Free us from our musical Babylonian Captivity to the Sixties and Seventies of the last century.
And a Lot More That Should be Prohibited
- Donald R. McClarey
Donald R. McClarey
Cradle Catholic. Active in the pro-life movement since 1973. Father of three, one in Heaven, and happily married for 43 years. Small town lawyer and amateur historian. Former president of the board of directors of the local crisis pregnancy center for a decade.
I loathe the Mass of Cre(m)ation setting. The Mass of Wisdom is one I have come to appreciate.
I do enjoy the fact of David Haas’ music being banned full stop. Now if only someone could get through to my parish’s musical director on this.
Marty Haugen’s been a punchline for > 20 years now.
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I’d be pleased if the norm was to have the choir chant the ordinary and a cantor or schola chant the propers. No need for hymns. The only Roman-rite priest I’ve known inclined to arrange things that way was suspended by the Diocese of Syracuse in 2004 for disobedience and has been off the grid since.
The amount of time spent singing hymns far outstrips the amount of time “allowed” for the homily. It makes sense that there should be sound teaching instead of quasi heretical mush in the hymns. After all, what remains playing in your head after the Mass is over?
In every parish I have been part of in the past two decades, music selection is either left to a professional musician, an entrenched laywoman, or OCP’s own auto-recommendation. As far as I can see, that makes the criteria for the choice aesthetics, dubious formation, and self promotion.
True confession time: I often turn to the wrong page and sing a real hymn in my head.
It would be much easier to just toss OCP and the Missouri Jesuits. Why trim the branches when you could rip out the stump?
Amen, Bill, Josh, Art and Optimist!
And God bless Bishop McKnight. I hope he doesn’t get canceled for this.
What about Delores Dufner’s “Sing a New Church Into Being”? That’s an obvious candidate for the bonfire. Every single “St. Louis Jesuits” ditty–not necessarily on doctrinal grounds but on the grounds of being tacky and from very suspect sources. (Does anyone remember Rev. Cary whatever-his-name-is’s version of the Hail, Mary? The Tiny Tim (singer, not literary character) quaver in his voice? I shudder at the memory.)
But truth to tell, with most of the hymns (generously so called) of the last forty or fifity years, we end up saying to ourselves, “Well, we basically know what they’re trying to say, it’s just not very Catholic-sounding maybe ….”
When in doubt, rip it out! [of the hymnal and into the fire]
Almost everything from the Oregon Catholic Press should be censored and banned outright. Liberal progressive imbecility.
I am no fan of much of the current hymnal. However, I think we must be careful to distinguish songs with ambiguous, misleading or incorrect theology from songs which are simply insipid, ill suited for worship, or poor in quality.
I expect the first category to be exposed and opposed by clergy, especially bishops. As for the second category, I hope they will go unused, but that clergy will not try to oppose them. To prohibit due to a corrosive influence on faith is laudable. To be subject to the artistic taste of a bishop or bishops is less so. To equate the two is disastrous.
On the one hand, I’m with The Bruised Optimist. However, if David Haas’s hymns get caught in the crossfire, I’m with Josh on that.
There was a line from Craig Kilborn’s late-night show about a riot in Oakland CA that burned 8 city blocks and did over $20 million of improvements.
I agree wholeheartedly with the list, but PLEASE add “God Beyong All Names”! Its horrors are too numerous to list. I am a minor accompanist in our choir, and I have sat that one out ever since the words sank in.
OCP = singing songs about ourselves singing songs to a deity.