From SACRED MUSIC
Volume 117, Number 3, Fall 1990
ARCHBISHOP ANNIBALE BUGNINI
Basic to the conflict between the liturgists and the musicians is a failure to understand clearly the meaning of "actuosa participatio populi" that the council called for. If indeed singing of pieces by everyone constitutes the epitome of participation, then the art of music in the
service of the liturgy is destined for extinction.
In 1965, the Fifth International Church Music Congress, meeting in Chicago and Milwaukee, considered the meaning of that concept. A paper by Father Colman E.O'Neill, O.P., ("Sacred Music and Liturgy Reform after Vatican II," Rome,
1969 p. 89-108) clearly distinguishes between internal and external participation, and indicates that singing is only one of many means of external participation, not to mention listening.
Just as basic to the struggle between the liturgists and the musicians was a false sense of ecumenism, a problem that surfaced not only in the liturgical discussions but in many other areas considered by the council fathers. Efforts made to restructure the Catholic liturgy into Protestant-
like services grew out of this error and met with opposition from many Catholic sources.
Even Bugnini takes up this criticism with reference to the activity of the Protestant monks of Taize whose influence in preparing the reforms remains a mystery.
The conflicts that began in the council commissions and continued in the years following are not dead. Church music lies in a shambles not only in this country but throughout the world, largely as a result of the work of Bugnini. The church musicians have withdrawn from the fray; as a result
hardly anything of any value has been forthcoming in the last twenty-five years in composition or performance. The liturgists for their part have produced nothing but an on-going series of vaudeville acts, experiments and novelties; liturgy has become associated with entertainment (dancing,
combos, even costuming), so each week must be different, a new act.
Yes, there is also an unorthodox use of "active participation", just as the Sabellians used the word "consubstantial" to denote their particular heresy.
But if the Church also uses these words in an orthodox way, one cannot say that their use alone can identify a neo-Modernist, especially since that leads to the conclusion of Derksen that the Church has become heretical and defected.