Breaking News from the CDWDS
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    I posted this on my blog late last night:

    A tip of the Stetson (actually, two tips) go to both Fr. Z and the fine folks at the New Liturgical Movement for providing us with two different takes on an interview of Antonio Cardinal Canizares Llorea made by Andrea Tornielli which appeared in this past Sunday's edition of Il Gironale. Cardinal Canizares Lloera is the prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. According to Shawn Tribe, the editor of the NLM, the prefect made a rather stunning (and quite frankly, much longed for) announcement:


    "The new liturgical movement will have to discover the beauty of the liturgy. Therefore, we will open a new division in our congregation dedicated to "Art and Sacred Music" at the service of the liturgy. This will lead us to offer soon a criteria and guidelines for art, song and sacred music. As well we offer as soon as possible criteria and guidelines for preaching."

    This is literally and figuratively sweet angelic music to these ears. Two years ago, while attending the Saturday session of the Gateway Liturgical Conference in St. Louis, MO, I had the unique privilege of meeting then-Archbishop Malcolm Ranjinth, who, at the time, served as secretary to the CDWDS. Now known as Malcolm Cardinal Ranjinth, he was gracious enough to allow me a question after his splendid speech. I asked him how music would play a role in an authentic Ars Celebrandi. I explained to him that the quality of music used for the Masses here in the United States was sorely lacking and that some of it had drifted into the banal. He told me that he was well aware of the problem that we were facing. He said that the CDWDS would be issuing a document in the very near future that would address the situation. However, given the change in prefects and secretaries that would occur later on, I thought that the matter would never be addressed. I am happy to have been proven wrong.

    Given the greater degree of solemnity that the Papal Masses have taken since Msgr. Guido Marini replaced Archbishop Pietro Marini (no relation) as the head of the Office of Liturgies for the Supreme Pontiff and the Chief Master of Ceremonies, I suspect that these liturgies might in some way be held up as an example of how the Holy Sacrifice should be celebrated. Now, inasmuch as parishes might not be able to afford ornate vestments or sacred vessels encrusted with jewels, certainly the quality of music can and should improve.

    Now, there will probably some who will complain about whatever changes the Holy See proposes (the big three US publishing houses come to mind). However, parishes do not have to rely soley on the Big Three. Fr. Sam Weber, the director of the Institute of Sacred Music for the Archdiocese of St. Louis has several of the propers set to simple music posted on the Institute's website. The Church Music Association of America, through its MusicaSacra website, has excellent resources, including tutorials for the revised translations. The Corpus Christi Watershed project also provides another excellent source for sacred music, as does the Adoremus hymnal.

    In any event, such a division within the CDWDS can only serve to bring the Church to a true Ars Celebrandi. As my Jubilarian friend once told me, "The wheels of Rome grind slowly, but, they do grind finely."

    http://benedictgal-lexorandilexcredendi.blogspot.com/2010/12/christmas-present-from-cdwds.html
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    "criteria and guidelines for art, song and sacred music."

    I don't know what Rome could say here that hasn't already been said 10,000 times since Vatican II. The problem really isn't a lack of directives unless those directives legislate the singing of propers, which I seriously doubt they will. The problem is an educational one, and, to some extent, a problem of viable resources. Some of that is being addressed with the Simple Propers Project, which I believe will eventually do more good than all of Rome's pronouncements.
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    But, Jeffrey, it's still a good move, especially now that Raymond Cardinal Burke has been apppointed to be a member of the CDWDS.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    I agree. This is going to make serious change occur.

    This Pope is SO major league.
  • GavinGavin
    Posts: 2,799
    It's a good move to have a heavy-handed top-down requirement for sacred music? And what happens when we wind up with Pope Trautmann I? Is it still a good thing then?

    Everyone's begging for the Vatican to take names and kick rear. But I propose the name-taking and rear-kickings are happening in parishes across America where CMAA musicians are doing their fine work. Not by another PR fiasco from the Vatican.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    B-b-b-but I thought that Cdl. de Llovera's remarks were made subsequent after an apocalyptic tirade that very well "could be the dying throes of a brief regime." Regime? What regime? Who's regime? Generallissimo Franco's, Castro's, Peron's, Bush 43? ;-)

    A useful backdrop to all this is given by Vatican observers. The word on the street is that the Cardinal is proving to be something of a disaster — so much so that even the Pope now realizes it. It is suggested that the Cardinal might soon be posted to Madrid, where the current incumbent is ready to retire. Apparently even the Cardinal himself would welcome this; it seems he has not enjoyed his time in Rome.

    One informant says that on the day before the Consistory last month, his talk to the assembled cardinals was so anti-Vatican II that they were apparently furious, and the Pope had to grab the microphone, calm them down, and try to redress the balance. This, it seems, is when the Pope finally realized that this appointment isn’t working. Given this, one could be justified in wondering how much of what Llovera says is the Pope’s thinking is actually Llovera’s thinking.

    Are the future actions mentioned in Llovera’s interview with Tornielli just the final convulsions of an unhappy reign, or might they actually come to pass?(P. Inwood)
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    With all due respect to Mr. Inwood, he seems to be the only one who finds fault with it and with the Cardinal.
  • francis
    Posts: 10,866
    I agree with Benedictgal
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    B-b-b-b-but, he's Paul Inwood!
    We're not.
    Is the sky falling?
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,224
    When I see the overwrought rhetoric from some progressivistas, I think it's just the final convulsions of an unhappy reign. As Psalm 95 says, "Forty years I endured that generation...."
  • benedictgal
    Posts: 798
    He may be Paul Inwood, but, with all due respect, that does not make him infallible.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    This whole thread makes me want to listen to Crosby Stills Nash and Young. Dang were they ever good.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    I suppose this can be good on the margin, but, really, until we get down to the mechanics of propers, I can't see any real change happening as a result of Vatican urging. I think Gavin is right here: progress is parish by parish.
  • Kathy
    Posts: 5,515
    My sense is that the Holy Father takes power away from those who have it under weird conditions, and gives it to the bishops. Then he backs out. But the first step is staring down the PTB.
  • Charles in CenCA
    Posts: 2,416
    I must be losing my timing. Let me try again.
    "Mister Inwood walks into a bar. The bartender says 'Why the long face?'"
    Badaboom. Crash.
  • BachLover2BachLover2
    Posts: 330
    is paul inwood the one who wrote the cha cha cha alleluia and called it sacred music?
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,993
    I am sure Mr. Inwood is a fine fellow, but too many get caught up in the cults of these musical "celebrities." Far better, I would think, to focus on those fantastic musicians working for the restoration of good, sacred music. Although, I think propers are great, restoring them will not solve all of the music problems in the U.S. parishes. A good start, perhaps, but we often have bigger problems than the lack of propers.
  • DougS
    Posts: 793
    ...like lack of musical literacy or musical appreciation of any kind, perhaps? :-)
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,993
    True, especially among the clergy. That's where it does the most harm.
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