Priest asks lawmaker to quit choir post
From today's Boston Globe:
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By Donovan Slack, Globe Staff - November 17, 2004
A Catholic priest at St. Augustine Parish in Andover has asked state Representative Barbara A. L'Italien to step down as cantor and leader of the children's choir because of the legislator's support for abortion rights and gay marriage.
''He said because of my views, he did not want to have me on the altar at church anymore," L'Italien said yesterday, adding that she had refused the request from the Rev. William M. Cleary nearly two weeks ago.
L'Italien has been attending Wednesday night children's choir practices and plans to act as cantor again during the holidays, unless she receives a written order from Cleary, she said.
''I'm trying to be a good Catholic," L'Italien said. ''But this should be a separate issue. Church should be a sanctuary for me and my faith and not have anything to do with my work."
A spokeswoman for the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston said the church would not comment on the Andover priest's actions. ''The archdiocese is gathering facts, and so it would be premature to make any comment," spokeswoman Ann Carter said.
A man who answered the phone at St. Augustine's rectory said Cleary would not comment on the matter, which was first reported in The Eagle-Tribune of Lawrence.
Cleary was quoted yesterday as saying that he has no objection to L'Italien receiving communion or working with children ''behind the scenes."
''In this particular case, we're dealing with a person who is against the church's position" on abortion, The Eagle-Tribune quoted Cleary as saying. ''I can't allow her to be in a public posture, to be standing up at the pulpit singing or directing singing."
It is not the first time that area politicians have clashed with clergy members because of their professional views. In April, Archbishop Sean P. O'Malley warned that political figures should not seek to receive the Eucharist if they support abortion rights. The archbishop also encouraged parishioners to voice the church's stance in the legislative debate earlier this year over whether to amend the state constitution to ban same-sex marriage.
L'Italien -- who represents parts of Andover, North Andover, Methuen, Haverhill, Boxford, and Georgetown -- said Cleary had telephoned her on Nov. 3, the day after she was reelected, and asked to meet.
The following day, at her kitchen table, Cleary told her that four people had complained about her leading the choir as cantor and about her leading the children's choir, in which her three children sing, because she had voted against the gay marriage ban, L'Italien said. The cantor is the chief singer in a church's choir and leads the congregation in singing.
''I tried to point out that I am against the death penalty, that I've worked with the poor," said L'Italien.
At a second meeting last Thursday, the priest reiterated his plea that L'Italien step down. Again she refused. Cleary said he would send her a written notice this week saying her services are no longer welcome, she said.
''I'm surprised, and I'm saddened," L'Italien said. ''It feels like a big loss."
Material from the Associated Press was used in this report. Donovan Slack can be reached at dslack@globe.com.
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Comments? (One might glibly remark, of course, that she oughtn't be "standing up at the pulpit" to direct or sing, regardless of her politics! -- but this misses the larger point.)
3 Comments:
The psalm, even if it is sung, should be proclaimed from the same place as the Word of God, the ambo, or lectern or pulpit. In that instance, only, would the cantor be in the pulpit.
One cannot reasonably expect a terribly musical performance if the two musicians are on opposite ends of a city block. This would be the case in most churches, were the cantor in front and the organist in the loft.
And certainly the Gradual, for which the Psalm is a substitute, would never be sung from the lectern. This points, perhaps, to a fundamental difference between the two (supposedly interchangeable) musical forms: the Gradual as musical contemplation, and the Responsorial Psalm as musical proclamation. The two serve very different liturgical functions; cf. Prof. William Mahrt's excellent comments on this subject at this summer's CMAA Colloquium in Washington. The need to "get through" the lengthy texts of the Responsorial Psalm leaves little or no time to mull over and taste, as it were, the individual words. This is yet another result of "the prescribed liturgy inadvertantly [becoming] a text-only undertaking," in the words of Jeffrey Tucker (see his comments to the recent post on Msgr. Myles Bourke).
I weigh in with Fr Jeff on this one. First, good cantors and organists can compensate for distance. Second, it is not a particular problem in some repertoire for the cantor to proclaim the verses unaccompanied, especially if the organist is inexperienced. The Psalms, be they spoken or sung, remain the inspired Word of God, and as such, belong in the ambo, not in the musical ghetto of a choir loft where it might be interpreted they and other sacred music is somehow an add-on to the liturgy.
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