Anyone have experience with a priest who changed the mass motu proprio?
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    On another thread, it came out that the person asking the question had a bigger problem than the one he was asking about. That was, the priest on his own authority substituted a song for the responsorial Psalm. This is of course a deep violation of any and every rule concerning the mass that there is. I was amazed to discover that this kind of thing still went on. It sounds like a 1970s problem. However, I did attend a Mass at a church in California that also has a Gregorian mass. I assumed that it would be a well done mass, even if there was no Latin. Hah! Bunch of aging hippies singing the same old praise songs as if they were personally giving a gift to everyone who was blessed to come within their ambit. I was still a new Catholic, and I had to go home and find out if the mass was even licit, because they left some things out. It was. However, they did not substitute anything. So, anyone out there with any experience of dealing with the priest who is so misguided, and better yet, any experience in helping to direct such priest to conformity with the one true mass?
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    I should clarify, he stated the problem upfront, but was seeking advice on a first step. That was, finding some settings that could be done by a band and yet were still nourishing. If I read correctly, his hope is that he will make it so obvious that the psalm is better that the pastor will be drawn to doing what he should be doing automatically anyway. Given his age – just out of college – I think that probably is as good an approach as he can hope for in the time allotted to him and the position that he has. Others, of course, wanted to fix the pastor's attitude right up front, but I doubt that that is possible.
  • hartleymartin
    Posts: 1,447
    Often this problems exists because someone started doing it many years ago and everyone has subsequently thought that this is correct or at least acceptable.

    I know that it is permissable to subtitute a hymn for the Introit, Offertory and Communion Chants (heck, it is even acceptable to play quiet instrumental music), but the ordinary of the mass cannot be tampered with.
  • CharlesW
    Posts: 11,988
    Some of it relates to the bishop. At one time, some priests in my area, or so I have heard, did change parts of the mass to suit themselves. I never witnessed it personally. Our current bishop wouldn't tolerate that and so it seems to have disappeared.
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,050
    I do not have direct experience as a music director, but once was in a choir in a parish where the pastor was resistant to what the MD was trying to do in terms of Latin, chant, and more traditional music. The MD just worked him over patiently for many years and now the parish has (with the same pastor but different MD) one of the outstanding choirs in the diocese. There was less citation of documents and lecturing than just doing beautiful music well, little by little, which eventually won the pastor over. Now he's proud of the excellent choir in his parish!
    Thanked by 3kevinf teachermom24 E_A_Fulhorst
  • teachermom24
    Posts: 327
    I don't have a lot of experience with this but am getting more. I am following the procedure "rich_enough" offered which is short on talk (advising the priest which not only does no good but usually backfires) and long on action (offering the best music I can).

    Kathy
    Thanked by 2irishtenor E_A_Fulhorst
  • amindthatsuits
    Posts: 860
    I think that the person who asked the question in fact was wise beyond his years. Finding responsorial Psalms in a music idiom that the parish could accept is the first step. Some wanted him to pull out the GIRM and everything else, but that would just get people's backs up.

    After I attended the Colloquium some years ago, I asked people about what I should do to make the Responsorial Psalm BETTER, and I received some advice that said, "Just do the Graduale." In most parishes, that would go over like a whole carnival full of lead balloons.

    Thanks. Any further comment is more than welcome.

    Someone posted a video on ChantCafe of an association of priests who referred to themselves as have been "beaten" over the years, by which they meant asked to come into conformity with the true Mass. They featured a bunch of very old priests who STILL cannot play guitar singing the all time worst praise song ever . ("Eat His Body, Drink His Blood, As We Sing Our Song Of Love.") I sang it at an Episcopal prep school in 1971. When I have said that we have to allow time for some good songs as the early ones were just kind of done in desperation, it was EXACTLY this horrid song that I meant. And here they said it was the best thing ever--so 1970 is their Annus Magnificus. I think CharlesW is right: abuses of this severity are largely a thing of the past. Certainly the new wave of "JPII priests" who are becoming bishops are going to stop it.

    And this group of unreformed priests has only 600 very aged members.
    Thanked by 1E_A_Fulhorst
  • Joseph MendesJoseph Mendes
    Posts: 99
    This is the first time I’ve seen motu proprio used as an adverb in English. +1 to amindthatsuits!
    Thanked by 1ScottKChicago
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