Well, I thought this was very informative. Starting from the beginning. (this is from article "Vatican II and Sacred Music" by Kurt Poterack. http://www.musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/sm125-4.pdf)


COMMENTARY: The pipe organ is such a good example of inculturation that most people would be surprised that this instrument was once considered inappropriate for the liturgy. One could say that there are three potential stages to inculturation: accommodation, purification, and transformation."Accommodation" is the immediate acceptance by missionaries of neutral customs native people may have, such as the removal of shoes upon entering a holy place. The "purification" and "transformation" stages, however, are long term processes and are what the organ had to go through to be accepted into the liturgy. The early form of the pipe organ, the hydraulis, was used by the ancient Romans at gladiator contests and, thus, would have been repugnant to the early Christians. In addition to this, the organ was used at theatrical spectacles which began and ended with prayers and sacrifices offered to a god, so the organ had a secondary repugnant association for Christians—idolatry. With the conversion of the Emperor Constantine in the 4th century and the
transformation of Christianity into a state religion, the Roman emperor emerged as a Christian emperor. The organ came to be associated with the emperor, who had now moved to the eastern city of Constantinople, but as a Christian emperor he was seen by many as a kind of vicar, or representative, of God— somewhat like the Pope. Perhaps the organ itself, used in the
Byzantine court ceremonial, began to be associated with God. At any rate by this time, the organ had been purified of its pagan associations. Despite all this progress, it is almost certain that the organ did not make it into the liturgy proper at Constantinople, since, to this day, most Eastern liturgies are noted for their unaccompanied singing. It remained for the Western church to take this instrument, purified of pagan associations and already associated with a representative of the Christian God, to be fully transformed into a liturgical instrument. Although there is scholarly disagreement as to exactly when the organ was first introduced into the Western liturgy, it
occurred sometime between the 10th and 13th centuries. It was fully integrated into the Roman Rite by the 16th century when some English Protestants were denigrating the pipe organ as a "Popish instrument."
Several lessons can be learned from the organ's history of inculturation. The first is that the organ was not inserted into the liturgy immediately. This would have been disastrous. It had to be purified and transformed outside the liturgy first. Secondly, this purification and transformation took a long time—at least six centuries. Thirdly, this was not something that was planned by a committee of liturgists, it happened gradually over time in such a way that probably no Christian was aware of what the ultimate outcome of this transformative process would be (i.e. the introduction of the
pipe organ into the liturgy). One could even argue that this whole process and its outcome were due to the promptings of the Holy Spirit. Fourthly and finally, since the organ has been consecrated for use in, and intimately associated with, the sacred mysteries, it has derived from them the quality of VATICAN II "holiness." Therefore, it is akin to a sacramental and cannot be willfully replaced by other instruments—such as the guitar or piano—just because someone personally prefers those instruments. To do this would be to go
contrary to tradition, to the sense of the sacred, and to that process of inculturation which, working itself out in the West over the past two millennia, has given us a sacred instrument—the pipe organ.

I wish I knew. God willing, it can happen.

Two notes:

1) Rembert Weakland, OSB, remarked that 'the pipe organ was an instrument used principally in French whorehouses.'

Must be some sort of Benedictine bigotry, I suppose.

2) Charles, the Easterns are certainly more 'in stasis' than the Westerns, in almost all items surrounding the Liturgy.

Well, it's kind of hard to find anyone with the credentials to argue with Sts. Basil the Great and John Chrysostom who wrote those liturgies. The same for St. Gregory the Great who developed western liturgy. Perhaps what he did was good enough and should have been left alone, you would think. Don't get me started on Weakland! A plague on his house.

More of a figurative curse than a literal one. Plagues and poxes are few and far between these days, along with murrains on cattle, and houses turned into dunghills. Didn't the King James Bible have a powerful way with language? Ship of fools has a biblical curse generator, for those interested in such things.

St. Thomas deals with the ethical aspects of cursing here in the Summa..

He points out that cursing in order to wish evil upon a person is always wrong, whereas a curse invoking a just punishment or a chastisement to bring about conversion may be acceptable. However, the examples he gives are of people with some authority to invoke such punishments, such as a judge or a prophet.

Oh good,another Benedictine oblate among us. I am not alone. Thanks David A.

As for Weakland, poor dear soul. Time passes, thank goodness.

He is not.

The point of the article above is that the 'Organ' has been used as the sacred instrument for the Roman Rite. It had to go through 'purification period' as it says. No matter how the organ is used before, it is the sacred instrument declared by the Church even today. (how the organ used before it was chosen for the liturgy doesn't make the organ less sacred. Is St. Augustine less holy because he was such a great sinner before his conversion?)

And no other instruments cannot REPLACE it by someone's taste. I believe 'you may add other appropriate instruments' is a different concept than replcacing it, like P&W band does.
The following page in the same article talks about "guitar mass,' which I think is very insightful. (Page 20 "Vatican II and Sacred Music" by Kurt Poterack. http://www.musicasacra.com/publications/sacredmusic/pdf/sm125-4.pdf)

No, you didn't. I wonder what happened to organ and use of other instruments in liturgy after Renaissance period.