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Dissonant voices from the Vatican's choirs

Second Sunday of June 2012:
Second Sunday after Pentecost

After the choir of the Sistine Chapel, the conservatory of the Holy See is also about to be conquered by those responsible for the musical disarray of recent decades. (Chiesa, “Not Sacred Music, but Sounds of Attack”, March 30, 2012)

We here provide a summary of the above article of Sandro Magister, which is available in its entirety on the Chiesa website.

The case of the Sistine Chapel choir is emblematic. The appointment of Don Palombella as head of the Sistine choir took the "authorized personnel" a little by surprise. Although the choir has now the merit of having recovered the practice of Palestrinian execution, it must be recognized that the vocal level of the choir has further declined.

What is particularly noticeable is the inability of the singers to maintain an acceptable rhythm. The speed of execution often slows down in an exaggerated way, as in the case of the Tu es Petrus by Palestrina. With Gregorian chant, the problems become even more evident. The schola cantorum is incapable of holding the key on their own. I would invite anyone to listen again to the singing of the Litany of the Saints on the feast of the Epiphany to realize that from the start to the finish, the singers dropped a good three steps.

At the upcoming celebration of Sts. Peter and Paul, in Rome, in addition to the choir of the Sistine Chapel, the pontifical liturgies will be accompanied by the choir of Westminster Abbey. Both choirs will sing selections from the Roman tradition from Palestrina to Lorenzo Perosi. It's a given that, for the slipshod Sistine Chapel choir, the comparison with the Westminster choir scheduled will be embarrassing to say the least.

But, adding calamity to the disaster, the new head of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, the Vatican conservatory, is now Dom De Gregorio. He has been, since 2010, the number one expert of the Italian episcopal conference for sacred music. He replaced Parisi in a field in which mediocrity and confusion continue to reign supreme, as proven by the national repertoire of sacred songs put together by Parisi, who enjoys creating “tunes” with a pop music style, that has always horrified someone like Bartolucci.

De Gregorio is of the same fabric if we read his positive comments on the “Messa beat” [“Mass beat”], filled with motifs grafted in from pop, rock, jazz, gospel, and ethnic music: "It was a healthy openness, and it was of quality." If this is the word from the new head of the PIMS, the future of the Vatican conservatory is sealed: a future of neglect.

The real enigma is how all of this can happen under the reign of Benedict XVI, in a field like liturgical music in which his vision of the Church sacredness is constantly contradicted by events.

Platteville: archetype for what the Church faces

First Sunday of June 2012:
Trinity Sunday

(MADISON, WI) Is the Platteville, Wisconsin situation a microcosm of what is happening throughout the Church?

After battling for two years, members of St. Mary’s Parish in Platteville were told by their bishop that, if they persisted in spreading "rumors and gossip," the Catholics would face the denial of the sacraments of Communion, confession and burial.

St. Mary’s was a tranquil parish with a thriving elementary school until June 2010, when Bishop Robert Morlino of Madison assigned three conservative priests from the Society of Jesus Christ the Priest to the parish. They replaced a beloved pastor, Msgr. Charles Schluter, who had served the 1,200-member parish for more than a decade. The order of priests was founded in 1957 by Fr. Alfonso Galvez and is based in Murcia, Spain. Priests of the order live in community and have a special ministry to Catholic youth, according to the Madison diocesan website.[1]

Nonetheless, former parish council member Rose Mary Anderson said the changes wrought by the new priests "were shocking" to many in the parish. "They had a reputation of upsetting another parish with their very conservative ways," Anderson said of the order.

Right away, they said no girl altar servers, only priests could give Communion and they disbanded the group that took Communion to the homebound. They said the basis for what they were doing was that Vatican II had been misinterpreted.

Bishop Morlino addressed a letter to concerned members of the parish. None of the complaints involved false teaching or liturgical error, but some of the claims involved "correctable errors" that had led to hurt feelings, Morlino said. He stood by the priests and told the parishioners to talk to them instead of him. "I am confident you will be treated with dignity and respect.”[2]

Chief among the complaints appears to be a diminished role of the laity and insensitivity toward people of other faiths. One of the priests teaching third-graders asked what becomes of non-Catholics when they die. "They go to hell," responded one child. The priest reportedly high-fived the child and said "I like the way you think."

The priests have their supporters in the parish. Gregory Merrick joined St. Mary’s after hearing about the priests two years ago. He lives in Mineral Point, 25 miles away, and drives in for a 7:30 a.m. Latin Mass. He is also a member of the Gregorian chant choir. He said he believes the priests are divine, not divisive.

"The changes they made are stylistic," said Merrick, whom the pastor appointed to the parish council. "The changes are not doctrinal. Everything that these priests bring with them is good Catholic doctrine. They preach the unvarnished truth of the Gospels.” The root of the problem, Merrick said, is that the church has been infused with culture and strayed from the core teachings. “There is a 'cultural Catholicism' which is a polite Sunday experience. It's faith based on the Beatitudes without the law attached. People don't want the discipline that comes with being Catholic.” “As the dust settles, it will become smaller and more focused. Pope Benedict has said the same thing. If that's the consequence, then fine."[3]

Here are our comments on this situation, which is well known to us as our Madison, WI chapel of St. Therese is only a few miles away from this parish:

• It is interesting that these priests have received such strong criticism for merely suppressing the commonly accepted de facto abuses, yet without completely implementing Tradition.

•  It is clear from this example that returning a parish to Tradition will be a challenge because many of the laity are often very lax, ignorant of the Faith and have been presumptive of their "rights" for over four decades.

• If the introduction of conservative post-conciliar practices results in such a negative reaction, one can only imagine what the reaction will be when full-blown Tradition is re-introduced.

•  Presumably this is a conservative parish (at least this is typically so of rural churches), and if so, this makes quite a statement concerning the overall state of affairs in the American Church, let alone across the United States.

• Nonetheless, this story provides us with some hope: that a local bishop is ready to support his priests to such extent in an attempt to restore some traditional practices.

• Thus, may we hope that a local bishop will someday lend his support to a full restoration of traditional doctrine and practices?

Footnotes

1 Reported by the National Catholic Reporter in a May 2, 2012 article titled, “Wisconsin bishop threatens denial of sacraments for 'rumors and gossip'”.

2 Ibid.

3 Ibid.

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