Does it pay well? Do you have a family? Can you easily relocate? Are there other openings in your area? Is he usually as abusive as that email sounds like, or was he just having a bad day?

Just so I'm clear, out of all these Sundays you're doing exactly one thing in Latin, right?

Meditation: Ad Te Levavi (SEP p. 1-2)

If it's from SEP, it's in English, right? :-Þ It sounds like he noted the Latin title. Maybe if there is a next time, you could call it "Unto you have I lifted up my soul" since that is what would be sung. (Unless he considers SEP to be "Latin Music.")

If you're considering the "meditation" category to be post-Communion, your pastor might be referring to GIRM #88. GIRM #88 says, "If desired, a Psalm or other canticle of praise or a hymn may also be sung by the whole congregation."

There are times
(too many times, actually)
when one scratches one's head
to perceive certain priests as an alter Christus.
This is one of them.

(It is worthy of note that the Church in council, in documents, and through successive popes has stressed, insisted, commended and commanded that Latin be a living part of the liturgical praxis of the faithful thoughout the world. These are the highest authorities in the Church. Authority to contradict them and obstruct their intent does not exist. Priests (and bishops) such as this are not acting with any authority at all: they are acting with usurped, self delegated, power and imposing their personal agendas upon that of the Church. Their unfortunate flocks are the losers.)

This does sound bad. I hope you have some other options lined up.

Low Mass on All Saints? Seems pretty stark..

Some people just don't know how to send business emails though - if you had a good in person meeting with him over the weekend, I'd give him the benefit of the doubt.

I am uncomfortable with this and other recent threads which share an ongoing conversation between priest and employee... although, ClergetK at least your name is disguised. I'm just not sure a national forum is the right place to air such discussions.

That said, since 99% of your lineup is congregational in nature and the one "latin" piece is actually in English, it seems like a quick meeting could clear all this up. A ban on Latin is also not necessarily the kiss of death - I had that imposed on me at one parish, so I went with good English rep for a while, then gradually used "greatest hits" such as Mozart Ave Verum and Panis Angelicus. And then other settings of Ave Verum (Elgar, Gounod, Byrd), and my takeaway was that pastor didn't mind Latin at all as long as it was a beautiful choral setting sung well. What they might actually mean is a ban on chant, or a ban on music that is not immediately "pretty." Not saying I agree, but there are work-arounds. End of story at that parish - after 2 years, I assembled a diocesan choir and we sang the Durufle Requiem for All Souls' Mass. And the pastor came up to me with distinctly moist eyes and said "you can do that again anytime you want".

Of course, this email you sent might just be the tip of the iceberg, but maybe a discussion could be fruitful, as he is asking.

Low Mass on All Saints? Seems pretty stark..

If dealing with a difficult DM and what may be a complaining congregation is the situation, the priest has a right to make these decisions.

Really, those of us who insist on High Mass all the time can be viewed as "It's all about me." people by others. The importance is the Mass. Music merely adorns it. When it is a hindrance, it is and should be easily discarded.

We sleep in the beds we make...and are given. There was no way that I could stay at the last job, same complaints...singing Latin was banned during Mass but he told me to sing all the Latin I liked before and after mass - he was responding to complaints and himself did not care.

Where is the place to fund a project that would develop a medicine for Latin allergy? Clearly this priest or those who influence him suffer greatly from the disease.
A Latin allergy pill, that's where my money will go. It could be part of an "all things Catholic" line of meds to assist those who get inexplicably twitchy over overtly Catholic things like Latin, chant, beautiful and doctrinally rich hymns, incense, vestments with less than 50% polyester, tabernacles where you can see 'em, stained glass windows, statuary, etc.



My advice is to meet with the pastor, truly listen, see what can be done in good faith, and quietly look for another job. Never hurts to have options. You've got my prayers, and I can sympathize, having been in a very similar situation.

I'm wondering why there wasn't a calendar meeting about All Saints Day. Without one, I think any MD would assume music would be required.

If the Ordo for your diocese says that the Saturday evening Mass is for All Souls this year, he's just correct, so we can give him credit for that.

A lot of MDs do give their pastor advance notice of the selections you want to make, so there's an opportunity for him to exercise any vetoes or make requests. Would doing that help ClergetK smooth over this bump in the relationship?

Seriously? My earlier advice stands...although I'll add that you should feel a sense of urgency about it.

I'm not surprised that the All Saints Day Mass (presumably on Saturday morning) is to be spoken. Without the Holy Day obligation, it's just one more Solemnity, and most parishes do nothing special for weekday Solemnities like St Joseph, or Annunciation, or Peter 'n' Paul. That's not the liturgical ideal, but it's very common practice.

Most of us have been in this position. I think what most are saying is: 1. Don't resign now. Work for peace and understanding while you actively look for other positions. The worst position to be in, is to resign and then go to the next interview having to explain why you resigned. It's MUCH MUCH better to interview for a job while you are still employed. 2. It often does not help to try and reason with someone like this - they do not want to be confused by the facts. But be patient, listen and cooperate, because that's what you have to do right now.

Noel, I asked around and received no solid commitments to being a mentor. People are always willing to help me solve problems, but I have to know they exist so I can seek advice in a timely manner. Nobody can sit and look over my shoulder as I plan. Even if they did, what would they be looking for? Liturgical appropriateness? Meeting Sunday/feast day themes? Finding songs that meet that ever used "singable" criteria? Does my degree in music education and three years experience teaching children to sing, and planning music programs not count for anything at all? They would ask as I would "what does Fr want?" I could easily ask him this and do as he asks without all the trouble of securing a mentor and wasting someone else's time. Before its suggested, I have had this discussion, hence he mentions that he clearly stated "no Latin" which he has. Since then, I have complied and not done any Latin, even for just the choir. The congregation is exposed to absolutely no Latin. All this with no explanation, other than "they can't understand it" which I would only be argumentative if I pressed the issue, such as they can be taught. I've worked very hard to give Fr what he says he wants and also incorporate as much good music as I can, but emails such as the above happen every other month or so when I send out the music planner, and always immediately after I send the planner. I even have a list of songs that the congregation can sing well, so that I can always put something in the list that they can sing, which complies with his priority of congregational singing, even though we already have robust cong singing anyway. I'm frustrated because I feel like he doesn't trust me to do the job, he doesn't support my decisions, and he doesn't communicate what he wants very well.

Ghmus, that is sound advice.

told me to get a mentor.

Be careful what you wish for -- your mentor might actually like and appreciate the musical tradition of the Catholic Church.

Agreed, @matthewj.

Snark aside, it is profoundly important to keep a roof over your family's heads. Don't quit until you find another job. @ghmus7 is correct when he says that it is much better to interview for a job while you still have one. It's an unfortunate truth, but it's the way the world works.

worry not, do pray,

Ph

... it forms a necessary or integral part of the solemn liturgy.

The Latin is "...pars integralis..."

Good grief, integration by parts? ... ∫u dv = uv - ∫ v du. Try making (musical or liturgical) sense out of that!

In the light of several who took exception to it, I must offer reinforcement to Ben's spot on assertion of the inegrality of music to the mass. Nor can I do so strongly enough.
Music is integral to the mass. It always was until the multitude of mediaeval monk-priests who had to have (each and every last one of them) their own private masses at a plethora of side altars and shrines, which led to the so-called low mass in parishes. Simeon of Thessolonika, writing in the XIIIth century as the Muslim hordes were besieging his city, was one of many who recorded that 'the sung service has been observed from the beginning: nothing [nothing!] has been said in the spoken voice, but all has been sung'. It takes a clever and facetious imagination to deny that the totally sung mass was what the recent council envisioned as normative. It needs to be said yet again that singing the mass is not adding something to it. Saying the mass, or any part of it, is taking something away from it, denuding it. Our Orthodox brethren to this day know nothing but of totally sung liturgy, and we in the west knew nothing but that until the mediaeval private mass practice unfortunately infected the whole Church. Spoken liturgy is, in the light of all human worship, a bizarre aberration peculiar to western Christianity, Protestant and Catholic alike. Jesus, our Lord, would never have known anything other than chanted and cantillated temple worship. Even when, at the age of twelve, he himself read the scriptures and expounded on them to the assembled rabbis, he would have delivered it in some manner of sung speech, or chant-cantillation, because of the profound holiness of the scriptures to Jews of that time. No one would have dared the blasphemy of merely speaking holy writ. Ditto the worship of God. Spoken liturgy is weird. I am amazed that there are people who don't seem to be embarrassed by practicing it.

.

Here is my intended point-by-point reply to his email. Question 5 was particularly difficult to come up with a tactful, professional response to, but I think I did ok. Let me know what you think. I have not sent this yet, and probably won't until I edit it significantly. Again, names removed to protect the innocent.

1. I can inform the musicians that for All Saints we will not have music for that Mass. I have already informed the cantors that it is only the weekday Mass on Saturday. My apologies, but after our conversation I thought it was still ok to have music, and that I would be finding musicians to cover.

2. I have already discussed that with ****, and a subsequent email is going to go out when I can compose it.

3. The song only has a Latin title. It will be sung in English. The abbreviation SEP stands for "Simple English Propers" and is the Proper of the Mass set in chant style to English words. The congregation will be able to understand what is being sung.

4. My apologies as I was unaware of when the music issues would be changed out in the pews. I will correct the list.

5. When I choose hymns for Mass, I consider the message and/or theme of each Sunday. The Proper of the Mass has many insights to this, as they were intended to be sung at the same times that we currently sing our hymns, and the texts are always appropriate to the day because they were provided by the Church for each given Sunday and Feast Day. For Entrance and Recessional, I generally don't worry too much about it, because it's technically outside of Mass, and the Recessional was never part of the Proper of the Mass to begin with. I always consult the list of hymns that I created using resources provided by ****, consultations with **** and other cantors/musicians, conversations/questions answered by **** regarding previous practice, and my own experience of what this congregation has sung before. As for selecting new songs to teach, sometimes we do not have a hymn that the congregation already knows that will work for a given Sunday, as the themes are not always something commonly covered in congregational hymnody, especially the more popular ones that many people already know from the past. As I am planning far enough ahead, I can foresee when we will need to learn a new hymn for this reason, and I put it on the schedule well enough in advance to teach it to the congregation so that when the time comes to sing it at Mass, they can participate. As for who teaches the music, this may have to be a separate discussion on who is permitted to fill the role of cantor at our church.

It sounds like he's the type who would like you to say you first consider if the people know it well/enjoy it (the hymns). You might want to consider saying that first just to defuse tension.

Sometimes less is more when it comes to emails... or just have this conversation in person.

Emailing in a white suit is a great way to spend a day.

I still say give 'em the Byrd.

As a musician, I feel like I should have heard this before.

Nonetheless, HIL. AR. I. OUS.