[NYer]

I still tend to forget that the Roman Catholic Church has its congregation singing hymns at times.

As far as I can recall, this practice began, following Vatican Council II. That would be 40+ years ago.

[Desdemona]

I still tend to forget that the Roman Catholic Church has its congregation singing hymns at times.

As far as I can recall, this practice began, following Vatican Council II. That would be 40+ years ago.

Um, well, I'm not really sure, but considering that a good number of the hymns from the German hymnals were composed in the 18th century, I'd say the practice has been around for a while. In this archdiocese, I hear tell that there was hymn singing before Vat II - and hymnals that predate it can still be found in the choir lofts. There's some great material there, too.

Hymn singing has always been around in some form, maybe not all the time, though. What hasn't is the congregation joining in the Mass parts themselves, unless one of the 16 standard chant Masses were used. In the English speaking world, those have been ignored and they're really not that hard. Where you need people who know what they are doing is the special occasion Mass. That was the real realm of the pro-level choirs.

[TASMANIANRED]

It goes back farther than that...But it was mostly entrance and exit songs.