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“In The End My Immaculate Heart Will Triumph.”
Our Lady Of Fatima
When We Remove The Cross
We Remove The Sacrifice

"No More Permission Needed For Latin Mass, Cardinal Says"

Rome, Sep. 14, 2007 (CWNews.Com) - With the formal implementation of Summorum Pontificum, the Pope's motu proprio providing wider access to the 1962 Roman Missal, diocesan priests do not need permission to celebrate the Latin Mass, a top Vatican official has stated.

Cardinal Dario Castrillon-Hoyos-- the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission, which supervises Vatican outreach to traditionalist Catholics-- says that "from this point, priests can decide to celebrate the Mass using the old rite, without permission from the Holy See or the bishop."

In an interview with Vatican Radio on September 13, broadcast just before the motu proprio officially took effect, Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos explained that Pope Benedict's motu proprio affirms the right of any priest to use the "extraordinary form" of the Latin liturgy. "It is, therefore, uncessary to ask for any other permission," he said.

Some diocesan bishops have cautioned their priests against using the 1962 Missal without explicit permission from the diocese. But the president of the Ecclesia Dei commission-- which would hear any appeals regarding the new liturgical rules-- contradicted that notion in his Vatican Radio appearance. While affirming the bishop's authority to resolve any liturgical conflicts within his diocese, the Colombian cardinal said that the bishop should exercise that power "without negating the right that the Pope has given to the entire Church."

Cardinal Castrillon Hoyos said that the motu proprio involves "no big change" in the liturgy of the Roman Church, since the older liturgy was never banned. Vatican II affirmed the freedoms of the faithful, he said, and one such freedom, which Pope Benedict has now confirmed, was access to the older liturgical form.

"Nothing is imposed on anyone" by Summorum Pontificum, the cardinal said. In allowing for greater use of the old Missal, he explained, Pope Benedict is merely "opening a possibility to the faithful who request it."

Edition 41                                                               November 5, 2006                                           Pray The Rosary

Diversity
Does Uniformity In Bishop Brown’s
Diocese Include Running With The Devil?

“There is nothing demonic about cutting off the outfit of a little red devil … We had one handing out Communion at the last Mass.” --“Only at Corpus Christi does the devil himself become a Eucharistic minister ... You know we are twisted!” ---“As Catholic Christians, we believe in a God who wants us to have fun and be delighted.” (Quotes from Father Fred Bailey during his sacrilegious ‘Halloween Mass’ which was held at Corpus Christi Parish in Aliso Viejo, Ca. on Oct. 28, 2006) “The only thing necessary for evil to flourish is for good people to do nothing.”[Edmund Burke] Remember, we are the Church Militant, not the Church hesitant, or the Church “no I can’t!” Please, do not shirk your duty to contact the Diocese of Orange and speak with Bishop Tod Brown about this deplorable offense towards respect for the Blessed Sacrament.

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Are Bishop Brown and his Pastors now substituting devil costumes
and Barney the Dinosaur forJesus in the Blessed Sacrament, to
bolster lagging attendance in Orange County parish Masses?

We apologize to the many disenfranchised Catholics who have stopped attending Mass and ceased involvement with their Catholic Faith. We also deplore the disintegration of the Sacredness of our Catholic Faith. We are also heartbroken by the erosion of Catholic respect and belief in the Real Presence of Jesus Christ, Body, Blood Soul and Divinity in the Blessed Sacrament.  There is no mystery why the numbers of Catholics who participate are declining in the Diocese of Orange. The answer is that our shepherds are not taking our Catholic Treasure of Faith in the Blessed Sacrament seriously the root of the problem.

 

TERRE HAUTE, Indiana, October 12, 2006 (LifeSiteNews) – Blessed Mother Theodore Guerin will be named a saint of the Catholic Church on Sunday, October 15, 2006.  The nun, who had to endure considerable persecution from her bishop, always acted with respect but firmness when she had to act against his wishes. As such she is seen as a timely example for today’s faithful Catholic clergy and laity, who have in many dioceses had to endure poor leadership, persecution and the sexual abuse scandals from their bishops.

Blessed Mother Theodore was born Anne Therese Guerin to a sea faring family in Brittany, France in the year 1798.  At her First Communion at age 10 she informed the parish priest that she was going to dedicate her life to God and His work.  She later entered the Sisters of Providence of Ruillé-sur-Loir, France, a young community who dedicated themselves to teaching and caring for the sick.  Soon after entering the religious community, Mother Theodore suffered from a disease that left her unable to eat solid food.  She subsequently survived on soft foods and liquids for the rest of her life.

Around the year 1839, Bishop Celestine de la Hailandière of the American diocese of Vincennes in Indiana requested that the Sisters of Providence form a mission in his diocese.  Mother Theodore was chosen to lead the mission. After a journey that lasted almost four months, she and 5 other sisters arrived at the new mission territory.  Over the next several years, the Sister of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, as their new foundation was called, opened and taught at several schools and orphanages for both boys and girls.

The fledgling order, led by their superior Mother Theodore, faced many trials in their work in America.  Bishop de la Hailandiere, the bishop who initially invited the nuns to come, proved to be very difficult to work with and one of their greatest trials.  He was determined to assert his absolute authority over the community despite what the rule of their Order maintained.

Mother Theodore always acted with respect but firmness when she had to act against his wishes.  In 1847, the bishop even went so far as to banish Mother Theodore from her mission and release her from her vows.  However, not long after, Bishop de la Hailandiere was forced to submit his resignation to Rome because of other conflicts in his diocese.  Rome accepted the resignation and appointed a successor who supported Mother Theodore and her sisters in their mission.

Mother Theodore died on May 14, 1856, at the young age of 57. Pope John Paul II beatified her on Oct. 25, 1998.  Her feast day is honored on October 3.

Mother Theodore is seen as an example to many Catholics today who, at times, must try to reconcile obedience with acting in accord with one’s own authentic Catholic conscience.  Many faithful lay people, clergy and religious alike, have been undergoing persecution, injustice or serious negligence from unfaithful Church authorities that are supposed to be guiding and supporting them.  The widespread abuse scandal that American Catholics have just experienced is evidence of the corruption of some of the authorities in the Catholic Church.

The story of Mother Theodore’s life may be a shot in the arm that the faithful need to be encouraged in their often seemingly uphill battles.  Pro-life and pro-family leaders, for example, have for years been disheartened by a persistent lack of meaningful support and even cruel opposition from many of their bishops and other Church authorities. However, Mother Theodore’s respectful but firm response to these scandalous Church authorities has been a strong example that, despite, and perhaps because of such trials, the sanctity that the faithful should above all be striving for is very much attainable.

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CATHOLIC PASTOR PROMISES “WORSHIP, FUN, AND FROLIC” AT IRREVERENT HALLOWEEN COSTUME MASS IN ALISO VIEJO

Diocese Of Orange Sacred Liturgical Worship Hits A New Low

Bishop Tod D. Brown in his September 2006 Pastoral letter laments that Orange County Catholics in increasing numbers are not taking their faith seriously - - - Is there any wonder why, when his handpicked pastors are prancing around the altar in Barney-The-Dinosaur costumes during the sacred sacrifice of the Mass?

Bishop Brown, in his ongoing micro-management of little St. Mary’s By the Sea parish, continues his unyielding ban of the sacred Tridentine Mass at St. Mary’s; yet down at Corpus Christi Church in Aliso Viejo this weekend he has apparently given his ‘thumbs up’ to what can only be described as a sacrilegious gimmick which debases the holy sacrifice of the Mass into something akin to a Chuck-E-Cheese Pizza Time theater show.  The parish website www.avcatholics.org/bulletin2006.asp gives the following witless announcement:

“Let your inner child come out to play”

 

For those newly arrived at Corpus Christi since last October 31st you may not be aware of our most wonderful celebration of Halloween on the weekend PRIOR to October 31st. .which this year will be NEXT weekend, October 28-29.  In anticipation of All Hallows Eve parishioners are invited to come to Mass in costume (yep. . .that means adults AND kids).  In addition, families/individuals are invited to carve a family Fred-O’Lantern (related to Jack but a lot more fun) for placement around the altar.  Special treats (and very few tricks) will be available to the young and young at heart at all the Masses.  In addition, let the wondering and guessing begin as to who or what FKB will become at the end of Mass; final clue:  I love you, you love me. . . .Our God is not threatened by carved vegetables; rather, he delights in a parish family that comes together in worship, fun and frolic.”

This is just the type of liturgical abuse which our beloved pontiff Benedict XVI

had in mind when in 2000 he wrote his book The Spirit of the Liturgy:

“In the Old Testament there is a series of very impressive testimonies to the truth that the liturgy is not a matter of “what you please”.  Nowhere is this more dramatically evident than the narrative of the golden calf.  The worship of the golden calf is a self-generated cult.  When Moses stays away for too long and God himself becomes inaccessible, the people just fetch him back.  Worship becomes a feast that the community gives itself, a festival of self-affirmation.  Instead of being worship of God, it becomes a circle closed in on itself:  eating, drinking and making merry.  The dance around the golden calf is an image of this self-seeking worship.

Ultimately it is no longer concerned with God but with giving oneself a nice little alternative world, manufactured from ones own resources.  Then liturgy really does become pointless, just fooling around.  Or still worse it becomes an apostasy from the living God, an apostasy in sacral disguise.”

Father Fred K. Bailey (aka FKB) is the flamboyant “progressive” pastor dreaming up this spiritually mindless liturgical ‘trick or treat’, who in the past sent degrading memos ridiculing the Church teaching of offering our sufferings for the souls in Purgatory as being “archaic”, and whose egocentric, ham-it-up homilies are more in the mold of a David Letterman monologue than a sermon by a Catholic priest.

Bishop Brown’s indifference to his pastor’s antics is not unlike Brown’s colleague and good friend, Bishop John Cummins of Oakland  whose pastor at Christ The King Church in September 2002 was allowed to celebrate the entire Mass in a clown costume (see photo).  Why is our bishop so tolerant of those liturgical abuses which our Holy Father deplores; and so rigidly intolerant of a liturgical form [Tridentine Mass] which our Holy Father adores?  The disunity between Rome and our bishop on the true spirit of the liturgy is heartbreaking indeed.

How ludicrous must liturgical abuses become in our own diocese before the laity finally wake up and smell the apostasy?  How many priests, pastors, and bishops who passively or aggressively disregard Rome in liturgical matters will it take to convince us that it is our non-delegable duty to rise up and insist upon holy and spiritual reform in the Catholic Church here in North America?  For those of us who continue to remain lukewarm and silent in the face of blatant liturgical abuses, we will soon enough be convicted by the warning of Edmund Burke that “the only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing,” and the brusque words of St. John Eudes, “The [laity] deserve the priests they get.”  Bishop John Cummins, now retired from the diocese of Oakland, has been a guest homilist of Bishop Brown in Orange County in the past.

These words “You are free to kneel in good conscience” were spoken by Bishop Tod Brown to parishioners of St. Mary’s by the Sea on July 10^th 2006, when they met with Bishop Tod Brown at Mary wood on July 10^th. This message from the Bishop was related to Father Martin Tran by St. Mary’s parishioners. When the parishioners asked Father Tran if it was true that the Bishop had informed the members of Restore The Sacred that they were free to kneel in conscience, this was Father Tran’s response. “Oh, no”! Bishop Tod Brown only meant that the people who have their names on the flyer are free to kneel in good conscience.” We encourage the parishioners of St. Mary’s by the Sea to call the Diocese of Orange to clarify why Father Tran is responding with an answer that defies sound Catholic teaching and reasoning.  How can a Bishop say that something in good conscience is only for a select few?  Bishop Tod Brown accurately spoke those words because he realizes that this is the mind of the Church.We are grateful to Bishop Brown for not taking away the rights of a Catholic to kneel down and Adore Jesus.  Thank you Bishop Brown for not legislating posture so rigidly that our rights as Catholics in the Diocese of Orange are violated.  We are appreciative that we are allowed to kneel down after the Agnus Dei or receiving Holy Communion in good conscience. This is the recognition that while common postures are good and obedience to liturgical norms are respected, so are the consciences of the faithful who have the desire to kneel in good conscience.

BISHOP TOD BROWN PLEDGED IN A MEETING WITH RESTORE THE SACRED TO HAVE FATHER MARTIN TRAN STOP THE BADGERING OF THE FAITHFUL TO STAND DURING THE MASS. FATHER TRAN HAS NOT CEASED DOING THIS.  FATHER TRAN CONTINUES TO TELL THE FAITHFUL TO STAND DURING THE MASS. IN LAST SUNDAY’S BULLETIN DATED OCTOBER 15^th 2006, FATHER TRAN CONTINUES TO NOT FOLLOW THE PLEDGE FROM BISHOP TOD BROWN, WHO SAID IN THE MEETING, “OH, I DIDN’T REALIZE THAT FATHER TRAN WAS STILL DOING THAT!”  I WILL SPEAK TO FATHER TRAN AND TELL HIM TO STOP DOING THIS.  FATHER TRAN IN THE SPIRIT OF LOVE, COMPASSION AND JUSTICE FOR ALL,WE CATHOLICS AT ST. MARY’S BY THE SEA ARE AWARE OF THE ACCEPTABLE POSTURES DURING MASS.  WE RESPECTFULLY REQUEST THAT YOU LISTEN TO THE PLEDGE THAT BISHOP TOD BROWN GAVE TO THE PARISHIONERS.

In a meeting with twelve parishioners Father Martin Tran was asked the question,” Do you believe that women are called to be priests”? Father Tran responded to the question with this response, “Yes in my opinion God calls women to be priests. The Church doesn’t teach that but “yes” I do believe that God calls women to the priesthood. It has recently been brought to the attention of many parishioners that asked Father Tran if it was true that he said these words, his response is, “They misunderstood.” I was speaking about the universal priesthood that we are all called to, that the Church teaches. The twelve witnesses to Father Tran’s original response would find an open apology for supporting women’s ordination, which is contrary to the teachings of the Church, a very healing gesture.  The parish bulletin and the pulpit would be a wonderful way to express regret for this. Honesty is an important leadership quality. This serious matter will not be healed unless the truth is spoken. Then the healing can begin.

This is a copy of Bishop Tod D. Brown’s memo supporting homosexual domestic partnership. Why did Bishop Brown send this to all of the priests in the Diocese of Orange?

Father Martin Tran has not retracted the statement that he made in front of twelve parishioners that, “Yes, in my opinion God calls women to be priests. The Church doesn’t teach that but “yes I believe that women are called to be priests”!  Why did Father Tran openly support women’s ordination, when he admits that the Church does not teach this? This passive but destructive statement to the unity of the Church needs to be retracted from the pulpit to bring healing and truth!

Edition 38:  Oct. 15, 2006

“Then Jesus spoke to the crowds and to his disciples, saying, ‘The scribes and the Pharisees have taken their seat on the chair of Moses.  Therefore, do and observe all things whatsoever they tell you, but do not follow their example.  For they preach but they do not practice.’ ” (Matthew 23:1-2)

 In March 1992, in his apostolic exhortation Pastores Dabo Vobis (I Will Give You Shepherds) Pope John Paul II drew no distinction between diocesan priests (who do not take a formal vow of poverty) and most orders of priests (who do) in calling all priests, including pastors and bishops, to a life of humble austerity:

“Priests, following the example of Christ who rich though he was, became poor for love of us, should consider the poor and the weakest as people entrusted in a special way to them and they should be capable of witnessing to poverty with a simple and austere life style, having learned the generous renunciation of superfluous things . . .

Poverty alone ensures that the priest remains available to be sent wherever his work will be most useful and needed, even at the cost of personal sacrifice.  It is a condition and essential premise of the Apostle’s docility to the Spirit, making him ready to ‘go forth’, without travelling bag or personal ties, following only the will of the Master . . .

The interior freedom which is safeguarded and nourished by evangelical poverty will help the priest to stand beside the underprivileged, to practice solidarity with their efforts to create a more just society, to be more sensitive and capable of understanding and discerning realities involving the economic and social aspects of life, and to promote a preferential option for the poor . . .

Nor should the prophetic significance of priestly poverty be forgotten, so urgently needed in affluent and consumeristic societies; ‘a truly poor priest is indeed a specific sign of separation from, disavowal of and non-submission to the tyranny of a contemporary world which puts all its trust in money and in material security.’ “ (Shepherds, sect. 30)

 Shortly after his death last year, in one last exemplar to the world of the genuine holiness of our beloved pontiff, the provisions of his last Will and Testament were made public.  With a few small exceptions, John Paul II had almost no earthly possessions.  In what would essentially be his final pastoral act in witnessing to Christ, humanity received definitive verification that as a priest John Paul II practiced what he preached – austerity and poverty of spirit.

 Last month, the Diocese of Orange’s Bishop Tod D. Brown issued his third pastoral letter Learning Our Faith, Loving Our Faith, Living Our Faith in which he complained of the sharp decline in Orange County Catholics practicing their faith.  Bishop Brown deemed consumerism and the secularization of society prime factors for the drop off in faith:

“My goal here is not to deplore our culture or to bemoan the evils of society but to simply point out how we Catholics have to be more realistic about how our increasingly secular and changing civilization can and does have harmful effects on our Catholic character and convictions . . .  We Catholics must never forget that our essential decisions must be informed by the teachings of Jesus than the cold pragmatism of a consumer economy or our personal whims . . .” (Page 8)

 In a moment of candor, the Bishop even remarked, “. . . I enjoy the good life here in Orange County every bit as much as anyone else . . .” (Page 8)  This unfortunate, albeit candid statement is painfully reminiscent of the famous quote by the infamous renaissance Pope Leo X, known for his lavish life style:  “Let us enjoy this Papacy which God has given us.”  The more distressing fact is that our Bishop appears to relate himself not as a priestly father and shepherd set apart as “a specific sign of separation from . . . the tyranny of a contemporary world which puts all its trust in money and in material security” - -  He appears to identify himself as just another one of us consumer-minded Orange Countians.

 Regrettably, our Bishop’s discriminating life style and preference for his priests’ secularized living arrangements was all too well publicized two years ago in the September 16, 2004 edition of the Orange County secular newspaper O.C. Weekly:

“Yes, when Bishop Tod D. Brown became the spiritual head of Orange County’s 1.2 million Catholics in 1998, he abandoned the Church’s millennia-old practice of housing priests in humble rectories on parish grounds and began shacking up clergy in fancy digs few of the faithful could afford:  Point Balboa Island Bungalows, beachside manses and other high-class abodes featuring 3-car garages, walk-in closets and in-ground spas.  In a confidential Sept. 3 memo written by Father Michael Heher to diocesan priests, Heher defended this practice by citing Brown’s policy of allowing priests ‘to live off-site, affording them more privacy and a place away from their work environment.’  And last month, Brown admitted to purchasing a gated-community lot on which he plans to have built a multimillion-dollar mansion for himself . . .  Bishop Brown’s current residence!  [A] 2-story, 5 BR, 3 BA, fireplace, at end of cul-de-sac.  3,824 sq. ft. home on a 10,200 sq. ft. lot.  Air conditioning, solar-heated pool . . .” (Emphasis added)

 One cannot overstate the negative effect that this secular proclivity in priestly life has upon Catholics weak in their faith seeking spiritual leaders who they otherwise expect to be imitators of Jesus Christ.  To illustrate the point, one could well imagine the impact of learning during his lifetime that Padre Pio actually co-owned a handsomely furnished vacation condominium in Lake Tahoe with Father Josemaria Escriva, and that he demanded to fly first-class, had his own private sous chef, and was fond of his top-of-the-line high performance motorcycle which he drove in full leathers, and kept in his own private 4,000 sq. ft. spacious villa complete with a spa and the finest home furnishings money could buy.  And when communicating spiritual advice to his spiritual children, he would quip, “I enjoy the good life every bit as much as anyone else.”

 We Catholics are appropriately called sheep because we are ever in need of good shepherds in the form of priests and bishops who would serve in the mold of St. John Vianney - not clergy who act more like a 9-to-5 yuppie anxious every evening to flee from his ‘work environment’ to his ‘bachelor pad’.  We Catholics are acutely aware of the two former Catholic pastors in Florida, seduced by this very same materialistic philosophy of “the good life”, who have recently been criminally charged with embezzling over $8 million dollars from their church, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on real estate, travel, and gambling.  “These guys lived the life they told everyone else not to live”, a police spokesman close to the investigation commented.

 We Catholics are attracted to priests who lead genuinely austere lives; and we desperately need their good and humble example.  This is what will draw people back to the faith!  We need such priests to show us by their lives that the ways of this world are but fools gold.  Pope Clement I said, “This world and the world to come are two enemies.  We cannot therefore be friends to both; but we must decide which we will forsake and which we will enjoy.”  We Catholics must be opposed to “life style hypocrisy” both in our own lives, and even more so in the lives of spiritual leaders who, after all, have been entrusted with our very souls.  Perhaps no one put it more bluntly than the great doctor of the church St. Augustine who, as a younger man, was no stranger to a worldly life style:

“Whoever denies Christ in his actions is an antichrist.  Instead of listening to what he says, I look to the life he leads.  When actions speak loudly, who needs words?  For what evil man doesn’t want to speak well? . . . The worst liar is the antichrist who with his mouth professes that Jesus is the Christ, but by his actions denies Him.”

 The words of Bishop Brown in his pastoral letter certainly ring true as to actions we the laity can engage in to renew our faith in our own lives.  But we should keep in mind it was lack of leadership by example which so infuriated our Divine Teacher that he was moved to exclaim in an equally stern rebuke:

“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites.  You are like whitewashed tombs, which appear beautiful on the outside, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and every kind of filth.” (Matthew 23:27)

 Oh Lord, we pray that Bishop Brown begins to truly lead our diocese to spiritual renewal by reversing his secularism-minded policy of removing priests from their spiritual homes at parish rectories – a practice which is totally at odds with Pope John Paul II’s I Will Give You Shepherds.

 Lord, in our society today, where the worth of a person is measured not by his integrity or his character, but by the emblem on the hood of his car, or the location and size of his home, we pray that Bishop Brown recognizes the powerful example he will set the moment he gives up his expensive, private manse and returns to live at Holy Family Cathedral, as his predecessor bishops did.  Then we will no longer lament, “Your actions speak so loudly, your Excellency, that we cannot hear what you say!”  Then we will have a spiritual leader who identifies with, and has a genuine Christlike connection to those of whom he himself has called “the disenfranchised and the poor.”

 Lord, give us shepherds, pastors, and priests who follow the words and example of Jesus Christ, St. John Vianney, and John Paul II – and the lost sheep will return!

TRENDY guitar-strumming folk groups are ruining church services by playing "embarrassing, maudlin and sentimental dirges", Scotland's leading classical composer has declared.  James MacMillan, who wrote the fanfare for the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999, has described modern hymns as "excrescences" and called for a return to traditional chants and organ music.
A devout Catholic, MacMillan uses an article in a religious magazine this weekend to confess his despair of the "screaming microphones" and "incompetently strummed guitars and cringe-making, smiley, cheesy foil groups" which fill churches every Sunday.  He reserves particular venom for two well-known modern hymns, 'Bind Us Together, Lord' and 'Make Me a Channel Of Your Peace', the latter having even been recorded to popular acclaim by Irish singer Daniel O'Donnell.

MacMillan says the hymns amount to "cultural vandalism" and that a backlash against such groups is growing, with more church-goers demanding a return to the traditional music which filled churches before reforms of the 1960s.  He declared: "The church has simply aped the secular West's obsession with 'accessibility', 'inclusiveness', 'democracy' and 'anti-elitism'. The effect of this on liturgy has been a triumph of bad taste and banality and an apparent vacating of the sacred spaces of any palpable sense of the presence of God."

The Glasgow-based composer is one of the country's most celebrated musicians, whose work has long drawn heavily on his own strong religious faith.   He is no stranger to controversy, having most famously launched an attack on anti-Catholic sectarianism, describing it at Scotland's "secret shame".  MacMillan said he was not advocating a ban on all modern hymns, but argued that all church music should be "skilful" and "rooted" in tradition. "What you get more and more is a kind of egotistical band who strum guitars and don't try and engage the rest of the congregation," he said.
The 1960s and 70s, he said, brought a "destructive iconoclasm" into the church "which wilfully brought to an end any remnant of its massive choral tradition and its skilful application to liturgical use. Like most ideas shaped by 1960s Marxist sociology, it has proved an utter failure."

MacMillan's provocative comments drew a mixed response from church figures last night, with many musical leaders arguing that amateur folk groups who played every week should not be mocked for their efforts.  However, others said MacMillan was right to highlight the trend away from choral music. His outburst follows a call by Pope Benedict to ensure that all modern hymns were properly placed in the tradition of the past. The Pope said recently: "An authentic updating of sacred music cannot take place except in the wake of the great tradition of the past, of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony."

MacMillan said he agreed with the Pope. In his article, which appears in the Catholic magazine Open House this weekend, he declared: "The Pope is presented as a stern-faced, party pooping disciplinarian, stamping out electric guitars, pop-crooning and the sentimental bubble-gum 'folk' used in many of today's Catholic churches. The people attacking him are the very ones who were responsible for the banal excrescences enforced on us in the name of 'democratisation of the liturgy' and 'active participation' over the last few decades."

The Reverend Charles Robertson, the former convener of the committee for the Church Hymnery, said he too personally had little time for many modern hymns. But he said this was not a reason to scrub them from the Kirk's Hymnal.  "Some people are moved by 'Bind us Together'. I don't like it at all but I know many, many people for whom some kind of blessing is given when they sing it and who am I to complain about that?"  Robertson highlighted one hymn for particular criticism. "The chorus is 'Jesus is wonderful isn't he, isn't he? Jesus is wonderful isn't he, isn't he?' And yet there was another minister who said that this his favourite hymn."

Monsignor Gerry Fitzpatrick of the Roman Catholic Glasgow Archdiocese said: "I don't think you can make such a bald statement. There has been some very good music written for the church in recent years. Of course, everything has to be done well but we also have a serious obligation to ensure active participation and people should not be mocked because they have made errors of judgment when their intentions are good."

Former SNP MSP Mike Russell, who has previously come to the defence of the classical hymn 'Jerusalem' after the Kirk removed it from its Hymnal, said: "I think he is more than half right.  "There are some good musical tunes but by and large the desire to escape tradition has weakened quality and we should be looking at the quality and spiritual quality of the music and to that extent he has a point."

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The Sad State Of Liturgical Music In The Catholic Church

The awful stuff that has passed for liturgical music in the Catholic Church for the past thirty-five years is a continuing disgrace and embarrassment. The insipid "hymns" and utterly trite musical settings of parts of the Ordinary of the Mass suddenly appeared from nowhere sometime shortly after Vatican II.  Overnight, fifteen hundred years of some of the most beautiful, inspired music in all of Western culture was thrown out and replaced by what sounds like bad 1960's folk-pop-elevator music. In fact, it's worse than that. Nothing in pop music ever sounded quite as loathsome as what is played and sung in the church today.
The magnificent and austere chant as well as Masses and other liturgical music written by a succession of history's greatest composers has largely disappeared from the Catholic Church. As Richard Morris has pointed out, the great tradition of Liturgical music flourishes today in concerts, on CDs, everywhere but in the church. How did this great art get replaced by the repugnant drivel we hear today?  What happened? Who commissioned this awful stuff? Why has this been tolerated all this time?  Who writes this trash?  If there is to be new music, why isn't it better?

This rubbish is not heard just in regional parishes in the U.S. It is worldwide. To my horror, I heard this same shameful music performed at the Basilica of St. Peter in Rome!
Try to imagine what it would be like if the rest of the Church's art were dumbed-down to this degree. Paint-on-velvet say, replacing the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Or an upturned bathtub with a plastic Virgin, spray painted blue, replacing the Bernini's. Would the clergy and faithful sit by silently and endure such an insult? Is music a less important art form in the eyes of the modern church? It would seem so.
Apparently, part of the reason for the sweeping changes of Vatican II was to make the service more accessible. It was thought that vernacular "folk masses," and other such misguided secular notions would somehow bring the parishioners closer to the service. It has not done so. How could it? Bad music is just bad music. Some of these ideas might have worked to some degree if the job of writing the music had been given to anyone capable. But that didn't happen. The congregation does not participate in singing any more than they ever did. Why would they? Who would want to sing this music?
The choir had always handled the bulk of the singing in past generations, and did so quite adequately. Even in my small parish, the choir was good enough to sing some Palestrina, Vittoria, and other great composers, as well as the chant. This magnificent music was a vital part of the uplifting experience of going to church. The chant worked for illiterate Medieval peasants. Are we somehow less sophisticated today than they were?

Did Vatican II really think that the average church parishioner could somehow no longer appreciate the music of Josquin? Did they think that the congregation could no longer relate to the music of Ockegham and Byrd? This is clearly not true. There are more recordings of this music today than ever before, eagerly listened to by people all over the world. Is there something out of line with this music and the interpretation of church doctrine according to Vatican II?

In the 1950's, when I was growing up Catholic, we were taught that one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Catholic Mass was that it was the same everywhere, unchanging. We were taught that the mass never changed, at least not much since the Council of Trent in the mid-sixteenth century. That's why it was said in Latin, so that it would be the same in any service, in any country throughout the world. It was not subject to regional traditions, local bias, local mores, local interpretations, local reformers, but rather it remained unaltered everywhere, and always would remain the same. One could expect to hear the beautiful chant sung in Latin wherever one went. One also looked forward to the almost endless supply of magnificent contrapuntal music performed at High Mass and special occasions throughout the church year. Gesualdo on Good Friday maybe, if the choir was up to it.  Then suddenly, it all went away. Suddenly, there were bad folk guitar players in church, bongos. The choir disappeared. Why is all of the new music in the church totally uninspired and pedestrian? Doesn't anyone care?

A grave error in judgment has been made and seems to go unnoticed. The church in its ignorance has willfully reduced the music of the Mass to a numbingly dumb, excruciatingly bad set of fake-folk melodies. The musical part of the service is no longer uplifting, no longer a positive experience. It is an embarrassment of bad taste.  My understanding was that folk masses, masses in the vernacular, and the "new music," were meant to be exceptions to the traditional Latin services and their attendant music, that the Latin Mass would remain the standard, that these new things were experiments. Instead, they have become the norm. The old music is now so distant that priests, and church choirs no longer even remember the traditions, so all that beautiful chant, all that magnificent art music is completely lost on younger generations of Catholics. What a shame for a young person to grow up thinking that Marty Haugen is the traditional music of the Catholic church.  Today we are seeing the results of some of the misguided reforms of the church since the 1960's. Catholic congregations diminish in numbers every year in the U.S. Fewer and fewer Catholics are finding vocations in the priesthood or as nuns.

The truly important reforms: Holy Orders for women, celibacy as a choice for priests, the church's view of contraception, and the responsibility of the church leadership in dealing with its own criminals, have not been addressed. Instead the church has concentrated on secularizing its traditions and with that, diminishing, or getting rid of much of the art that has contributed to the glory of God as well as profoundly enhancing the joy and uplifting experience of celebrating the sacrifice of the Mass.

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Would Bishop Brown dare tell Pope Benedict XV1 he is divisive for celebrating the Tridentine?
Pope Benedict XVI wants to restore
the traditional ceremonial Mass

Bishop Tod Brown Repeatedly Rejects
What Pope Benedict XVI Is Trying To Restore
Pope Against Pop Music During Mass

Vatican City, 26 June (AKI) - Pope Benedict XVI has called for traditional sacred music to be played during mass, condemning the ongoing custom of contemporary music at religious celebrations, and demanded a return to traditional choirs and Gregorian chants.

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