From the Gloucester County Times:

The Cathedral Singers of Camden will present a concert of sacred music on Nov. 28 at 4 p.m. in the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception at Broadway and Market streets in Camden. The event is free, the public is welcome, and ample parking is available next to the cathedral.

The Cathedral Singers of Camden are an a cappella ensemble of singers from many churches and parishes throughout southern New Jersey. Specializing in Gregorian Chant, the 40-voice choir performs sacred music from ancient to modern. The choir is led by its founder, Ted Kiefer, who is director of music at St. Charles Borromeo Seminary in Wynnewood, Pa., organist at St. Agnes in Blackwood, and choir master for the Diocese of Camden.

On Dec. 8, the feast of the Immaculate Conception, the Cathedral Singers will perform a brief concert prior to the 7:30 p.m. Mass at the cathedral. They will also sing responses during Mass that evening.

In July 2005, Cathedral Singers will participate in a choral festival in Krakow, Poland. For information about the choir trip or the concert, call (856) 694-3693 or e-mail Ted Kiefer at chadorgan1@aol.com.

From Man with the Black Hat come some interesting comments on Catholic music, the glory of our heritage, the calamities of recent history, and hope for the future.

"Chant is the most natural way to sing in the world, as it is an extension of the natural rising and falling of human speech.... I still remember daily Mass at my parochial school, in the town in Ohio where I grew up, and how the older children would chant the Mass settings together in unison... And I can still remember hearing them singing 'O Esca Viatorum' to this day. I remember learning the chants in class along with other children's songs, using the then-popular 'Ward Method.' Those were a series of books designed to teach sacred music to children. I understand they are making a slow but steady comeback."

From today's Boston Globe:

This just in. Bishop Trautman of Erie, PA was re-elected after an hiatus as chairman of the USCCB Liturgy Committee. Known as an ardent supporter of "inclusive language," Bishop Trautman's--er, Bishop Fishperson's--nomination from the floor was only the second in over 25 years, he won easily with 127 votes over the two slated candidates: Rigali (105) and Vigneron (7). What does this mean? Comments and reactions, please.

The Fall issue of Sacred Music (Vol. 131, #3) is out with another excellent article by Arlene Oost-Zinner and Jeffrey Tucker entitled "Why Sacred Music Matters" and one by Arlene alone entitled "Children and Chant." Also an interview by Susan Treacy of Harold Unverferth one of the earliest participants in the old Gregorian Institute of America program.

Msgr. Myles M. Bourke, pastor of Corpus Christi Church in Manhattan for twenty-six years and an eminent proponent of excellent sacred music and solemn liturgical practice, died on Saturday at 7:15 a.m. at Our Lady of Consolation in the Bronx.

Msgr. Bourke, a prominent scripture scholar, was made pastor of Corpus Christi in 1966, during the years of considerable liturgical ambiguity following the Second Vatican Council. When it was announced the Solesmes would issue revised chant books to accord with the new calendar and rite that were then being devised, most all Catholic churches threw out their old Libers. This revised Roman Gradual did not appear, however, until 1975, by which time any living tradition of chant in these churches had been dead for nearly a decade. Not so at Corpus Christi. Msgr. Bourke steadfastly refused to abandon the chant, and continued to use the old chant books until the new ones were available--and the new books turned out to be not so radical a departure as had been widely expected. (It should be noted that he was critical of aspects of the new calendar, most especially the idea of "Ordinary Time" that conflates the theologically very different Sundays after Epiphany and Sundays after Pentecost.) His rigorous and prayerful example was an inspiration to a number of younger priests.

The funeral will be held on Tuesday, 16 November, at 10 a.m. at Corpus Christi.

Requiem aeternam dona ei, Domine.
Et lux perpetua luceat ei.

Hope springs eternal for the international chant movement.

A colleague organization in the UK, the Association for Latin Liturgy, offers an informative website. The Association's mission, among other things, is to bring to light and preserve the Roman Church's unique inheritance of liturgical music. Especially notable is their CD offering, Orate Fratres, designed specifically to aid pastors in learning to sing the Mass in Latin.

People today are leaving the church in ever growing numbers. Young people are staying at home. People no longer want to commit themselves. Basic truths of philosophy, dogma and morals are no longer regarded as valid. What will the situation look like in ten years ? thirty ? fifty ? The long history of Christ's Church is no stranger to periods of crisis and decline. But today, the new element seems to be the widespread turning away from the God of Revelation, accompanied by an unusual growth of ersatz religions, esoteric movements, and the like.

Some are attempting to explain this situation, and to investigate its causes. After the diagnosis comes the prescribed therapy, for instance the call for (new or at least re-)evangelisation. Others hope to ensure the survival of revealed religion amongst men, or at least amongst Christians and Catholics, by proclaiming another idea of God ("no threats, all smiles !"), or a Church that is "more friendly to normal people." And accordingly, they re-invent the liturgy every week -- but without any real and lasting success, it seems. These persons minimise their failures by reminding us that "Success is not one of God's names." But it remains true that the sontinuation of such well-intentioned efforts reveals tendencies which strengthen a purely subjective idea of the Church.

Liturgical worship is of course only one of the approaches to improving the situation. The remarks which follow, are not intended as accusations, but rather as a deliberate provocation, in the sense of a "thought-provoking" contribution to the discussion about the extent to which the Church's worship should radiate more of the seriousness of her beliefs. The legitimate liturgist believes that in the long run, a certain revision of widespread contemporary liturgical practise (perhaps along the lines of a much discussed 'reform of the reform' ?) could be of great benefit to many persons who are searching for a prayerful liturgy, one worthy of the God we worship. It is not a matter of casting in concrete or canonising for all eternity one or the other feature of today's liturgical forms, nor of anathematising any of them. Rather, it is necessary to lead people more clearly and more firmly back to essentials. The Catholic Church is not so completely a part of "world" that she would lose her own mission and purpose in that world. The liturgy of the praying Church requires an overarching form. Here, the classic Roman liturgy in the form we know it since the XVIth century, could furnish a helpful paradigm...

Since no all-inclusive generalisations are intended, the seven theses which follow should be prefaced by qualifiers such as "Many times," "Often," "Generally speaking," or "Not infrequently."

1. We have a "good times" or "happy day" liturgy.

The liturgical tinkers tell us that today, the Mass should be "fun," not boring. And so in "childrens' Masses," for instance, the little ones are constantly "in action." Everything must be informal, spontaneous, punctuated by calls for applause, etc....at all costs, just like everyday life itself, but garnished, of course, with supposedly "religious" decorations. Getting accustomed to disrespect...much that is banal -- because nothing that is "unintelligible" may be presented ! No, everyone must understand everything, at once ! which of course eliminates any patient, gradual growth into a Catholic lifestyle.

2. Even though it is sometimes camouflaged, we have a cult of disenfranchisement in the liturgy these days. However, it is not the layfolk who are "silenced" and "lose their voices," but the priests, whose role is reducxed and minimised, who are in effect legally incapacitated. Many Catholics have lost any sense of the priesthood as mediating the graces of salvation, any consciousness of needing someone equipped with special sacramental authority and power. Instead of service in and for the world, ever increasing numbers of layfolk perform superfluous tasks at and around the altar. Almost unnoticeably, priests are subjected to increasing pressure. Indeed, many of them cannot renounce enough of what really belongs to their office by virtue of ordination.

3. We have a bureaucratised liturgy.

Wisely enacted, currently valid and mature rubrical prescriptions are bypassed, regarded as inapplicable, indeed ignored and ridiculed. And at the same time, for the sake of a pedantic "transparency," scientific specialists, committees and offices are constantly discovering and "bringing to light" whatever they regard as solely appropriate, and hence what (in future) must be strictly understood and practised as such. Simultaneously, as a consequence of continual "improvements," parish liturgy becomes increasingly transitory, short-lived, difficult to grasp and hence quite vexing for many of the faithful. Is it true that the worship of the Church must always and unconditionally conform to the new "red tape" of very secondary (even if "scientifically" presented) theories and opinions ? or the latest theologisms ?

4. We have a "Better World" liturgy.

In spite of Scripture readings which are frequently lengthy (or perhaps : because of that fact ?), the faith content, the dogma itself is practically relegated to last place. Trains of thought inspired by the supernatural (for instance in the orations) are masked and trivialised by everyday banalities of language. "Sacred" words are deliberately avoided. One does not think the listeners capable of recognising elegant or noble diction (in the lections, for instance), and so the "popolini," the little people who control the levers of power, shy awsay from poetic, solemn or elevated expressions (e.g. "pregnant" instead of "great with child"). In their place one finds a great deal of "world" pathos, indoctrination, reproach and criticism, "politico" vocabulary....and every least hint of a "good creation" or a "redeemed world" is regarded as a falsehood.

5. We have a one-sided "clubby" liturgy.

The fabled "community" of song and story is greatly overemphasised, whilst individual piety is rejected as "salvation egoism." Popular devotions which complement the official liturgy, have disappeared -- which is also one of the reasons for the lack of contact with the Church, not feeling "at home" in the bosom of Holy Mother Church. Vespers and Bible vigils are important. But there is also urgent need of regularly recurring forms of popular piety, including Benediction with the Most Blessed Sacrament.

6. We have a reductionist liturgy.

A good many present day liturgies (in the plural) present themselves as anti-hierarchical and completely democratised. People "dream up" or imagine for themselves a "community" which is inflated into a "local church" ; they recommend the "slimmed down" small group "faith community" which regards itself as independent and withdrawn from any control or oversight. It is also difficult to deny, in some instances, an exaggerated opposition to territorial parishes. Here and there, such groups "celebrate" in opposition to bishop and Pope, striving to separate themselves from the world-wide Church.

7. We have a graceless, artistically impoverished liturgy.

Images which hit the martk and impress the viewer; worthwhile music old and new which elevates the worshipper whilst touching profound emotions; forms, colours and architecture for a well-ordered, by noi means "sterile" worship service -- all these arouse and deepen faith, make it more perceptible and thus intelligible, enabling religious colloquy in the hearts of the highly educated as well as simple folk. Is it not true that today, many of the riches of the Catholic way of praying are being withheld from the faithful ? And of course, whoever acts "crazy" in this area, earns applause. The image of Christ is impoverished because the world is in a parlous way. Many, we are assured, can only find their way (back) to the faith by starting from misery....

{Here a recent U.S. example, in direct quotation : "Dear friends, I want to inform you that on Sunday 24 October I was fired from my position as Director of Music at Saint M of M Church by N.N., the new pastor of the parish. I did my best to uphold the highest standards of my art with the resources that were at my disposal. I conformed my programme to the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, 'Sacrosanctum Concilium'. The pastor demanded that I effectively deny my artistic standards, my education and my conscience by following his suggestions. I know his suggestions and demands to be contrary to the Church's teachings on the sacred Liturgy. I refused to indulge his unreasonable demands. I could only do what I believe to be correct and appropriate. I thank you for your support. I hope to find a way around this obstacle and continuento promote chant, polyphony and the sacred arts. I am looking for a church or venue for my little choir...to continue its service." }

It is only when the "producers" of worship services make an effort to be more loyal to tradition, closer to the people, moving and touching their hearts, by being above all more vertical or theocentric than the rites of other religions or confessions, that our own Mother Church will again become more attractive to many...indeed, even appear irreplaceable.

+ Max Ziegelbauer

Max Ziegelbauer, ordained 1950, gathered extensive pastoral experience in his native Bavaria.
From 1983/1998 he served as auxiliary bishop of Augsburg, where he was a prominent supporter of the diocesan choir school and boys' choir, as well as the excellent Cathedral music programme in Augsburg. Translated, with permission, from www.sinfonia-sacra.com.

On October 15, 2004, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, headed by Francis Cardinal Arinze, issued "The Year of the Eucharist: Suggestions and Proposals." (News items: 1 and 2). Its passages on music deserve particular attention because they represent a continuation of the ongoing effort to restore chant and other sacred music to its rightful place in the liturgy.

• #30: The singing of the Mass, as opposed to simply singing "during" the Mass allows us to experience the Lord Jesus who comes to enter into communion with us, “so that [his] joy may be in [us] and [our] joy may be complete.” (cf. Jn 15:11; 16:24; 17:13). You fill us with joy, Lord, by your very presence!
• #35: The acceptance of the Holy Father’s invitation is to do everything possible this year, to cede to the Sunday Eucharistic celebration the central position that it ought to have in the parish, which is rightly called an “Eucharistic Community” (cf. SC, 42; Mane nobiscum Domine, 23; Dies Domini, 35-36; Eucharisticum mysterium, 26). Taking this into account, we suggest the following ideas: ... Should dedicate singular attention to liturgical song, taking into account the indications of John Paul II in his recent document on Sacred Music.
• #36: In sanctuaries, the Eucharistic celebration is the centerpiece of many of the activities (evangelization, charity, culture). It would be useful to do the following: ... Encourage the participation of various groups in the same Eucharistic celebration of the Mass, properly articulated while being attentive to the diversity of languages, if it be the case. Here Gregorian Chant can be useful, at least taking into account the more simple melodies, above all during the Ordinary of the Mass, especially the Credo and the Lord’s Prayer.
• #38: The special Year of the Eucharist is extremely significant for Seminaries and formation houses in which future diocesan and religious priests, as well as deacons, are formed... Special attention should be given to: ... Inculcate in the seminarians an understanding of the usefulness of a certain fluency in the Latin language, and Gregorian Chant, so as to be able to pray and chant in Latin when the need arises, and so rooting themselves in the tradition of the Church at prayer.