andrew’s. In it I wondered politely if there could be some sung arrangements for her of, say, In paradisum, which is supposed to be the recessional hymn of the Mass of Christian Burial but is often bypassed. I love the traditional Tridentine Latin Mass but I decided to stick with the Novus Ordo for my mother. For one thing, Pope Francis had just issued his apostolic letter Traditionis custodes restricting celebration of the old rite, and I didn’t want to stir up political wasp’s nests in a parish 3,000 miles from my East Coast home. So my best hope, at a meeting I set up with Steven during what was to be my last visit to my mother, had been to adorn the Novus Ordo with as many traditional elements as pragmatically possible.
And what a surprise that meeting turned out to be! Right off, Steven, a Ph.D. candidate in medieval music at the Claremont Graduate University, informed me that there is actually a complete sung Gregorian-chant Missa pro defunctis in Latin, including an optional Dies irae Sequence (thought by most Catholics to have been abandoned after the Second Vatican Council), right in the Novus Ordo itself.
There was? I had never heard of such a thing in all my years of attending post-Vatican II funerals. But there it was, Steven showed me, its chant-notation buried in plain sight. I ordered it up, along with Maurice Duruflé’s Ubi caritas as a Communion hymn.
My mother died five weeks later, and she had, I am proud to say, the most beautiful funeral Mass I have ever attended in any rite. Attendees who had scarcely set foot inside a Catholic church in their lives commented on the beauty.
My point is that there are transformative things that can be done musically and liturgically with the Novus Ordo Mass—and that at least in some parishes they are already being done. Furthermore, there is also a small but growing body of parish music directors eager to incorporate serious and beautiful traditional sacred music into Sunday Masses, as well as a small but growing body of Catholic composers writing new sacred music that is also serious and beautiful, including entire sung Masses.
On Saturday, Nov. 6, 2021, the Benedict XVI Institute and the Archdiocese of San Francisco sponsored a “Requiem Mass for the Homeless,” a Mass mourning and reminding attendees of the human dignity of the lost and often mentally ill and drug-addicted who live and die on the San Francisco streets, especially in the crime-beset Tenderloin District not far from the archdiocese’s Cathedral of St. Mary of the Assumption. San Francisco’s Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone was the celebrant, as he had been at two previous Masses for the homeless in 2018 and 2019. The rite was Novus Ordo….
The hundreds who attended the Mass included San Francisco civic officials, many of them non-Catholics, and a large contingent from the Church’s social-justice wing, which isn’t known for its interest in musical or liturgical conservatism. But there they were, under the spell of La Rocca’s music and the dignity and reverence of Archbishop Cordileone’s celebration of the Mass—all for the sake and the souls of lost and despised human beings.
The most moving moment aesthetically and emotionally was the post-Communion interlude, La Rocca’s haunting arrangement, nearly 7 minutes long, of the Latin antiphon O vos omnes: “O all you who walk by on the road, pay attention, and see if there is any sorrow like my sorrow.” The antiphon, its scriptural text from the Lamentations of Jeremiah, is most often associated with Good Friday—but here the association was with the misery of the homeless, shunned and ignored by passers-by on the sidewalks; their sufferings joined the sufferings of Christ on the cross. La Rocca’s composition recalled the famous setting of Jeremiah’s words by the sixteenth-century composer Tomás Luis de Victoria—but it was also strikingly original. Among the hundreds listening to it that Saturday morning, “there was absolute silence,” veteran Stanford music professor William Mahrt recalled afterwards at a Mass-related panel at the archdiocese’s St. Patrick’s Seminary in Menlo Park. “You could hear a pin drop,” Mahrt said. Everyone there was completely taken out of themselves….”
The above comes from a Jan. 31 posting on the site of the Benedict Institute by Charlotte Allen. Allen is executive editor of Catholic Arts Today.
Been using this music for some time in our NO cathedral parish…they do pack ’em in there. The NO can be every bit as beautiful as the EF and everyone benefits.
And the 1962 Missal is supposed to be phased out of use anyway. Glad to hear you have a parish that is celebrating the new Mass beautifully. There’s no need for the obsolete old Mass anymore.
“There’s no need for the obsolete old Mass anymore.” It will be around long after you are gone and the Novus Ordo is abrogated
“And the 1962 Missal is supposed to be phased out of use anyway” yeah but it wont be.. bet on it
While it may not be someone’s preferred choice of a song for a funeral, I’m unaware with anything specifically wrong with On Eagle’s Wings and am wondering why there’s an implication that it should be avoided. It’s Scripturally based and I didn’t detect any heresy in it. If I’m missing something specific about why that song is not appropriate for a funeral, please enlighten me. Thank you.
(Or, is the objection to all relatively contemporary church music?) The Benedict XVI Institute does excellent work for the Church. But, it doesn’t need to be pitted against the works of others. Of course, lyrics and music matter. Yet, matters of personal preference should not divide us. Otherwise, we risk becoming “cafeteria Catholics.” Catholic unity does not mean uniformity.
My 90 year old mother requested “On Eagles Wings” to be sung at her funeral.
Did you (or will you) honor her request?
If someone finds an appropriate song comforting, I will not try to dissuade them from that song, even if it’s not my preferred choice of a hymn.
My point, this song is not something that should divide Catholics. Maybe I’ve endured too many years of liturgical music “wars.” There are serious scandals and sins in the Church that need to be addressed. Heretical or lilty (or banjo) songs shouldn’t be used. But, the preferred choice of any one of us isn’t the issue.Those planning their own funerals or families working with pastors won’t all make the same choices. If battling On Eagles Wings is an issue that you think is worth fighting over, I fear you may be missing a more important issue. Pray and work for the best music in church. You don’t need to criticize others for their choice of a funeral song, If your mother wants On Eagles Wings at her funeral, I recommend you respect her wishes. If she requests another appropriate hymn, I recommend you respect her wishes. Funerals are more about the deceased and their families than they are about you or me and any of us posting anonymously on California Catholic Daily.
Anonymous clergyman writes urging us to “Pray and work for the best music in the church”. If this is his thesis then everything else he writes in his 18 Feb 6.27 pm post is in tension with it. He fails to make his point straightforwardly, proffering contradictory views as equally valid—perhaps so as to offend no one. It would be better (certainly clearer) if the reverend gentleman thought through the matter, decided on a coherent, consistent approach and stuck to it.
“Is Everybody Happy?” sounds suspiciously like the arrogant and bumptious poster who loves the sound of his clacking keyboard.
anonymous clergyman, yes, her request was honored. We got to pick all the music and the readings. They give you choices.
@ anonymous clergyman – Once again, thank you for your experienced and common sense approach. Life is filled with niggling contradictions, so you are wise to know the difference.
The lyrics are based on psalm 91, so it’s okay in that respect. It’s in a musical style that imitates secular music, and that’s where most people will object to it if they object to it at all. They argue that secular sounding music should not be used at Mass, only sacred music. But the people do don’t see anything wrong with secular sounding music at Mass love On Eagle’s Wings and all the other new songs.
Let me add this unfortunately omitted coda to my 10:59 am post. There is absolutely nothing theologically incorrect in hymns like “On Eagles’ Wings, “Here I Am, Lord”, “Blest Are They” and “Be Not Afraid”. The problem is not the text but their low level of musical quality and the sappy way they are performed. Not worthy of a celebration in which Jesus gives Himself to us as really present in His body, blood, soul and divinity. As an analogy, would a respectful invitee wear jeans and a torn T-shirt to a White House State dinner?
anonymous clergyman post @ 17 Feb, 9.38 am
This post confuses me.
“anonymous clergyman” writes that “Catholic unity does not mean uniformity”. Of course not; whoever said it did? In fact the article’s author requested only that his own mother’s funeral be honored by his legitimate music preferences. This is imposing uniformity?
“anonymous clergyman” doubles down: “[w]e risk becoming ‘cafeteria Catholics'” if we wish to raise the banal quality of most music sung at the Eucharist in the Latin Church. Cafeteria Catholics?? His use of the phrase is inapt. The phrase refers to picking and choosing among Church DOCTRINES, not musical styles. But if we accept his distorted meaning, we are ALREADY Cafeteria Catholics: we belong to one Catholic Church comprised of umpteen sui juris Churches, each Catholic and each with its own venerated liturgical music and traditions. And so his point is–???
Let’s give the anonymous clergyman the benefit of the doubt: maybe he didn’t think very long or hard before posting.
Yes, the NO doesn’t have to be a folk music jamboree. But, parishes need to get music directors who have a real music educational background. Too many pastors say they can’t afford a “real” music director. Not true, if they teach the parish about stewardship. There is no excuse for bad music at Mass. We are better off without bad folk or bad chant.
Finally! A turn-around–at least in one place–from “liturgical” music more fittingly described as campground, hootenanny or karaoke. Many of us would welcome a return to music adding reverence to the Mass (and I’m not talking golden oldies of the “Mother Dearest, Mother Fairest” genre) rather than Mass-as-showcase-for-guitar strumming and crooning? The author of this article honored his mother by arranging for her a funeral rich in authentic Catholic tradition. And God bless the music director who helped him and supported his efforts.
Do OCP or GIA ever try to defend themselves? Or do they not need to defend themselves because they have the Catholic music market cornered? Just wondering what OCP thinks of its own music. Does OCP think its music is truly what the Church should be singing? Or is it just the best they can do and they are pretending it’s for the good of the Church because their livelihoods depend on keeping up the charade? I know I cringe when I hear the new OCP music performed at Mass, usually performed badly. And performed is the word because the people don’t sing those songs. I hate having my ears assaulted by a post menopausal woman cantor singing the latest OCP song into the mic that she thinks will bring youth back to the church.
I can tell within thirty seconds of listening and a glance at the music programmed for Mass whether a “music director” has any business leading music at Mass. There is about a 90% failure rate according to my standards.
If there’s a rock drum set in the music area, I can tell immediately that the music program is a bad one.
OCP is trying to become a Christian pop music record label instead of a liturgical music publisher. They are misusing their influence in the church to push their signed artists’ pop songs on parishes by publishing those songs in hymnals, and musicians who lead Mass music who don’t know any better think the songs are cool so they play them. That’s why so many Masses seem like concerts instead of prayer.
All of this nonsense has been brought to you by the “spirit of Vatican 2″… a failure that will never be admitted to
At my mother’s funeral, i told the choir what hymns were to by played, Panis Angelicus Ave Maria etc. I basically threated music director if he decided not to follow my orders
OCP is in the Portland Archdiocese, where Archbishop Sample rules. I thought Sample wanted good music in church.
This is music you are likely to hear at your OCP parish this Sunday, based on OCP’s recommendations:
Entrance: All Are Welcome
Preparation: Hold On to Love
Communion: Be Not Afraid
Sending Forth: Go Make a Difference
Religious “pop” music, such as what is published by OCP and GIA, does not properly belong in the sacred Catholic liturgy. In past centuries, when “pop” music of the day was at times re-arranged with sacred words, and used carelessly and wrongfully in our holy Mass, it was eventually banned and discarded by Church authorities. Someday, in today’s post-Conciliar era– the Vatican will get around to doing this, again.
You can see the list of hymns online. There are a lot of good hymns.
I hate to be a smarty pants but if you think those songs are pop music…OK Boomer.
You have no professional knowledge of the field of Catholic music and liturgy. Professionals in this field must be leaders for the Catholic faithful. No, the 1960s post-Conciliar pop religious songs do not qualify as Catholic hymns, correct for use in the Mass. They will eventually be discarded and forgotten.
How telling, and sad, really … the incredible amount of work it takes to make the novus ordo missae resemble the true and venerable Roman Catholic Mass.