I've been music director at this parish for a little over a year. I've changed the music culture from 1970s-1990s pablum and sloppy performance to something respectable, reverent and beautiful.

Got my first complaint today, but a mild and absurd one. How do you think I handled it?

80 year-old guy talks to me after Mass. Very respectful. He and his wife are founding parishioners. He used to play guitar at the early morning Mass years ago.

He said the music quality is outstanding. Choir sings in tune, in harmony, and the production aspect of the music is better than it’s ever been. He said that music is such an important part of the Mass that when it’s performed poorly by untalented people it makes Mass dreary.

Then he said that his wife doesn’t like Latin and it’s such that she will refuse to go to Mass where anything is sung in Latin. He said he understands that choosing music can be contentious because people have so many different opinions about what they prefer. He and his wife don’t like the “throwback” aspect of Latin to “pre-Vatican II”.

I explained to him my formula for choosing music: that I try to have something to please everyone by usually having 1-3 contemporary songs, 1-3 traditional songs, the Communion antiphon chanted in English and the first Communion hymn a Gregorian chant, and at least one piece accompanied by organ. Different seasons or feasts will sometimes emphasize one genre over another, but that’s my general formula for having a variety of styles tastefully sung at every Mass.

He said some things about contemporary music being his preference. I said that’s good, but then I added that every liturgical document, including from Vatican II, before and after, every pope, every church document about liturgy and music has stated that Gregorian chant should be given first place in the liturgy because it’s specially suited to the Roman Rite. He acknowledged that; he said that he was preparing to write something to me and in his research he found what I said was true. I explained that by having one and occasionally two pieces in Latin chant or polyphony, I’m doing what the Church teaches should be done with music at Mass: giving Gregorian chant a normal place at Mass; we’re not going to switch to all-chant, but there should be some chant at every Mass. He hemmed and hawed… what it boiled down to was that he disagreed with the documents.

He said that he’s agreed to abide by his wife’s decision, which is that if Latin will continue to be sung at Mass they would go somewhere else for Mass.

I thanked him for his respectful conversation and for telling me that he and his wife don’t want Latin sung at Mass, but I said I would not be changing what I do on account of his dislike of Latin.

He understood.

Weird that they would rather go to a parish with inferior music selections and inferior performance quality because they have an irrational aversion to Latin such that they can’t tolerate one Latin hymn for 90 seconds or less at the beginning of Communion.

I also told him that the young Catholics who remain in the Church and attend Mass and who have joined my choir mostly prefer the traditional music, including Gregorian chant. He acknowledged that, but he doesn’t understand it.

It’s hard for some of these old people who were fed an improper diet of bad liturgy, bad music, and poorly implemented liturgical renewal to grasp that what’s being “brought back” should never have been abandoned in the first place. They perceive a shifting ecclesiology and don’t know how to, or don’t want to, adapt, even if the shift is nothing but a reclaiming of what never should have been lost or discontinued.

It would be like a parent saying to a priest, “My daughter is in a lesbian marriage, and if the church won’t bless her union, I’m leaving the church.” Well, okay. Then leave. I’m not going to bend to please everyone because that’s impossible. The Church has its teachings, and they aren’t going to change. And the fact that some people disregard those teachings or are ignorant of them (as in the case of liturgical music) doesn’t mean that it’s right to continue disregarding them.

I think I handled it well.

And then, in the narthex right after that a woman told me that she just loves when the choir sings so beautifully in Italian. I said, “Thank you, but it’s Latin, not Italian.” She laughed. Many, many more people like it than dislike it.

We sang the Dubois “Adoramus Te Christe” today at the end of Communion. Very reverent and prayerful.

So many Mass videos I skimmed today featured “Jesus, Remember Me” and “Were You There.” Ugh. This was my lineup:

Hosanna to the Son of David antiphon chanted in English (ICEL setting)
R&A psalm
O Sacred Head, Surrounded (offertory)
ICEL English chants for the Eucharistic acclamations
Communion antiphon chanted in English
Ave Verum Corpus Gregorian chant (first Communion)
Deiss’ Keep in Mind (second Communion)
Dubois’ Adoramus Te Christe (final Communion/meditation)
When I Survey the Wondrous Cross (recessional)