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Music Paper Madness

Fr. Catfish - It's Come To This...PowerPoint comes to the Catholic Church

They are really a bad idea, in my opinion.

It seems to me that people would pay attention to what is flashing on the screen as opposed to the Holy Sacrifice on the altar. While one can make the same argument about sticking one's nose in a book, at least you can scan it and then look up. With the screens, the focal point is what's being projected, rather than Who we are worshipping.

Y'know Maureen, I really don't have a dog in this hunt despite my account above. But once you go to the fundamentalist polemic as your primary objection you risk losing all credibiity in arguing, in the classic sense, pro or con. By your maxim, every time there's a megaMass or even superEvent like the election or appearance/performance (again, just a convenient term) of and by a pope, tell me that young Marini has banned the use of a JumboTronFlatScreenInstantReplayBigArse Television screen projecting the digital image and sound for the convenience of the people passed the first twenty rows doesn't violate that maxim's fundamental principle. Nope, sorry.
People "receive" the import of these tools in many and varied ways, my putting the SEP Introit in toto on a screen when they would otherwise not have any access under the restrictions with which I must contend,, is not some cosmic deal breaker if it advances the noble objective of chanting the Introit, and NOT intended or otherwise done to draw attention to how with it i am by my use of PPT. In point of fact, when I put up SEP on our newest facility's screens, the PIPs are afforded their very first exposure and introduction to the mere existence, much less viability and beauty, of a native Roman Rite art form. Using PPT with that discipline is not at all akin to showing "Steamboat Willie" the movie at Mass.
Now, OTOH, if I wasted time cutting and pasting the lyrics of "LET THE VALLEY'S BE RAISED" within the visual software context of a really cool scene where there's a road that moves the viewer from within a mountain pass gradually to a road coursing straight through a vineyard valley, that fails just as does any other "art" that is self-serving and calls attention to its craft, besides making a statement of how cool I would be and all of us going "ooh, ahh."
But I would hope, but not wager, that a fully engaged and disciplined liturgical program would avoid such displays of egoism.
Noel, you're right on all counts if the liturgical shot callers at said parish felt it necessary to install and maintain PA and AV systems that would require the constant attention of the Ministers of Sound and Sight in their cockpits of control. The existence of such, and I've seen it here in my diocese, bespeaks the puny and malformed theological understanding of living liturgy that led to such people saying "yes" to the contractors or salespeople when they were given the pitch at the pastor's behest. I can't count the number of times I've responded to well meaning subordinates who've begged me for mixers and monitors with "teach your singers HOW TO SING properly. And, no, we will not be using those." I like good PA's, the one's that have a power switch Period.
And if a screen eventually shows an antiphon from the Latin Roman Graduale from which the schola sings the proper or the PIPs chant an ordinary, won't bust my existential, purist chops. YMMV

Noel
Pick one watermark when things went south for THE CHURCH, and stick to that. You keep changing lines in the sand that are each absolute and insoluble.
I think you understand my point. Like it or not, we dwell in time, and it does a'change. We do, as Mark Searle coined, remember into the future, but the future is inevitable, and we don't regress or digress. Should you adhere to man's absolutes, then I'd put my lot in the Mayan calendar from where I'm perched. That doesn't bother me particularly. But, our redemption and salvation isn't premised upon our recognizing the attributes of worship, but the object of our worship. That is actually, IMO, a very clear distinction.

I have a wonderful idea that would solved the priest shortage and many other diocesan concerns too! Let's also have a central 72" or extra large TV screen and the bishop, (or his assistant), of a diocese can broadcast himself to all the parishes at a specified time to say Mass. The bishop can send or mail already consecrated hosts and wine to all his churches beforehand; thus all we need are multiple extraordinary Eucharistic ministers for distribution (Oh, we already have that). No more need for priest for him to deal with, no stipends, no housing and or staff problems, etc. WOW! What A Wonderful Life! His Reverance, Buddy Bishop just has his centralized, televised mass with text and music all simultaneously broad-casted via the internet. LOL He can also "Cam" each parish and keep an eye on whats going on during each mass. Just have each parish paint a little "All Seeing Eye" up in the front or ceiling and install his Cam via the pupil. LOL

Sounds like a "diver"sion to me. :)

I have a genuine question: De Musica Sacra, in paragraph 73, states, "The use of any kind of projector, and particularly movie projectors, with or without sound track, is strictly forbidden in church for any reason, even if it be for a pious, religious, or charitable cause."

Has this instruction been overruled at any point since the document was issued?

Well, it is well established from numerous studies, isn't it, that modern persons hands are much weaker and underdeveloped than those of even their grandparents time. This means that by only great effort can they hold a book, flip the pages, and then read it with eyes that have been shown in other studies to not be able to read the print in books while in church. This is a grievous pastoral problem which can only be redressed by introducing the novely of large screens, making the mass experience much easier... since all the poor people will need to do is stare at the large messages on the walls and respond as feebly as they are able in the XXI. century. And, justice be done, the liturgy SHOULD be as easy as going to a movie! They are just not up to the rigours their ancestors endured at liturgy.

Plus, I want to add that -

It is a very bad omen when people start reading handwriting on the wall in the temple