Neuhaus on the Nationals Park Mass: "For Benedict, aesthetics is never mere aesthetics"

Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus caused quite a ruckus with his "somewhat critical" remarks about the way Mass was celebrated at Washington National's Park on EWTN. In "Benedict and Beauty" (First Things' "On the Square" April 25, 2008) he responds to his critics:

Where to begin? The matter of taste—or, if you will, aesthetics—enters into it, no doubt. But the problem with the way the liturgy and music was handled is that it focused attention on the gathered people and the performers rather than on what Christ is doing in the Eucharist. It was a display of preening multiculturalism that proclaimed, “Look at us wonderfully diverse people exhibiting our wonderfully diverse talents!” I should add that this was the impression more powerfully conveyed on television, which was what I saw from the broadcast studio. Some people who were in the stadium and participating in the Mass tell me they hardly noticed the sundry musical performances, except as a vague background noise. They were the fortunate ones.

No doubt there are many parishes where people regularly suffer worse than what was perpetrated at Nationals Park. For the most part it was bad music competently performed. But one expects better, one expects much better, at a papal Mass. Especially when the pope is one who has been so very explicit in his views on liturgical and musical practices. ...

To those who dismiss his remarks as a merely aesthetic dispute, Neuhaus cites a strikingly applicable excerpt from Ratzinger's Feast of Faith. He concludes:

I do not wish to be too hard on those who planned the celebration at Nationals Park. It was, sad to say, not unrepresentative of much Catholic worship in our time. The planners and the performers no doubt meant well, but it is worthy of remark that at a papal Mass there was so much that reflected an ignorance of, or defiance of, the very considered views of the pope.

Kelly Clarkson sings "Ave Maria" for Pope Benedict XVI

Further Reactions & Commentary on the Washington Mass / Mess

• To all those who protested the music, Vox Nova thinks you're a bunch of sour grapes:

  Of course, for the few hundred grumpy online Catholics full of sour grapes, there is the great multitude of faithful Catholics, who love the Pope, who love the Pope’s coming to America, and have taken in the greatness of such a wonderful event.

  At the mass, one could hear non-Catholic protesters with loudspeakers. They were trying to interrupt the mass. Online, we had Catholic trying to do the same. Since both thought they knew the way of faith greater than the Pope, can someone tell me what separates the two of them?

• "Latin Rite Catholics should be spared from appeals to rank tribalism", says Rich Leonardi (Ten Reasons):

  I'm blessed with an extended family that traces its ancestral roots to at least three continents. The notion that my African-American niece should automatically feel an affinity for Jazz, or my Asian-American sister-in-law ought to perk up over a prayer given in Tagalog, is offensive and condescending. It is no different than a parish worship commission asking me, an Italian-American, if I would like to see a performance of the Tarantella at the next Mass.

• Fr. Rob Johansen (Thrown Back) reigns in some of the more strident protestors (and dispels a few conspiracy theories alog the way):

  Firstly, I was taken aback by the sheer violence and passion of the reaction from the supporters of the Reform of the Reform and Traditional liturgy. I'm not here speaking so much of Shawn Tribe and the people at NLM, nor of Fr. Zuhlsdorf at "What Does the Prayer Really Say?". Their commentary has been measured and quite insightful. No, I am speaking of the many commentors at both sites (Some 300 at NLM alone!). I gathered from many of the comments on the above mentioned sites that people were shocked and surprised by what they saw and heard. I can't see why anyone should have been surprised - the music selected for the Mass was announced almost three weeks ago. I don't get the shock: the organizers of the DC Mass reveled three weeks ago that they intended to present a mish-mash, or, again in Fr. Neuhaus' inimitable words, a "liturgical stew". And that's precisely what they did.

• "Critics vs. the critics of the critics", by the Cranky Conservative:

  I recognized that the music was . . . not good. It didn’t escape my attention. But I am learning as time goes on not to let that sort of thing bother me. We can’t be critics while we’re at Mass. It’s not a performance - it’s Mass. Sure, there are some who seemingly want to make it more of a performance, but those are battles to be fought at other times. Quite frankly I was much more bothered by the idiots shouting into their megaphones about the whore of Babylon than I was by the awkward musical setting of the responsorial psalm. It was much more saddened by the hatred I was hearing outside than the perhaps awkward expressions of love I was hearing inside.

  That said, I can certainly sympathize with the critics, especially those who feel that the musical selections were a complete slap in the face to the Pope. I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt and hope that those who planned the Mass were in no way really trying to “send a message.” We don’t know that the Pope was displeased. I’m sure he knew what to expect. And even though the Pope prefers a more traditional setting - as do I - I’m sure he was and is ecstatic to see so many joy-filled and faithful Catholics joined together. In a world where so much is going wrong, 50,000 people getting together and joining in the Eucharist is an occasion for joy, no matter what might be blaring over the loudspeakers.

  In the long run, liturgy matters. It is not inappropriate to have a discussion about the liturgy and the musical selections and other things which do detract from the full meaning of our liturgy. It’s certainly questionable as to whether multilingual Masses do more to fracture than to unite us. . . .

  I guess this is all a long way of saying that while I was moved and uplifted by the Papal Mass, we can’t ignore the deeper issue of how we celebrate the Holy Eucharist in America. Asking that any discussion be civilized and respectful should go without saying. Sadly, it will probably go without so doing.

Some quick thoughts:

• With regards to how the liturgy ought to be performed and also in terms of the musical selections, we have over a decade of writings from Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger to draw from, most prominent of which is The Spirit of the Liturgy).
• Certain aspects of the Nationals Park Mass fell far, far short of what the Holy Father probably would have desired (therein lies the motivation for the more reasonable of the complaints).
• As Msgr. Marini indicated last month, while cognisant of what was being done, the Vatican opted to take a "hand's off" approach:

  Early in the planning process for a papal trip, the monsignor said, his office sends the local church a set of guidelines, which is “substantially the same” as the set developed during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

  “A few small things were modified to reflect the liturgical attitudes of Pope Benedict,” he said; they include a request that a crucifix be placed on the altar for eucharistic celebrations, that concelebrating priests be as close to the altar as possible and that the offertory gifts be limited to the bread, wine and charitable gifts.

  Msgr. Marini said the Vatican did not dictate the choice of music and hymns for the U.S. liturgies.

  One could speculate as to why Marini chose not to assert more control over what was chosen — in such cases, I think it’s best to relenquish top-down control to those properly delegated at the local level. As Henry points out Benedict did indeed "clap his hands" to one of the performances, but I'm not sure one could posit that this is, indeed, what he would have preferred.

  Fr. Neuhaus sums it up:

  When over the years one has been present at papal events beyond numbering, one inevitably develops a measure of critical distance in which even mildly critical comments can clash with the intense piety of many of the Catholic faithful. Anything short of all-Wow!-all-the-time is taken as a sign of insufficient enthusiasm.

Well -- apart from the music, how was the Mass?

The brief glimpses I had of the Washington Nationals Mass on television before embarking for work didn't offer much in the way of music, but according to Catholic News Service, those who arranged it had the very best of intentions:

The liturgical celebration of Pope Benedict XVI's April 17 Mass in Nationals Park reflected the diversity of Catholic heritages and sensibilities reflected in the Archdiocese of Washington, where the Mass was held.

It acknowledged both the roots of tradition and the branches that have sprouted from those roots

However, I quickly gathered something was wrong when the comments started to pour in on an earlier post from February entitled "Meet Thomas Stehle", music director for the papal mass in Washington:

Shame on you...
Chironomo | 04.17.08 - 11:50 am | #

The sensibilities of the Holy Father are no secret regarding music. Did you purposely attempt to insult him? If so shame on you indeed!
Fr. John | 04.17.08 - 11:56 am | #

The Holy Father's views on sacred music and the liturgy are well-known. I am deeply disappointed that he was subjected to such banal music.
Luke | 04.17.08 - 12:13 pm | #

I feel ill after listening to that travesty that was the music.
Demo | 04.17.08 - 12:48 pm | #

... and so on and so forth. Well, it appears that the worst fears of The New Liturgical Movement were confirmed today. Amy Welborn describes the experience thus in her Open Nationals Stadium Liturgy Thread:

The core problem with this liturgy was that it had such a heavy performance vibe to it. Commenters have called it a “review” and I think that’s apt. I don’t want to make the multiculturalism the center of any critique myself. I don’t think that’s the point. The point is that, for example, after the Holy Father intoned the Doxology at the end of the Eucharistic Prayer, what happened next? A solemnly chanted “Amen” fitting in with what he had just done?

No - we get freakin’ trumpets - the same trumpets that preceded all three of the Mass parts used from the Mass of Creation.

There was a bombastic, almost frenzied sensibility, as various musical styles were pulled in, Cantor A was replaced by Cantor B and every Mass part had to be introduced by overwhelming musical stylings of someone.

I am not sure how, exactly, one could pull of a Mass in a stadium with 50,000 or so people without making it big in this sense. I don’t know if there is a bigness possible that would pull everyone present into the ritual while at the same time respecting the fact that this is the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass, not Talent Night At St. Hippodrome’s. Someone can, perhaps enlighten me on that score.

(As a Hispanic Catholic added from her combox: "I’m frankly rather tired of finding that everywhere in the US, the only music in Spanish used during Mass sounds like it belongs in a salsa club").

Blogging at The New Liturgical Movement", Jeffrey Tucker described the music as "the end of an era" and pulled no punches in their remarks:

It was to the grave embarrassment of all American Catholics that the music employed at the papal Mass at the Nationals stadium in Washington, D.C., not only represented a repudiation of everything that this pope has written on music appropriate to Mass. We can go further to say that there is no robust tradition of liturgical scholarship that is capable of defending what happened, and that is because it is indefensible. ...

In the name of "multiculturalism," the Pope was subjected to music more suitable to dingy dance halls than Churches. The Psalms of David were distorted to the point of ear-splitting dissonance. The congos, pan flutes, meringue rhythms, the jazz and blues and rock, the swaggering vocals, the puffed-up soloing, went beyond even the most pessimistic predictions.

Indeed, when Marty Haugen's Mass of Creation finally came on at the Sanctus, it was a moment of dignity—so much so that I want to take back all my negative comments back when I thought that this Mass setting was unsuitable for a Papal Mass. I don't think anyone knew before this what the phrase "unsuitable" could really mean.

I personally feel the greatest hurt toward American Catholics of diverse races and ethnicities, who have been quite viciously caricatured here. How wounded they must personally feel by this presentation done in their name.

If anything, today's experience was a vindication of Cardinal Ratzinger's call for "a new Liturgical Movement." The post -- worth reading in full -- concludes with a "call to arms" from Pope Benedict XVI himself:

When the community of faith, the world-wide unity of the Church and her history, and the mystery of the living Christ are no longer visible in the liturgy, where else, then, is the Church to become visible in her spiritual essence? Then the community is celebrating only itself, an activity that is utterly fruitless. And, because the ecclesial community cannot have its origin from itself but emerges as a unity only from the Lord, through faith, such circumstances will inexorably result in a disintegration into sectarian parties of all kinds - partisan opposition within a Church tearing herself apart. This is why we need a new Liturgical Movement, which will call to life the real heritage of the Second Vatican Council.

More from Fr. John Zuhlsdorf; Fr. Ray Blake ("How blessed one is being a priest, I would be tempted to lapse inside a year if I had to endure this stuff week after week, how the laity are tortured by the clergy!"); Carl Olson (who adds: "Yet another reason I am thankful to be able to attend a Byzantine Catholic parish. We don't have fights about who plays guitar, or how many people should be in the orchestra. There are no instruments").

Catholic Conservation invites his readers to express their sentiments to the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (via their own blog) concerning the music selections for the Papal Mass in Washington, DC -- but it may be in vain:

There is no question that anger, even fury, is palpable. The USCCB has been deleting comments from its own website. Fr. Richard J. Neuhaus, in his running commentary on EWTN, expressed astonishment. The blogs are overflowing with bitter comments...

Not everybody's complaining, however:

what a splendid event this was — great music, faultless presentation. Fabulous, cool weather and sunny skies didn't hurt, either.

And in the midst of a baseball field at that. The pitcher's mound was demurely enclosed by a white fence; home plate was covered by the archdiocesan shield.

The one blot: Coffee was either not ready at the concession stands or they ran out early.

* * *

Amy Welborn reigns in the combox critics with some sage advice:

1) We should, as much as we can, drawing on the Holy Spirit, resist the temptation to view the Mass from a critic’s standpoint. It is destructive. No one knows this better than those involved in Church ministry, and not only liturgical ministers. It is a temptation for anyone whose relationship with the Church, the parish or the diocese is that of employee or professional volunteer. We evaluate, we judge, we have meetings afterwards in which we assess. ...

2) HOWEVER. Despite that - and with that constantly in mind, it is fine to spend time evaluating a liturgy. To do so in charity, respectful of persons and the work they put into the event, to be sure. But the Mass is not anything. It is Something. And the form of the Mass should express that Something as much as humanly possible. There is a degree of subjectivity involved, but actually not as much as we might think. Particularly in this case, when we have a pope who has written extensively on liturgy, whose views are well-known, and whose liturgical priorities as pope are also no secret. It is fair to compare what happened today with the principles of Catholic liturgy as well as the Pope’s own writing. That’s fair. ...

So keeping all of those realities in balance, I think it is fine to discuss a liturgy like this as long as we don’t let it dominate our sense of the event, overwhelming the Pope’s own call to unity in the Church for the sake of a more powerful, Christ-centered presence in the world.

Homework

• Music and the Liturgy Joseph Ratzinger | From The Spirit of the Liturgy
• Cardinal Ratzinger on Liturgical Music | Michael J. Miller (July 2000; Homiletic & Pastoral Review

Washington Post on the "Liturgy Wars" and the Benedict Generation

"Between Medieval And Folk, Two Mass Audiences" Hank Stuever of the Washington Post takes a look at the "liturgical music wars":

Imagine a bizarro world where all the 25-year-olds want Mozart and all the 60-year-olds want adult-contemporary. The kids think the adults are too wild. The backlash against "Kumbaya Catholicism" has anyone under 40 allegedly clamoring for the Tridentine Mass in Latin, while the old folks are most sentimental about Casual Sunday (even more rockin', the Saturday vigil Mass), and still cling to what's evolved from the lite-rock guitar liturgies of the 1970s. The result, for most parishes, has been decades of Masses in which no one is entirely satisfied, and very few enjoy the music enough to sing along.

"The great majority [of Catholics] are totally inert at Mass," says Thomas Day, 65, a humanities and music professor at Salve Regina University in Newport, R.I. Day wrote a book called "Why Catholics Can't Sing: The Culture of Catholicism and the Triumph of Bad Taste," which is often cited by those who'd like to see a return to Mass music that is to them more sacred. "Most Catholics have either forgotten or never knew traditional music," Day says.

The great enemy in the Benedict era? Why, somehow, it's Sister and her guitar.

Will Pope Benedict appreciate his own rock concert?

Karin Zeitvogel touches on something that I've beem mulling over as well -- the glaring discrepancy between Benedict's own musical tastes and the musical program planned for the youth rally ( Pop meets pope: US readies rock star welcome for Benedict XVI Associated Press, April 10, 2008):

WASHINGTON (AFP) - When Pope Benedict XVI visits the United States next week, the conservative octogenarian will be regaled with a welcome befitting a rock star, which is odd, considering his well-known distaste for pop culture.

Teens at a Virginia high school have produced a video for the papal visit that opens to flashes of photographs of the pope and Rome, underpinned by a staccato drumbeat.

The students' video will be shown on a big screen at a mass, expected to be attended by 47,000 people, in Washington's new baseball stadium on April 17.

Benedict particularly dislikes rock music, which he denounced at an international conference in 1986 when he was still Cardinal Ratzinger, as a "vehicle of anti-religion."

In 2000, he slammed rock music as "the expression of elemental passions" which "assumes a cultic character, a form of worship in opposition to Christian worship" at rock concerts.

"People are released from themselves by the experience of being part of a crowd and by the emotional shock of rhythm, noise, and special lighting effects."

Yet the mass for 55,000 people that Benedict will preside over at New York's Yankee Stadium on April 20, the last day of his tour, is being produced by Stig Edgren, who has put together concerts for the likes of pop icons Cher, Gloria Estefan, and Earth, Wind and Fire.

The article's criticism is a bit harsh, but I think it also raises a legitimate point -- as we've seen in prior postings to this blog, not all are happy with the chosen musical selection at the Washington National's Mass, which they believe runs counter to Benedict XVI's own preferences and opinions of what ought to constitute liturgical music as conveyed in his many writings on the subject. The notion of a "rock concert for the Pope" -- or perhaps more accurately, a rock concert for Catholic youth, with the Pope in attendance? -- does raise similar concerns.

To what extent will the 20,000 youth attending get an understanding of Benedict's own thoughts on (and appreciation for) music?

• Benedict’s Mozart: What the Pope Learned From His Favorite Composer, by Father Andreas Kramarz, LC. National Catholic Register September 18, 2007.
• Pope Benedict XVI, Mozart and the Quest of Beauty, by Mark Freer. AD2000. April 2006
• As for the Pope's critical references to rock music, they are found in an address given by Ratzinger on "Liturgy to Church Music", to the VIII International Church Music Congress in Rome, November 17, 1985. It was printed Sacred Music 112 (1986, pp. 13-22), and also in <A New Song for the Lord (NY: Crossroad, 1995). [document in PDF format]

New York's papal events feature Pope's German classical favorites

The Journal News' Georgette Gouveia profiles Jennifer Pascual, St. Patrick cathedral's music director and supervisor of music for the papal visit in New York city. The article begins with a description of what is an unfortunately all too common sight at contemporary Catholic parishes:

It's got to be the bane of any church organist-music director's existence - the faithful beating a hasty retreat to the parking lot before the final hymn. But Jennifer Pascual - who has a devilish sense of humor for one who works in sacred music - isn't worried about that happening when she conducts the music for Masses at St. Patrick's Cathedral and Yankee Stadium on April 19 and 20, respectively. Both services are, after all, being held in honor of Pope Benedict XVI.

"There'll be no cutting out after Communion," she says. . . .

The musical program devised by Pascal includes a good number of the Holy Father's favorite classical composers:

In selecting the music for the pope's visit, Pascual worked closely with her current boss, Egan.

"Because this is a papal visit, and the pope is from Germany, we wanted to target German-speaking composers," she says. "At the same time, we've tried to make it people-friendly."

The result is a mix of classical and contemporary favorites as well as lesser-known German works. At the cathedral, the faithful will recognize Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's poignant "Ave Verum" - the last work he wrote - and that rousing closer "Holy God, We Praise Thy Name" ("Grosser Gott, wir loben Dich"). But they will also hear selections from Josef Rheinberger's "Mass in C major." The Yankee Stadium Mass features Charles Gounod's "Hymnus Pontificius," the Vatican anthem; the paschal hymn "Jesus Is Risen," sung in English and Spanish; "How Lovely Is Thy Dwelling Place," from Johannes Brahms' "Ein deutsches Requiem"; and selections from Ludwig van Beethoven's "Symphony No. 9 in D minor," including the stirring finale that inspired the hymn "Joyful, Joyful, We Adore Thee," which will also close the liturgy.

St. Joseph's of Yorkville has the Johann Sebastian Bach motet "Lobet den Herrn, alle Heiden," along with the crowd-pleasing "Now Thank We All Our God" ("Nun danket alle Gott").

For the prayer meeting with disabled youths at St. Joseph's Seminary, the Cathedral of St. Patrick Young Singers will perform François Couperin's motet "Christo resurgenti" as well as "Take Lord, Receive," which the New York Archdiocesan Deaf Choir will sign. The outdoor rally will have a contemporary flavor with such post-Vatican II staples as "City of God" and "One Bread, One Body," along with Kelly Clarkson's appearance.

"A mostly wonderful list", says Jeffrey Tucker @ The New Liturgical Movement, reviewing the complete roster of the music being performed at the various events.

Related

• Jennifer Pascual page at EastWestOrganists.com

Vatican: "hands off" approach to liturgical planning for the Papal visit

Catholic News Service profiles Msgr. Guido Marini, Pope Benedict's "chief liturgist":

The papal venues in the United States are not directly under his nose, but Msgr. Guido Marini still knows every detail of the two evening prayer services and three Masses Pope Benedict will celebrate in Washington and New York April 15-20.

Msgr. Marini, 43, did not plan every element of the five U.S. services, as he does with Vatican services, although he did make suggestions and did have veto power.

In an interview in early April, the monsignor said the readings, the prayers of the faithful, the music, and the readers and servers, for the most part, are those decided by the liturgy organizers in the archdioceses of Washington and New York, who coordinated their efforts with a representative of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. ...

Early in the planning process for a papal trip, the monsignor said, his office sends the local church a set of guidelines, which is "substantially the same" as the set developed during the pontificate of Pope John Paul II.

"A few small things were modified to reflect the liturgical attitudes of Pope Benedict," he said; they include a request that a crucifix be placed on the altar for eucharistic celebrations, that concelebrating priests be as close to the altar as possible and that the offertory gifts be limited to the bread, wine and charitable gifts.

Msgr. Marini said the Vatican did not dictate the choice of music and hymns for the U.S. liturgies.

"The repertoire is rather vast," he said. "There will be Gregorian chant, polyphony and some hymns that are more popular in the American repertoire.

"I really like this variety of styles that has been prepared for the celebrations," he said.

(Further discussion at the New Liturgical Movement, which has expressed its misgivings about some of the musical selections at the event and the lack of congruity with Benedict's own liturgical and musical tastes>).

TobyMac to perform at Papal Youth Rally

Yet another artist has been added to the roster of those performing at the papal youth rally (how many do we have now? 10? 15? 50?):

Marking his third performance at an event with a Pope, TobyMac has been confirmed as a performer at a Youth Rally on April 19th at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, NY. ...

About being asked to perform before the Pope at the Rally, TobyMac commented, “It's an honor to participate in this Papal visit. Not too many artists are given this opportunity. We have great respect for the work he does.”

Kevin Michael "Toby" McKeehan -- aka. "TobyMac" -- formerly comprised one third of the popular CCM rap-group DC Talk, before launching his own solo career.

• "Dropping a Joy Bomb", by Andree Farias. Interview w/ TobyMac. ChristianMusicToday.com | Christianity Today February 2, 2007.
• MySpace.com/TobyMac

"A Singular Experience"

Singers who will perform for pope consider it a singular experience - Beth Griffin of the Catholic News Service on the diversity of artists who will perform for the Pope in Washington & New York, including pop star Kelly Clarkson, guitar virtuoso Jose Feliciano, Metropolitan Opera tenors Marcello Giordani and Salvatore Licitra, Irish singer Dana, and jazz singer Harry Connick, Jr., opera singer (among others).

Preparing for the Papal Visit (Roundup)

• Xaverian Catholic High School Band Gears Up To Play For Pope At JFK New York 1. April 3, 2008:

  It was the Brooklyn Archdiocese that selected Xaverian to participate in the papal festivities. The all-boy Catholic high school has an extensive music program with more than a quarter of its student body involved with either musical instruments or vocals. To perform for the pope, however, only 46 were chosen. The director says he had to pick the most talented and dedicated, including saxophone player Anthony Rodriguez.

  "My family is excited,” says Rodriguez. “They would never expect something like this like when I started playing in sixth grade they were like you're never going to reach that level. Nobody would expect something this big of a little thing like playing a sax."

• GEP Washington, the DC area’s top Destination Management Company, has been selected as the logistics management team for Pope Benedict XVI’s public Mass at Nationals Park in Washington, DC:

  In addition to logistics management, GEP Washington will also provide transportation for the Papal entourage; develop and operate a shuttle system to and from the ballpark for attendees; assist with design and décor; custom development of give-aways; coordinate staffing; and various other elements for the Mass.

• Deacon Carpenter Builds the Altar for Papal Mass in Washington, D.C., by Mark Zimmerman. Catholic Online. April 3, 2006:

  POOLESVILLE, MD (CNS) - For Deacon Dave Cahoon, working at his St. Joseph's Carpentry Shop on a quiet country road in Poolesville, this year's Holy Week was one like no other.

  "How awesome is this? It's Holy Thursday, and I'm working on the altar for the Eucharist, for the papal Mass. How awesome is that?" he said, smiling.

  With a hammer and chisel, the carpenter worked on a long maple board for the base of the altar that Pope Benedict XVI will use for his April 17 Mass at Nationals Park in Washington. . . .

• Newsday interviews Tom Baker of Patrick Baker & Sons Inc., of Southington, which will be supplying candles, vestments and other items for the pope's Masses in New York. Baker also supplied items for Pope John Paul II's visit in 1995, and will have the privilege of attending a smaller mass with the Pope in a chapel.

  Baker & Sons has done extensive work at St. Patrick's and at other Catholic churches in the Northeast, including renovations to bring sanctuaries into compliance with the Vatican II liturgical reforms enacted in the 1960s. Among those renovated sanctuaries were those at Most Holy Trinity Church in Wallingford and Our Lady of the Assumption Church in Woodbridge.

  "They did a fine job on both churches," the Rev. Gene Gianelli, former pastor of Holy Trinity, told the Record-Journal in 1995. "The Bakers are very sensitive to Vatican II."

  "Sensitive to Vatican II" how, exactly? -- A strange turn of phrase.

• "Crafting a perch fit for a pope" Philadelphia Enquirer March 30, 2008. Bonnie Cook reports on the creation of a chair for the Pope by Philadelphia craftsmen, to be used during his visit to Washington:

  The chair, which sits in the back of the DiCocco Family's St. Jude Shop in Havertown, where it was designed, can still be seen by the public.

  After Wednesday, though, the chair will leave the shop and become, for reasons of security, a ward of the U.S. Secret Service.

  "I hope they're careful with it," said John Huprich, who carried out the project in his Perkasie wood shop. "We don't want any nicks."

  The chair is scheduled to resurface April 16 at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception. The pontiff will sit on it as he greets close to 400 Catholic bishops in the nation's capital.

  After that, the chair will be displayed in the basilica as a relic of the pope's visit, said Msgr. Walter Rossi, the basilica's rector. No one else will likely ever use it.

Washington Mass a Liturgical Disappointment?

"Brace yourself for the Pope's mass in DC", says Jeffrey Tucker (The New Liturgical Movement), responding to the Washingtion Diocese' announcement regarding its selection of music. Tucker pronounces the list -- "it includes mostly Gospel numbers, some rock/blues thrown in ("Jesus is Here Right Now"), together with the "Mass of Creation" Sanctus and Amen" -- "as skimpy as it is troubling."

At issue: the question of cultural diversity, personal creativity and Catholic universality as it is manifested in the musical selection:

The director Tom Stehle says that the music announced so far "represents our long Catholic and Christian tradition and the current diversity of our church."

I can't understand the implication that our diversity as Catholics is somehow "current" and not part of our past. This usually comes with the claim that the music of our past is bound up with Eurocentric sensibilities and unsuitable for a diverse age. Actually, a defining mark of true liturgical music is its universality over time and space, and chant and its elaborations certainly have that mark of universality about them. Its universality is one of the most remarkable discoveries made by musicologists who have looked at chant in the first millennium. And this feature is not only part of the history of chant; it is also an embedded melodic feature of Gregorian plainsong that it strives to transcend time and place.

All of this I learned from reading the Pope's own writings on liturgy and music.

Moreover--and this pains me to think of it--our current "multicultural" obsessions are more than a little insulting to racial minorities and especially African American Catholics. It is a caricature of the worst sort to assume that only Gospel spirituals somehow "represent" their culture and people, and to further imply that chant is somehow incomprehensible to them. I can only speak from my own experience in this regard: the African Americans in parishes I've worked in are among the most passionate supporters of authentic sacred music, precisely because it is an aid to prayer, which, after all, is the core of liturgical art.

From what we have seen so far, the music at the D.C. Papal Mass is not a progressive program. It is a pre-Benedict program with a utility-oriented lineup focussed on making some kind of cultural/political/sociological statement to someone (American Catholics? The Vatican? The Pope?) through the liturgy. There is no evidence of change, growth,and development toward ideals.

Let's hear it from the Pope himself -- an excerpt from The Spirit of the Liturgy (SF, CA: Ignatius, 2000), pp. 146-47:

In the West, in the form of Gregorian chant, the inherited tradition of psalm-singing was developed to a new sublimity and purity, which set a permanent standard for sacred music, music for the liturgy of the Church. Polyphony developed in the late Middle Ages, and then instruments came back into divine worship--quite rightly, too, because, as we have seen, the Church not only continues the synagogue, but also takes up, in the light of Christ's Pasch, the reality represented by the Temple. Two new factors are thus at work in Church music. Artistic freedom increasingly asserts its rights, even in the liturgy. Church music and secular music are now each influenced by the other. This is particularly clear in the case of the so-called "parody Masses", in which the text of the Mass was set to a theme or melody that came from secular music, with the result that anyone hearing it might think he was listening to the latest "hit". It is clear that these opportunities for artistic creativity and the adoption of secular tunes brought danger with them. Music was no longer developing out of prayer, but, with the new demand for artistic autonomy, was now heading away from the liturgy; it was becoming an end in itself, opening the door to new, very different ways of feeling and of experiencing the world. Music was alienating the liturgy from its true nature.

At this point the Council of Trent intervened in the culture war that had broken out. It was made a norm that liturgical music should be at the service of the Word; the use of instruments was substantially reduced; and the difference between secular and sacred music was clearly affirmed.

Homework: "Pope Benedict XVI on Sacred Music", compiled by St. Michael's Catholic Church in Auburn, Alabama

Related

• Richmond Catholic wonders "Will the Pope sing along?" March 21, 2008.
• Recovering Choir Director: Re-title this press release for the DC Papal Mass "... “lack of sound liturgical formation”

Washington choir members audition for "performance of a lifetime"

While Americans have their television sets tuned to American Idol, choir members from Washington Catholic parishes are auditioning for the performance of their lives - Meghan Tierney reports from the Maryland Gazette:

The 250-member Archdiocesan Papal Mass Choir set to perform at Pope Benedict XVI’s April 17 Mass includes two members from Mother Seton Parish in Germantown, according to Kathy Dempsey, assistant director of communications for the Archdiocese of Washington. With the exception of 13 singers from the Arlington Archdiocesan Choir, the members all hail from 83 parishes in the Archdiocese of Washington, which includes Washington, D.C., and five Maryland counties. . . .

Two members of Mother Seton Parish will represent Germantown. Gaithersburg churches are also well represented, with 10 members from St. Rose of Lima, six from St. John Neumann and one from St. Martin of Tours.

About 560 people attended last month’s auditions, which were only open to singers involved with music ministry in the church, Dempsey said.

[...]

‘‘I’ve never auditioned for anything in my life, so I was scared to death,” said Linda May, 60, of Laytonsville. ‘‘...It’s beyond excitement. It’s awesome, it’s such a thrill. I’m a convert to Catholicism, so to be able to sing for the pope, it’s a shock.”

May, a legal secretary at a Gaithersburg law firm, converted in 1987, three years after she joined St. John Neumann’s choir.

She auditioned for the Papal Mass Choir at urging of her music director in Gaithersburg, Mary Lu Hartsell, who also won a spot.

According to the article, about 45,000 people are expected to attend the Washington Nationals stadium mass.

Details on the Washington Nationals Papal Mass Music Program

The official list of musical selections has not been released, but an ABC News report provides some inkling of the kind of music and liturgy the the Archdiocesan committee has selected for the Washington Nationals public mass:

When Pope Benedict XVI celebrates Mass at Nationals Park on April 17, he will be accompanied by four choirs totaling 570 members, singing in ten languages from across the Archdiocese of Washington.

He will hear a 65-voice Intercultural Choir with members from 35 countries singing in French, Zulu and Spanish, among others. A 250-voice Papal Mass Choir and a 175-voice Children's Choir will sing in Latin. The uplifting sound of an 80-voice Gospel Choir will ring out across the stadium. . . .

Musical highlights during the processions and prelude the program includes:

• All choirs performing the opening Spiritual "Plenty Good Room," newly arranged by Washington Symphonic Brass founder, Phil Snedecor
• The Children's Choir singing "Send Forth Your Spirit" by Andrew Wright and "Ave Verum" by Mozart
• The Gospel Choir singing "I Call upon You God" by Leon Roberts and "Lord Make Me an Instrument" by Roger Holland
• The Papal Mass Choir singing "Sing Aloud Unto God Our Strength" by Daniel Nelson and "Spirit of God Within Me" by Robert LeBlanc.
• The Intercultural Choir singing "Let'Isikia" arranged by Tracy McDonnell and "Source d'eau Vive" by C.E. Haugel

Richard Kidd on "arranging for the Pope - and 58,000 others"

Arranging for the Pope - and 58,000 Others - The Telegraph-Journal profiles Richard Kidd of Darling's Island, selected by Dr. Jennifer Pascual of St. Patrick's Cathedral to arrange his hymn, "Feast of Victory" for the Yankee Stadium public mass:

A seasoned composer and consummate arranger, Kidd is a member of the Richard Kidd Quartet jazz band. He teaches music at Rothesay Netherwood School, plays the organ at the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception in Saint John and has played trombone with Symphony New Brunswick for nearly 20 years. In December he assembled a 55-member choir to sing Handel's Messiah with the symphony.

Over the past couple of weeks Kidd has set himself to the task of arranging The Feast of Victory for a 58-member orchestra and choir of 200. In most churches, the four-verse Easter hymn would be accompanied by a lone piano or organ.

In an interview earlier this week, Kidd described the hymn as "uplifting."

"It's a very happy sort of tune," he said.