Looks like the good old days have returned to Chicago. Party on!

My impression on reading this is that last night's service looks like a disaster, and today's Mass looks like a gem. Incidentally, the St. Sabina's choir was the choir last night -- St. Sabina's is Fr. Michael Pfleger's parish. Considering that Pfleger and Cardinal George clashed a lot, that's fascinating to me and says more than inserting [sigh] "All Are Welcome" in the early festivities.

The program booklet is at:

http://www.archchicago.org/pdf/installation/InstallationProgram.pdf

I was organist for an Episcopal Ordination/Consecration and the evening prayer the night before, when I was 16 or 17 years old. It was about 2 hours from my home (though it took far longer since the route required me to take a train or take side roads since one couldn't drive on major highways in Canada until one had driven for a year or two then) and I had to go up for three rehearsals and then the actual events. There were SO MANY HANDS on every aspect of each event that I had NO IDEA what was going on most of the time - there were constant changes and I was given a total of 22 different "scripts" for the two events with the end product looking nothing like the first "script". 75% of the music had changed between 2 weeks before the event and 4 days before the event. The only part I had any say in was the Prelude and Postlude for the Evening Prayer the night before the event.

I remember being in the loft, sitting at a lovely Casavant, prepared to play the prelude before Evening Prayer when a rather assertive woman came up to the loft, and asked what I was playing for the prelude and postlude. I showed her the pieces (I think Franck and Buxtehude?) and she shook her head and took the music. She put melody-only copies of AURELIA and EIN FEST BURG in front of me and told me to improvise on these and walked away.

I still have no idea who this woman was or if she legitimately had any authority over the events. I had never seen her before and never saw her again. But yes, I improvised on EIN FESTE BURG while a Bishop-elect processed out of (what would be) his Cathedral.

Looked like Ramirez used the occasion to display his own works, not that there is anything particularly wrong with that. If I had to use one word to describe overall the music listed in the program, I would have to say much of it was trashy. Not unusual, since such events tend to try to be all things to all people. Can't exclude anyone, you know! Where was the Oompa Loompa Song? They were excluded. Sounds like blatant discrimination to me. "Oompa, Loompa, doom-pa-dee-do. I have a perfect puzzle for you..."

There were SO MANY HANDS on every aspect of each event that I had NO IDEA what was going on most of the time...

Classic work by committee. We had one of those ordinations a few years back. One of our priests said the person who put the music program together should have been scourged. LOL. I hid out, took no phone calls, and was unavailable until it was all over.

There is nothing essentially wrong or profoundly weak in the ordo repertoire. I would agree that as an assemblage/pastiche it seems underwhelming, but that comes from only a two dimensional perspective. One could ask, "Does this ordo more resemble the Chicago possessed of an immense and magnificent skyline and architectural legacy, or Chicago, the Second City?"
And reasonably, what is to be expected in this era in America but some sort of "non-statement" that is more quilt than tapestry, or succinctly "a little something for everyone?"
Nods here and there to Proulx, Poles and Pols are nice if not obligatory.
But I have to say, outside of the installation of the Ukrainian Bishop in Nebraska last week, we in America may have a long wait for a prelate to shush his handlers and give clear, unequivocal instructions as to the integral elements of his installation rituals will evangelize self-evidently as "catholic" and Catholic.

Oh.

These things are a lot different up there, eh?

I really don't know how the Roman Catholic Church, author and conserver of culture for two thousand years, has devolved to the point of singing a barely or possibly not heretical, outlandishly unbeautiful ditty, for a Mass of this importance in a major see.

Please expound.

Are you speaking of "All Are Welcome?" Outside of that, I don't see a ton in that program that fits this description.

Serdeczna Matko and Alabare are good songs.

It's simple.

All Are Welcome - not my favorite piece of music. But there's also nothing heretical about it. We can argue about its worth, but you can't objectively say that there's anything wrong with it.

I agree there's nothing wrong, per se, in the song. But its message has been hijacked to the point that its mere use sends a message to virtually everyone, intended or not. There's a reason a whole lot of women's "ordinations" are kicked off with "All Are Welcome." I suppose we could try to reclaim the song and its actual meaning, but I doubt it'd be worth it.

Incidentally, I live in the Chicago area (though in the Rockford Diocese), so I'm going to try to watch/listen when the Mass starts in a little while.

I really like that Ramirez hymn, and I don't mind the melody being reused for the psalm. It appears to be unpublished (at least, I can't find it online in a quick search), and I hope he publishes it.

.

I agree there's nothing wrong, per se, in the song. But its message has been hijacked to the point that its mere use sends a message to virtually everyone, intended or not. There's a reason a whole lot of women's "ordinations" are kicked off with "All Are Welcome." I suppose we could try to reclaim the song and its actual meaning, but I doubt it'd be worth it.

I agree. I avoid the song because I view it as damaged goods. Plus, there's just better out there.

But I don't have much legitimate criticism to lob at someone who chooses themselves to use it.

"Universal prayer" is not a common term in this country, but it's an official term for the "Prayer of the Faithful"

MaryAnn, you are so right!

Did anyone recognize the Amen?

By "universal prayer that's proper to our rite" I meant Gregorian chant.
(In case it was my comment that was being referenced.)

Did anyone recognize the Amen?

Do you mean the one by Proulx, from Mass for the City?

I think it was the other Amen from Mass for the City. (There are two of them.)

The problem @MaryAnn is not that the use of Gregorian chant and qualified singers would be used. Its that it was most likely not even considered.

The real tragedy......

I thank Kevin for quoting my bleak forecast as regards episcopal ordination event planning. And as others have likewise lamented, it's difficult to understand HOW these planners apparently fail to take into account the honest, and pardon the truest of cliches, noble simplicity that is so apparent at installations such as the Ukrainian one I mentioned.
I wrote a reflection on FB about "distilling joy" in sacred music yesterday. That true joy isn't solely dependent upon the repertoire nor the talent of the performer. But in the case of this and other similar "safe road" ordos, it seems to me more of an effort to manipulate people, rather than to move them. There is a difference. There's nothing particularly "moving" about singing "All are welcome" for the 301st time, the last being an installation in Chicago.
I wonder if these event planners would imagine themselves as menu planners- isn't it easier to throw a buffet/smorgasbord together than to actually create a procession of wonderful courses?
The irony many of them don't get is they can write and sing lyrics such as "Come to the feast of heaven and earth" until the Parousia, but the "feast" they offer here on earth is kept warm in trays above steaming water for hours, and once you've had a couple of bites of the jello, then the chicken, then the taco, then the kung pao beef, you're done. Done.
I'm done.

LOL! Get the Rolaids out. I was thinking the same thing looking at this eclectic musical potluck. It looks like they wanted to make sure every possible contingency in Chicago was represented so political expediency was the guiding principle of the day.

political expediency was the guiding principle of the day.

Where is that a guiding principle in the ritual documents or the directives of the Church?

I am going to raise a stink, not on the music, but on the ceremonial itself. The program lists that there are official representatives from civic leaders (for example, the City of Chicago) and interreligious and ecumenical representatives, namely, the Orthodox. All well and good. But were Eastern Catholic representatives invited to the ceremonies? I know that they most ECs are not under the command of the local Roman archdiocese, but this would have been a great opportunity to show that we and them are united in the same Holy Catholic Faith by allowing their priests to concelebrate the Mass. In addition, although the ECs are not under the direct jurisdiction of the local ordinary, many of them look to them for leadership in time of crisis. For example, when the HHS published a controversial rule several years ago, the local Maronite church here in San Antonio published a letter from the local archbishop of San Antonio urging the faithful to protest respectfully the rule, or something to that effect.

Inviting ecumenical and interreligious representatives but not fellow Catholics to the event, to me, sends a message that the Chicago archdiocese values their relationships over the ones with their fellow worshippers. There may be a ceremonial "shaking of hands" or whatever, which is fine, but the truth is, we are not in full communion with them. This would have been a great opportunity to show our full communion by inviting at least a few of our fellow Catholics to participate in the ceremonies. A better opportunity than inviting the Orthodox, etc., would have been to invite someone from the Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of St. Nicholas of Chicago, at least a deacon to participate in the ceremonies, if not the bishop.

(I just noticed the Mass of Installation section, separate from the Liturgy of the Word. If they are included in the "concelebrating priests" and "visiting bishops" section in the Mass of Installation section, I apologize. However, even in that case, it seems to me strange to acknowledge the civil and ecumenical representatives, only, by organizational name, in the Liturgy of the Word section.)

Where is a prophet to throw the heathen priests off a cliff when we need him? LOL

LOL