If you have an option to finesse the problem and get out of singing inferior music, why not take it? I'm assuming that the cantor at least gets paid for the indignity of singing that stuff.

If your girls are embarassed to sing this drivel, be thankful (very thankful!) that they are, and don't ask them to embarass themselves nor to prostitute themselves musically. Nor should you even think of embarassing yourself. One grasps in vain for a fitting adjective for the 'priest' who so callously did not so much as take note of your careful and loving preparations: he obviously has no need of your or your girls' talents for what he has in mind. I am sure that everyone on this forum sends you understanding and encouragement to continue your exemplary work. Godspeed!

And, you mention your conscience: we are not required to betray our consciences; doing so would be a sin.

How to handle it? You gather up all your confidence, integrity, honesty, peace, and love of what is due to God and simply tell this holy priest that, due to compelling personal reasons you and your girls will not be available for this occasion... and that you are sure that the cantor will be quite adequate for his needs.

smiling, she agreed..."Yes, the cantor will be more than adequate for his needs."

You are quite right. But, I do feel a sense of obligation to the elderly gentleman (and Knight of the Holy Sepulchre) who brought us there. (He was also at the meeting - talked over and marginalized by the 'hole y' priest.) Nevertheless, I will speak honestly with him today and express our regret that we cannot, as you say, prostitute ourselves and our prayer for the sake of one man's bad taste and priestly bullying.

The exact same wording "musically prostitute" had occurred to me, actually.
Many thanks. Blessed lent and holy week to you, Jackson.

"One foot in paradise, one in the waste" (excerpt lyric from "Change our hearts, Cooney). If that one line doesn't sum up the dynamic with this issue, if not in the larger arenas of our concerns, I don't know what does. As much as one wants to exonerate the intent of composers such as Cooney and Conry to "inject" their prescriptive imagery from scripture into presumptively lethargic liturgies and hearts, the effect is very much akin to pornography. Such graphic allusions miss the mark and intent of liturgy in the first place, to elevate the soul of every worshipper from whatever befouls their hearts towards that which is so other worldly, so beautiful, that "both feet" are "in paradise." How does an ordained minister not GET that Christ's parable has the wayward son realize as he's mired among swine that he must "rise and go to his father."? Well, so must our expressive wills be fashioned.
I second Jackson's advice in toto. I would advise you to consider NOT using the word "prostitute" in your rationale with the abbot or whomever. It's important that whatever rhetoric is said may not be heard with equal understanding, and that you and your choir remain above any avenue that could lead to reproach.
God bless you for your ministry, your integrity and your pastoral common sense.

I'm not sure what the problem is with "methought." It's just the past tense of "methink(s, -eth)." This is not some folksy Irish colloquialism; it's standard archaic English, somewhat on the level of "vouchsafe."

Honestly, I had not even read the text of that "hymn"- I was (literally) so nauseated by the "Holy City" encounter with my iPhone that I had to step away.

I'm the one who is grateful, because this discussion has helped me discern the cause of my nausea. You're absolutely correct, Charles. How perfectly ironic that my (hence, our) dilemma is encapsulated in the lyric of the piece I've been ordered to perform! (Dante, call your office..) What appears - on the surface - to be a minor matter of holding our noses and singing something we deplore in order to "gain" the privilege of singing something transformational is perverse in and of itself. To then compel the musician to become the instrument with which sacred scripture is bastardized is, forgive me for the drama, but it's the province of the unholy. (Priests, deacons, DRE's, etc. have tried to play this game of "keep away" with us for years, no?)

The insidious nature of this "bargain" is acutely revealed when young musicians are involved, to my mind. To carry such a bargain further and allow the innocence of young musicians to be demoralized would be really creepy. My girls feel betrayed by this turn of events. They have conquered themselves to perform music at a level that is somewhat above their capabilities. They have polished it until it was a worthy offering - and become vulnerable in order to place it before Christ and the congregation.

They trusted that the priests in charge of the liturgy would understand and be transformed as they have been transformed. (And, one or two have.) Unfortunately, the Order (like so many) is in decline & decay. They like the girls and appreciate their work on one level, but the friars don't really have the capacity to understand the almost desperate need the girls have to serve the liturgy and serve it well. (They were so excited to learn to read neumes and sing the propers that I was somewhat shocked at the effect. I emailed Jeffrey about it a month or two ago and he posted their experience in the Chant cafe.) But to carry your analogy a step further, Charles, in some sense, they have placed their pearls before the swine....and....forgive me Lord, but the swine ...is ...well, perhaps I should leave it at that.

And, thank you very much for your concern, Charles. You're point is well-taken. Don't worry, I won't storm the Monastery refusing to pimp my schola! (scandal!)
May God have mercy on us all.
You have all been a much needed blessing and a pleasure, but here's my next question: I can stand my ground with graceful, quiet, even cheerful non-involvement - but how do we explain this moral decision to one's friends and the girls parent's without coming off as uppity, temperamental musicians. One of my girls said the same thing last night.
She couldn't really figure out why she was so repulsed and couldn't put it into words, but they are very sensitive. Can we communicate this to the unclean? (ironic joke alert)

This is a song that deserves the probing question: what is the theology behind this piece?

It avoids looking at the person of Jesus: it only speaks of the crucifixion in terms of "the shadow of a cross", and then it leaps beyond the Cross and skips the Resurrection to speak of the heavenly Jerusalem at the end of time, so it's not really suited for Palm Sunday. This lack of focus on Christ isn't a surprise, since the lyricist and the composer were not Catholics but Freemasons; they were a successful pop-song team of the Victorian era and the song was written as popular entertainment. It was never intended for use in church.

I'm so glad to hear the good news for you and the girls, tomboysuze. I hope you get to work at a parish who has open ears and minds for sacred music.

@tomboysuze: So happy to hear of the good outcome (so far)! :) I'll say a prayer for your hopeful job position, too.

tomboysuze,
Where are you located?

Priests zealous for sacred music are rare enough that we ought to encourage them by all means!

Update -- Sometimes I think I'm losing my mind when it comes to these silly battles.

After spending two days trying to navigate the above situation gracefully, I received a phone call tonight from my liaison at the Monastery asking me to come to a meeting with the priests who are doing Holy Thursday and Easter Sunday - so they could "make sure I picked hymns that the congregation can sing" and by the way, they wanted me to know "you don't have to do the Introit." Like that is something controversial or something!
How bizarre for the abbot to tell him to tell me that!

And now the gentleman who called me is pretending nothing happened!

When I asked him about the concerns I expressed and what the abbot said about everything that occurred, he brushed it all aside - and said that the abbott wasn't going to get involved in any of that - and wouldn't interfere with the priest who was so rude at the meeting.

He went on to talk right over me and wouldn't let me get a word in the conversation.

I always find it really unsettling when people pretend that a conflict never occurred and then when you politely try to ask about the thing that blew up in the middle of the room - they seem puzzled.

It's the era of the "twilight zone." All reason has abandoned most of the world.
I'm stunned.

This badly managed monastery is even crazier than I thought. I need to disentangle my girls from this all together.

Your thoughts? Anyone?

I agree with Jenny's suggestion about not attending the meeting, but sending something in writing declining to have your choir sing there. It's in the girls' best spiritual interest as well as yours.

I am St John, Westminster. Not that close to D. C., I know, but around here we're used to having to drive a good ways to find sacred music!