The May/June 2008 issue of Pastoral Liturgy (formerly Rite Magazine), an organ of LTP out of Chicago, has an article on this subject, written by former "liturgy specialist" at OCP, Michael Prendergast. Stay with me, however, because there is a paradigm shift at the end!

One shouldn't be surprised that he quotes the usual paragraphs from Sacramentum Concilium, especially 26 and the ever-popular gold-standard, the "baseball bat" of progressive liturgy, paragraph 14 used to defend the hackneyed "full, active and conscious participation" mantra of the liturgical/industrial complex. He reminds us that, "Pastoral musicians must constantly remind themselves that the music of the liturgy belongs to the whole assembly."

He pays the usual lip service to SC's references to the "treasure of immeasurable value," but goes on to state:

"Sacrosanctum Concilium removed restrictive language and style surrounding the use of music in the liturgy. Since the council, Roman Catholics have been exposed to worship music from officially approved vernacular texts, paraphrased texts, and texts not linked to the rites or to scripture. Even though Sacramentum Concilium and documents since the Second Vatican Council uphold the treasury of sacred music that includes Gregorian Chant and other classic forms, those styles have almost disappeared from Roman rite worship." [My emphasis in bold].

I find this statement rather curious, mainly because Prendergast seems to be skirting the inescapable fact that his sisters and brothers at OCP, together with GIA, WLP and the National Association of Pastoral Musicians have seemed to work tirelessly to ensure this very outcome. Is he upset that the treasury has been lost? Is he pleased that Catholics have been exposed to this non-stop parade of Broadway show tunes, sacro-pop and quasi-world music garbage? He doesn't seem to be taking a position either way. (Wait for it . . .)

He sites to The 1992 Milwaukee Document, the Universa Laus document from 2002, takes an interesting excursion through aspects of Liturgiam authenticam (assuring us that the as yet unrecognized Directory for Music of 2006 sent to Rome will "serve not so much as a list of approved and unapproved songs but as a process by which bishops regulate etc.,) and ending with SttL, wherein he quotes a paragraph that had escaped my notice, " . . .the bishops suggest that those who choose music for liturgical celebrations take 'care to include selections from the repertoire typically sung by the wider Church at Sunday Liturgies' (56)." This absolutely ensures that his earlier observation, that is that certain styles of music from the treasury that have disappeared from Roman rite worship, will stay that way.

Or does it? Here's the possible paradigm shift. The remainder of the article focuses almost entirely on the inclusion of chant-based hymns for the more important seasons of the liturgical year, the Kyrie in Mode XVI, the Mode VIII Mass, and Marian and Eucharistic devotional hymns into the list of parish common music. Unfortunately, he does refer to new texts written by Dufner and Troeger to be sung to some of these tunes. His list of vernacular Mass settings include the usual suspects (Haugen's Mass of Creation and the St. Louis Jesuit Mass) along with settings by Proulx and Vermulst.

I'll readily admit that my enthusiasm for this article is couched at best, as it's difficult to tell if he's merely paying lip service to the treasury or truly interested in seeing its pride of place restored. Nevertheless, perhaps the "gravitational pull" being exerted by documents like Summorum Pontificum and the hard work of organizations such as CMAA are beginning to bear fruit.

Brick by brick . . .