Ye Olde School
Pope Benedict lamented that Latin, the Church's official language, was disappearing and said he wanted future priests to study Latin."Nor should we forget that the faithful can be taught to recite the more common prayers in Latin, and also to sing parts of the liturgy in Gregorian chant," he wrote.
The 1962-1965 Second Vatican Council ended the general use of the old-style Latin Mass in favour of local languages and some parishes allowed the singing of popular songs during the Mass.
Work it 15th century style
4 comments:
When the RC Church hurriedly jetisoned Gregorian chant, it opened the door to the DRECK that is called "music" nowadays in most of its churches. Chant is, to me, worshipful. These little "songs" more-or-less "sung" on Sunday mornings are more evidence of the Church's lack of respect for its members' intelligence.
Dissatisfied Grumpy Catholic
I can see your point, although I would argue that songs and prayers in the vernacular allow meaningful worship to all parishoners, not just those fortunate enough to afford parochial school and study latin. Chant is lovely, but if you don't know what you're saying, prayer it ain't.
Nevertheless, it doesn't seem unreasonable to require priests to study latin.
In the Episcopal church, prayers are chanted, beautifully, in ENGLISH. Sometimes it's Gregorian, sometimes it's what is called "Anglican" chant.
And chant isn't the only way to sing intelligent music intelligently! There are wonderful HYMNS to be sung, and they're found in all denominations. I guess Catholics must think there's something sacreligious about singing a hymn that Methodists sing? (I know this is an exaggeration. But when the RC church got rid of its traditional music, why was it replaced, in 99% of churches, by the dreck, and not just good, singable hymns?--that already existed!) (signed) "Still a DGC"
I think my issue with this is the peeling away of the changes made my V2. I don't want to see The Church go back to the bad old days that the Vatican seems to be trying to re-embrace. The return of chant and the latin are just window dressing. As a woman in the Church, I don't want to see us go back.
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