I found this article in an online "crawling" archive... I must have missed it when it came out! I think it is referring back to the concert at the Sistine Chapel when he made his now famous "Authentic Update" remark... there were three different articles, all from Australia, that were different versionsof the same report.
POPE BENEDICT has called for an end to electric guitars and modern music being played in church and has demanded a return to traditional choirs and Gregorian chants.
The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of celebrating the Mass to try to attract more people.
The recital of the Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy. In Spain, the Mass 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 annoyed Pope Benedict, who has a love of classical music.
"It is possible to modernise holy music," the Pope said at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the director of music for the Sistine Chapel.
"But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."
The shift to more traditional forms of music comes as Australian bishops have voted in principle to accept a new English translation of the Mass that the Vatican favours as being more faithful to the original Latin text.
The argument about music is part of a wider debate over whether to return to a Latin Mass. If Latin Masses are not reintroduced into common practice, few Catholics will know the words to the Latin Gregorian chants that the Pope advocates.
The Latin Mass was restricted in the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, on the grounds that it was deterring worshippers from going to Church.
Pope Benedict's conservatism is becoming more apparent, a year after his election.
The Catholic Church has been experimenting with new ways of celebrating the Mass to try to attract more people.
The recital of the Mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy. In Spain, the Mass 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 annoyed Pope Benedict, who has a love of classical music.
"It is possible to modernise holy music," the Pope said at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the director of music for the Sistine Chapel.
"But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."
The shift to more traditional forms of music comes as Australian bishops have voted in principle to accept a new English translation of the Mass that the Vatican favours as being more faithful to the original Latin text.
The argument about music is part of a wider debate over whether to return to a Latin Mass. If Latin Masses are not reintroduced into common practice, few Catholics will know the words to the Latin Gregorian chants that the Pope advocates.
The Latin Mass was restricted in the Vatican II reforms of the 1960s, on the grounds that it was deterring worshippers from going to Church.
Pope Benedict's conservatism is becoming more apparent, a year after his election.
I find this interesting because there was another article a little further down the archive from November 2006 that mentioned the possibility of a Motu Proprio on music, quoting a source "close to the Vatican"... this is the first I've ever heard of this! This was about the same time as the USCCB was proposing the "Directory for Music and the Liturgy"... I wonder if maybe there was some confusion, or if this was a leak that was then silenced... hmmm?
3 comments:
It would be useful for the Pope to issue a MP on the topic of musica sacra.
It will also be ignored, circumvented, and/or trashed immediately in the USA.
I think that the only way that the problem (bad musc) can be solved is for a definitive and "non-interpretable" statement on Sacred Music. To me, this would mean saying, for instance: "Guitars and Drums are unsuitable for use in the liturgy and therefore are never to be used" rather than "other instruments can be admitted provided they can be made suitable for worship"... whatever THAT is supposed to mean. As for the texts, I suppose that some people will alway just do what they want, but it should be clear that they are doing something WRONG and in violation of Church teaching. I know that sounds harsh, but the source of he problem is, and has been the ambiguity since Vat. II. Do you hve any idea how many times I have heard "well... there's nothing that says you can't sing Beauty and the Beast at Mass...." or some such nonsense...it would be difficult to continue for long on a path that very clearly dissents from Church teachings..
Reality check: One cannot legislate morality...
That is to say that one cannot legally 'require' others to behave properly and do what's right.
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