Archbishop Cushing Video
  • HeitorCaballero
    Posts: 92
    I just saw this Requiem mass. Any informed comments about the loud speaking voice, the operatic arias, etc? I would like to know if there are any informed observations about the state of liturgy immediately prior to the council. Thank you!
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6frnUl7X0A
    Thanked by 1Reval
  • gregpgregp
    Posts: 632
    I think that, beyond all of us who remember what it was like in the old days, this video tells us why those of us in the CMAA labor on at what we do. That the Funeral Mass of the first Catholic President of the United States was a Low Mass with hymns seems absolutely incredible. The state of the liturgy was, and still is in most places, following this mentality. Thank God that there are many places today where this is no longer the case, and the true desires of the Council are being implemented; maybe not perfectly, not swiftly, and not completely, but they are advancing.
    Thanked by 3HeitorCaballero Ben Reval
  • Liam
    Posts: 4,950
    Here's Cardinal Cushing reciting the rosary:

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PyWu04Baljk

    It's a distinctive voice...once much imitated in Boston. As overbearing as his voice was, my understanding from people who met him is that his actual personal manner was less imperious than that of his predecessor, who created the template for American Catholic autocrats in the 20th century. (It would have been hard to have been more imperious than that example.)

    The Boston Irish liked their Low Masses, um, efficient, thank you very much. A certain frugality of effort.
    Thanked by 1Reval
  • HeitorCaballero
    Posts: 92
    I posted this because some us who were born after VII, could fall in the temptation that "everything was perfect" before the council.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,934
    I posted this because some us who were born after VII, could fall in the temptation that "everything was perfect" before the council.


    It wasn't. If you were in a large city, especially one with little Irish influence, the liturgies were better. Cardinal Cushing had a distinctive voice that often did not mesh well with high mass music.
  • SalieriSalieri
    Posts: 3,177
    What's interesting about that rosary recording is that his voice is basically modulating according to one of the recitation formulas for collects: recite on Do, flex to La, mediant cadence Do-Ti-La-Do, final on La.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,964
    The Pontifical Requiem Mass celebrated by the cardinal in early 1964 is interesting. The chant on the part of the cardinal is abysmal. The sacred ministers otherwise sing quite well; as I understand it the Gospel ought to be sung in a higher pitch than the Epistle, so the drop for the question can be tricky, and the deacon obviously practiced (the Gospel is the next video). The Gradual is lovely, but it is annoying they sang the Tract recto tono. I assume the Sequence was orchestral, which is just sad.


    https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=yiRVoZGgD08


    He and his successor Medeiros were good men, I think, and I think they deserve more credit than most people want to give them. But the contemporary American church is modeled on two aspects: Cushing’s liturgy and Medeiros’s social outreach. The first is just ugly, the second cannot be taken in isolation. Medeiros actually asked for Fr. Feeney’s reconcilition, as it happens.
    Thanked by 1HeitorCaballero
  • Reval
    Posts: 180
    Holy cow - - when I first listened to the rosary, I thought I was listening to Fr. Larry Richards - - a staple on our local Catholic radio station.
  • madorganist
    Posts: 906
    Thanks for sharing the Rosary recording! More evidence that the spoken English "ay-men" isn't a post-V2 innovation for Catholics, as some have claimed, even on this forum. Also interesting that the Fatima "O my Jesus" prayer isn't included.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 1,964
    No, that’s how it was historically said, but the received pronunciation made the English the same as the Latin with the “ah” sound...
  • RPBurke
    Posts: 25
    1. The story is that a full pontifical solemn Mass would have taken too long with all the other secular solemnity outside the church.

    2. We could all imitate the cardinal.

    3. At least in Boston, it was Ay-men and I suspect it was partially to distinguish us from the Protestants.
Add a Comment