Yes, Ben! I actually printed that one out last night. More things along the lines of this would be great! Thank you!

No worries. My parish is a mixed bag concerning music. We do a little bit of everything. Due to the nature of Lent, Easter, and the feast days that follow Easter, we were singing a lot of hymnody and some chant. One of our priests, despite being rather orthodox in all other things liturgy, prefers contemporary/folk music to this. He told my DM that he was getting complaints about the style of music lately and encouraged us to do some more contemporary music. Being a good and obedient DM we sang more contemporary things at the next mass the priest presided at. He came up to the DM after mass and specifically said we should be doing music like that every week.

He is convinced that doing things more like the local mega-church will bring in "young families." This why I am looking for articles or anecdotes that provide real numbers from churches who have successfully gone the more traditional route: to show his flawed logic. We are not even talking about abandoning contemporary music completely, just providing examples as to why a mix of modern and traditional music should be the norm, not solely music written after 1960.

Priests can be such fools when they envy what appears to be the popularity of the mega-churches.

People who deal with them on a daily business have a completely different view of them - I know that personally, having worked with three major protestant mega-churches that broadcast on TV and radio, including assisting one in making it possible for the organ to be included and used on the air* in their tv and radio broadcasts as part of the professional orchestra that sits on a lift behind the pulpit, all sinking from view into the basement so as not to distract from the pastor's message. At that church everyone had to be accompanied when moving through the building and the pastor's suite of offices was locked away behind steel safety doors due to threats...

These may give you a bit of useful information:

http://thechristianpundit.org/2013/07/17/young-evangelicals-are-getting-high/

http://www.randywhiteministries.org/2014/01/02/leaving-church-growth-movement/

These pastors, and some Catholic priests, want to be rock stars - it is all about them. Music and anything else that distracts from them or is not what they like is suppressed.

*Once the organ was set up to sound good on broadcasts, which it had not for years, they brought the preacher in and he was very displeased. To make him happy, they had to turn the organ around so no one could see the keyboards or the organist playing and then spend $8,000 having the console refinished so the back of it matched the paneling in the fake studio church...all so that he remained the focal point.

He's also my pastor too, and it's not an exaggeration that people are just pouring in. I haven't been there for a few weeks due to other commitments, but last month when I was there, it did feel like new families were coming every week. It's quite an amazing situation.

There are many young families at our EF Latin Mass as well, Deo gratias. When I go to my local daily Mass, I'm one of the youngest people there (and I'm not young), whereas at our Sunday EF Mass in Queens, it's the complete opposite.

One of my favorite moments was this Corpus Christi Sunday during Benediction after the procession seeing two little tots sitting in the main aisle at the back of church playing with the rose petals. God bless the little babies! They bring life and joy.

This notion that young people are more attracted to chant and Latin is hogwash. I'm sure you can find articles or anecdotes to support it, but they are quite lacking in rigor and integrity.

I recently attended (for the first time ever!) a contemporary evangelical church. I'm in my late 20s, and I felt like the oldest person there. All these young adults were VERY excited about the music, which literally took up the whole service, except for announcements, a scripture lesson, and a sermon. I'm still amazed at how many young people there were - the church attendance numbers in the thousands.

That's an anecdote. It's not representative of any universal objective truth, but just my experience. Of course, we all know people who prefer traditional music who are also young - myself included (for however much longer I can use the y-word). But I think if we're honest, we also know a LOT of young people who love contemporary music. I recently visited my nieces, who are under 5, and they would not stop singing the Gloria refrain from David Haas's Mass of Light. My sister in law also loves that kind of music. I have a 23 year old friend who just wrote a contemporary-style Mass ordinary. I once met a woman my age in town for a funeral who told me "On Eagle's Wings" is her favorite song ever.

Not to mention that most young adults (ESPECIALLY Catholic ones) just DON'T CARE about music. Or don't go to church, period.


None of which is to say that I oppose traditional practice. I support it. More importantly, I ACTUALLY DO IT.

If you want a reason to do chant, Latin, ad orientem, etc., don't do it because it will make you popular. Do it because it's the right thing to do.

I just wish we could get beyond 'feelings' and religious consumerism. When it comes to chant, you don't do it because you like it or you think it will attract people, you do it because the Church tells you to do it. End of story.

Salieri, I wish more people knew exactly what the church tells us to do regarding music. As Gavin said, I believe, many people simply dont care about music in general: it's disposable to them.

Young people have told me many reasons why they attend on Sunday. It's a family thing so they come and sit with their families. Some are serving in one capacity or another. Maybe they come to sit with a girl or boyfriend. Some find the ritual familiar and comforting even though they don't believe it anymore. Others have said they enjoy socializing with friends at the breakfasts after mass twice a month. What I am getting at is that it is too easy to make assumptions about young people's preferences without actually talking to them. If you do talk to them, you have to accept the fact that they may not tell you what you would like to hear.

Amen, Matthew!

As a Lutheran friend (now a pastor!) once said, "why are we focusing on youth so much? The elderly are closest to going to Heaven."

They also have deeper pockets. ;-)

This notion that young people are more attracted to chant and Latin is hogwash.

Young Catholics are attracted to chant as are other Catholics of all ages. Young Catholics are driven away by the elevator music, pseudo folk and broadway tune music of today's Mass.

They would never patronize a restaurant that had such crappy music, poorly written and performed. Hogwashing music, quite lacking in rigor and integrity.

(quite lacking in rigor and integrity? You may have already been in Texas too long...)