Posted on 03/13/2007 4:44:58 PM PDT by Stoat
By Philip Pullella
VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - Pope Benedict, who last week told the world he does not care much for Bob Dylan, said on Tuesday he would like Gregorian chant to make a comeback.
The 79-year-old German Pope said the Catholic faithful should learn more of the chanting traditionally sung in Latin by choirs of monks since the Middle Ages.
"The better-known prayers of the Church's tradition should be recited in Latin and, if possible, selections of Gregorian chant should be sung," he said in part of a 140-page booklet on the Mass.
He 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.
In countries such as the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, it was not uncommon for the faithful to sing songs such as Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" or Simon and Garfunkel's "Bridge Over Troubled Water" during the Mass.
Still today, some Catholic couples getting married ask that music from a popular love song, such as "Lara's Theme" from the film "Dr. Zhivago" be played as part of their church wedding.
The Pope, a lover of classical and sacred music and an accomplished pianist, clearly is opposed to that.
"Certainly as far as the liturgy is concerned, we cannot say that one song is as good as another," the Pope wrote. "Generic improvisation or the introduction of musical genres which fail to respect the meaning of the liturgy should be avoided."
He said Church should not jettison the rich heritage of sacred music it has created in 2,000 years of history.
Last week, the Pope disclosed in a new book that in 1997 he was opposed to Bob Dylan appearing at a youth event with the late Pope John Paul because he considered the pop star the wrong kind of "prophet".
At that concert in central Italy, Dylan sang "Knockin' on Heaven's Door", his 1960s anti-war classic "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall", and "Forever Young".
THE MYSTERY OF GREGORIAN MASSES POPE WAS CHAMPION OF HOLY PURGATORIAL SOULS
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Benedictus XVI
Joseph Ratzinger
|
BIOGRAPHY BENEDICT XVI
Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI, was born at Marktl am Inn, Diocese of Passau (Germany) on 16 April 1927 (Holy Saturday) and was baptised on the same day. His father, a policeman, belonged to an old family of farmers from Lower Bavaria of modest economic resources. His mother was the daughter of artisans from Rimsting on the shore of Lake Chiem, and before marrying she worked as a cook in a number of hotels. He spent his childhood and adolescence in Traunstein, a small village near the Austrian border, thirty kilometres from Salzburg. In this environment, which he himself has defined as "Mozartian", he received his Christian, cultural and human formation. His youthful years were not easy. His faith and the education received at home prepared him for the harsh experience of those years during which the Nazi regime pursued a hostile attitude towards the Catholic Church. The young Joseph saw how some Nazis beat the Parish Priest before the celebration of Mass. It was precisely during that complex situation that he discovered the beauty and truth of faith in Christ; fundamental for this was his family’s attitude, who always gave a clear witness of goodness and hope, rooted in a convinced attachment to the Church. During the last months of the war he was enrolled in an auxiliary anti-aircraft corps. From 1946 to 1951 he studied philosophy and theology in the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology of Freising and at the University of Munich. He received his priestly ordination on 29 June 1951. A year later he began teaching at the Higher School of Freising. In 1953 he obtained his doctorate in theology with a thesis entitled "People and House of God in St Augustine’s Doctrine of the Church". Four years later, under the direction of the renowned professor of fundamental theology Gottlieb Söhngen, he qualified for University teaching with a dissertation on: "The Theology of History in St Bonaventure". After lecturing on dogmatic and fundamental theology at the Higher School of Philosophy and Theology in Freising, he went on to teach at Bonn, from 1959 to1963; at Münster from 1963 to 1966 and at Tübingen from 1966 to 1969. During this last year he held the Chair of dogmatics and history of dogma at the University of Regensburg, where he was also Vice-President of the University. From 1962 to 1965 he made a notable contribution to Vatican II as an "expert"; being present at the Council as theological advisor of Cardinal Joseph Frings, Archbishop of Cologne. His intense scientific activity led him to important positions at the service of the German Bishops’ Conference and the International Theological Commission. In 1972 together with Hans Urs von Balthasar, Henri de Lubac and other important theologians, he initiated the theological journal "Communio". On 25 March 1977 Pope Paul VI named him Archbishop of Munich and Freising. On 28 May of the same year he received episcopal ordination. He was the first Diocesan priest for 80 years to take on the pastoral governance of the great Bavarian Archdiocese. He chose as his episcopal motto: "Cooperators of the truth". He himself explained why: "On the one hand I saw it as the relation between my previous task as professor and my new mission. In spite of different approaches, what was involved, and continued to be so, was following the truth and being at its service. On the other hand I chose that motto because in today’s world the theme of truth is omitted almost entirely, as something too great for man, and yet everything collapses if truth is missing". Paul VI made him a Cardinal with the priestly title of "Santa Maria Consolatrice al Tiburtino", during the Consistory of 27 June of the same year. In 1978 he took part in the Conclave of 25 and 26 August which elected John Paul I, who named him his Special Envoy to the III International Mariological Congress, celebrated in Guayaquil (Ecuador) from 16 to 24 September. In the month of October of the same year he took part in the Conclave that elected Pope John Paul II. He was Relator of the V Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops which took place in 1980 on the theme: "Mission of the Christian Family in the world of today", and was Delegate President of the VI Ordinary General Assembly of 1983 on "Reconciliation and Penance in the mission of the Church". John Paul II named him Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and President of the Pontifical Biblical Commission and of the International Theological Commission on 25 November 1981. On 15 February 1982 he resigned the pastoral governance of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising. The Holy Father elevated him to the Order of Bishops assigning to him the Suburbicarian See of Velletri-Segni on 5 April 1993. He was President of the Preparatory Commission for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, which after six years of work (1986-1992) presented the new Catechism to the Holy Father. On 6 November 1998 the Holy Father approved the election of Cardinal Ratzinger as Vice-Dean of the College of Cardinals, submitted by the Cardinals of the Order of Bishops. On 30 November 2002 he approved his election as Dean; together with this office he was entrusted with the Suburbicarian See of Ostia. In 1999 he was Special Papal Envoy for the Celebration of the XII Centenary of the foundation of the Diocese of Paderborn, Germany which took place on 3 January. Since 13 November 2000 he has been an Honorary Academic of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences. In the Roman Curia he has been a member of the Council of the Secretariat of State for Relations with States; of the Congregations for the Oriental Churches, for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, for Bishops, for the Evangelization of Peoples, for Catholic Education, for Clergy and for the Causes of the Saints; of the Pontifical Councils for Promoting Christian Unity, and for Culture; of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura, and of the Pontifical Commissions for Latin America, "Ecclesia Dei", for the Authentic Interpretation of the Code of Canon Law, and for the Revision of the Code of Canon Law of the Oriental Churches. Among his many publications special mention should be made of his "Introduction to Christianity", a compilation of University lectures on the Apostolic Creed published in 1968; "Dogma and Preaching" (1973) an anthology of essays, sermons and reflections dedicated to pastoral arguments. His address to the Catholic Academy of Bavaria on "Why I am still in the Church" had a wide resonance; in it he stated with his usual clarity: "one can only be a Christian in the Church, not beside the Church". His many publications are spread out over a number of years and constitute a point of reference for many people specially for those interested in entering deeper into the study of theology. In 1985 he published his interview-book on the situation of the faith (The Ratzinger Report) and in 1996 "Salt of the Earth". On the occasion of his 70th birthday the volume "At the School of Truth" was published, containing articles by several authors on different aspects of his personality and production. He has received numerous "Honoris Causa" Doctorates, in 1984 from the College of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota; in 1986 from the Catholic University of Lima; in 1987 from the Catholic University of Eichstätt; in 1988 from the Catholic University of Lublin; in 1998 from the University of Navarre; in 1999 from the LUMSA (Libera Università Maria Santissima Assunta) of Rome and in 2000 from the Faculty of Theology of the University of Wrocław in Poland. |
Biography of His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI
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Please also see these FR threads for FREE music in MP3 format from the Vatican
Free Christmas Music from the Vatican
Music for Christmas from the Vatican, in MP3 format (all free)
Music for Easter from the Vatican
I had a music class in college where we listened to Gregorian Chants. I love that sound.
I like the sound too, but I personally feel he should direct the faithful to READ THEIR BIBLES.
Benedictus XVI
Joseph Ratzinger
I love Gregorian chants. I have a few CD's at home of them.
Well, I had no idea it was used in Catholic churches. I am a Southern Baptist.
Go to any parish in the U.S. run by the FSSP and you'll hear them at Sunday mass.
Our Church took that direction in the early 1970's. Oddly enough, it was struck by lightning and burned to the ground in 1993.
Lightning struck St. Mary's Catholic Church on Sept. 2, 1993, sparking a fire that destroyed the 1887 structure.
I'm with him -- the Gregorian chants are truly beautiful.
Thank you.
Some Catholic churches in the US have Latin masses. I know of one nearby that has a high mass on Sunday in Latin. It is popular with tourists.
I think the chants inspire a more spirtiual feeling than Bob Dylan or bongo drums~~just my opinion.
I think the Pope has the right idea.
As an aside, the last time Gregorian chants were popular, it was by counter-counterculture hippy types in the early 1970s.
Then, there was that brief fling with pseudo-Gregorian chants by the group Enigma.
I love Gregorian Chants!!! And I'm not even Catholic. I own several CD's.
He has - in many ways and at different times.
On April 6, 2006 he said to a gathering of Catholic young people:
1. ON HOW TO READ THE BIBLE
First of all, it must be said that Holy Scripture cannot be read like just any historical book, as we read, for example, Homer, Ovid, or Horace. We must read it as truly the Word of God, placing ourselves in conversation with God. We must pray first, and talk to the Lord: “Open the door for me.” St. Augustine says this frequently in his homilies: “I knocked at the door of the Word in order to find at last what the Lord wanted to say to me.” [...]
A second point is this: Sacred Scripture brings us into communion with the family of God. So we cannot read Sacred Scripture on our own. Of course, it is always important to read the Bible in a very personal way, in a personal conversation with God, but at the same time it is important to read it in the company of persons who are on the journey with us. We must let ourselves be aided by the great masters of “lectio divina.” We have, for example, many wonderful books by cardinal Martini, a true master of “lectio divina,” which help us to enter into the living world of Sacred Scripture. [...]
A third point: if it is important to read Sacred Scripture with the help of teachers and in the company of our friends, our companions on the way, it is particularly important to read it in the great company of the pilgrim People of God, the Church. Sacred Scripture has two subjects. In the first place, there is the divine subject: it is God who is speaking. But God wanted to involve man in his Word. While the Muslims are convinced that the Qur’an was inspired by God word for word, we believe that one of the characteristics of Sacred Scripture – as the theologians put it – is “synergy,” God’s collaboration with man. He involves his People in his word, and thus the second subject – as I have said, God is the first subject – is human. The authors are individual, but there is the continuity of a permanent subject: the People of God that walks with the Word of God and is in conversation with God. In listening to God, one learns to listen to the Word of God, and also to interpret it. And thus the Word of God becomes present, because individual persons die, but the vital subject, the People of God, is always alive, and remains the same down through the ages: it is always the same living subject in which the Word lives.
This also explains many of the structures in Sacred Scripture, especially the so-called “rereading.” An ancient text is represented in another book, let’s say a hundred years later, and then there is a profound understanding of what had previously been inscrutable, even though it had been contained in the earlier text. Then it is reread again some time later, and new aspects are understood, other dimensions of the Word. And so, in this ongoing rereading and rewriting in the context of a profound continuity, while the time of expectation wore on, Sacred Scripture grew. Finally, with the coming of Christ and the experience of the apostles the Word was made definitive, so that there can be no more rewritings, although our understanding always must be deepened. The Lord has said: “The Holy Spirit will bring you into depths that you cannot bear now.” [...]
I think that we must learn these three elements: reading in personal conversation with the Lord; reading in the company of instructors who have the experience of the faith; reading in the great company of the Church, in whose liturgy these events continuously become present anew, such that we gradually enter more and more into Sacred Scripture, in which God really speaks to us today.
The Gregorian Chants of the Osaka Boys Choir is good.
When they are done well they are a tremendous aid to contemplation..
I like Bob Dylan and I like Gregorian chants.
Not that many years ago, there was a Top 40 bit of music, Gregorian chant style.
Like you, I’m not Catholic but I love Gregorian Chants. I have several CDs and listen to them when I want to mellow out … works great.
There was a story in the Baltimore Sun a few weeks back saying that they're thinking about bringing the Tridentine mass back. I'm not Catholic, or even Christian, but I'd love to go to a full-blown Latin mass. I understand it's beautiful.
I love Gregorian Chants, too - have a great CD.
What I would like the Pope to home in on - are political figures who claim to be members of the Catholic Church but still advocate for abortion.
Have an album of Gregorian Chants on iTunes/Ipod. Especially good for when I need a deep concentration for software development. Used it for the music before my wedding as people were being seated.
Perhaps you should get out more.
It is like another world. Deeply quiet and real.
I still like that scene in Babylon 5 where Captain Sheridan goes to a dark place in Down Below, and hears Gregorian Chants at the instistence of Kosh. When asked about it by Susan Ivanova, he said, "Beauty in the dark." It is/was a great line.
I am going to end up loving this pope just as much as the last one. Benedict, you go, dude! Anybody who wants a comeback for Gregorian chants has got God's hand on him.
Thanks for posting this, l'il fuzzy stoat.
instistence=insistence
YES!!! Early music rules!
When I was growing up in the Archdiocese of Boston (late '50s - early '60s), our church featured treacly tunes instead of the great medieval and Renaissance music. We didn't sing Bach or any great contemporary compositions, either. Later, we finally did learn some Gregorian chants (I can still sing "Pater Noster"). But then the '60s erupted, and the music at church got really bad.
Thanks to Noah Greenberg (New York Pro Musica) and Joel Cohen (Boston Camerata) for keeping the good stuff alive in the U.S. I was still a kid when I heard Greenberg's recording of "The Play of Daniel." Awesome!
You (and others) may be interested in these news items:
Pope Says Catholic Politicians Must Back Church’s Doctrine - New York Times
(Excerpt)
“These values are nonnegotiable,” the pope wrote in a 130-page “apostolic exhortation” issued in Rome that represents a distillation of opinion from a worldwide meeting of bishops at the Vatican in 2005.
“Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce laws inspired by values grounded in human nature,” the pope wrote.
(snip)
**************************************
Pope Reaffirms Traditional Views World Latest Guardian Unlimited
(Excerpt)
| Pope Reaffirms Traditional Views
By FRANCES D'EMILIO Associated Press Writer VATICAN CITY (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI rebuffed calls to let divorced Catholics who remarry receive Communion in a new document Tuesday and told Catholic politicians they are expected to wage the church's fight against abortion and gay marriage. Putting his conservative stamp on his nearly 2-year-old papacy, Benedict also reaffirmed that priests must be celibate and included a nostalgic call for Latin use by rank-and-file faithful. A worldwide meeting of bishops, held at the Vatican in 2005, endorsed the celibacy requirement, and Benedict embraced their call, despite shortages of priests in some places. The 131-page ``exhortation'' is part of the pope's vigorous campaign to ensure bishops, priests and the world's 1.1 billion Roman Catholics strictly follow church teaching. |
(snip)
Gorgeous music. I remember well the nuns teaching us and the funny-looking square 'notes' on the music cards. I wonder how the 'rock music' kids will adapt, however.
That is a sad, tragic sight watching that beautiful old church be destroyed by fire.
What a terrible loss.
I don't think the choice of music had anything to do with it. Just whose purpose is served by that church's burning, anyway?
It IS beautiful. Holy, serene, quiet, peaceful. The alter and the church is like the living room of the parish. The Priests make certain the altar cloths are clean and neat and make sure the side drops are even. They light the candles and make sure everything is in place as best it can be in time for the "guests" to arrive.
I hope you can attend one some time. We also have about 15 Gregorian Chant CD's. There's nothing more calming and holy.
When I was a teenager, my parents and older brother and his wife got into the traditional Catholic movement and became very involved in the Society of St. Pius V (SSPV).
My parents stopped going to church after VII although my mother always considered herself Catholic. I never went to catechism classes or attended mass until I was taken to the traditional masses.
Maybe in part because I was a rebellious teenager and maybe because my mother and older brother went to Catholic schools and I didn’t and they so understood the rites and the Latin and I was lost, but truthfully it left me cold. And when I’d ask questions, I’d be given a book and told to read up.
Yes I loved the incense and the ritualism and the sounds and music of the traditional mass, but it was like watching a foreign movie with no subtitles – it was pretty but I had no idea what it meant.
yes, it is of great enjoyment. Maybe I should go by some more :-).
I don't think so either. I took my first communion at that church and had many fond memories. My Parents always complained about the "Hippies" taking over. I saw the story of the fire on the cover of Stars & Stripes while TDY in Saudi Arabia. Unfortunately the congregation had grown to small and there were no funds to rebuild the church.
At least he doesn't want royalties. Those copyrights are EXPIRED!
Catholic liturgical music since Vatican II has been nothing short of awful. The hootinnanny guitars and "kumbaya" lyrics never added any sense of holiness.
The Pope hates Ozzy and Guns-N-Roses ping.
Thanks for the ping.
As a person who has had to go to confession more than once because of uncharitable thoughts, I must admit, I look forward to the Pope pushing the Gregorian agenda! Now if my bishop would only listen!
Thanks for the ping.
As a person who has had to go to confession more than once because of uncharitable thoughts, I must admit, I look forward to the Pope pushing the Gregorian agenda! Now if my bishop would only listen!
That was uncharitable thoughts about the music service!
That's not what he told me.
LIve 365 has a station dedicated to chant and polyphony. A webpage about the station is here:
http://www.choraltreasure.org/
The seventeen buffer-Bishops probably mistranslated.
http://www.musicasacra.com/
You'll love this site then. Also check out the New Liturgical Movement by Shawn Tribe. His blog is a gem.
F
One last quip:
There is some music which is great for a devo/prayer meeting/spiritual rally. It makes us feel connected to each other and good, ready to fight the good fight. Lots of contemporary music falls in this category, and some of the old hymns.
Some music lifts us up to Heaven, focusing us not on us, but solidly on God. Chant does this, some contemporary music, too, some of the old hymns, as well.
Mass really isn't about the US level, it's about the God level. We are coming together as his people, but we are coming into his presence to worship him in that special way that only happens at mass, where we should be tightly focused on Jesus' death for our salvation, in a way that is not there usually at devos or prayer meetings.
/rant on
IMHO, the music shouldn't jar...like having something beautifully sung by the priest and then do the Alleluiah in a style totally different. Each song selection needs to bring us into His presence for what we are there for, to focus on him, not on "This is what you HAVE to do for us today, Jesus," or the "We're so wonderful because we are the church" mode that is too popular.
It's not just the words, although they are very important. It's also a musical thing. The words can be there, but if the music is wrong for the setting, it doesn't let us soar to heaven. If the words are bad, it doesn't get our focus on the things that matter. There are modern pieces that work well, there are old pieces that don't work at all, but chant always works, in part because the all the bugs have been worked out over long use!
Are we there for worship or an entertaining feel-good emotional experience? There are places for both, but not necessarily at the mass. Again, IMHO!
/rant off
I don't know them.
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