NYTimes Obituary for ex-Trappist, who missed Gregorian chant
  • Chris HebardChris Hebard
    Posts: 124
    Rev. Robert Palladino, Scribe Who Shaped Apple's Fonts, Dies at 83

    He was ordained a priest in 1958. But the reforms of Vatican II (1962-65) — including the dissolution of monastic silence, the supplanting of Gregorian chant by vernacular music and the replacement of Latin by modern languages — discomforted him, and in 1968 he left the monastery.

    “You cannot like that way of life unless you are completely enamored of it,” Father Palladino, recalling his Trappist days, said in an unpublished memoir, written — unsurprisingly — entirely by hand. “When it changed, I could no longer dedicate myself to it. It no longer satisfied my longing for union with God.”

    http://nyti.ms/1X0Xlld
    Thanked by 6M. Jackson Osborn kevinf Jenny Olivier JulieColl CHGiffen
  • VilyanorVilyanor
    Posts: 388
    Curiously, I heard he left the monastery and then was married, but after his wife died he was reinstituted as a priest. I've never heard of that happening before.
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,366
    Neither have I. Both require papal action. What a shame they destroyed a monastic vocation.

    I would have enjoyed studying with him. I love fonts, writing, and design. I also would love to learn scripts so as to facilitate reading manuscripts.
  • canadashcanadash
    Posts: 1,501
    Curiously, I heard he left the monastery and then was married, but after his wife died he was reinstituted as a priest. I've never heard of that happening before.


    I knew someone who was a priest, left the priesthood to get married, had a very large family and was reinstated to the priesthood after he was widowed for a number of years. He tried to be reinstated but was considered too elderly. It was Cardinal Ratzinger who began his process of reinstatement after a chance meeting in Rome!
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  • MatthewRoth
    Posts: 2,366
    Yes, I think Ratzinger probably intervened in this case too. His generosity as prefect and then pope was extensive.
    Thanked by 1BruceL
  • M. Jackson Osborn
    Posts: 8,424
    Interesting, isn't it!
    If non-sacred music drives people away, no one really gets concerned about it.
    They are just codgers.

    But if people leave because of real sacred music, the music is dispensed with.
    They are real people whose sensitivities we mustn't offend.

    Thanked by 5Matthew CharlesW CHGiffen Vilyanor Ioannes Andreades
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