....One additional failure I would like to point to is the failure of Catholic schools. Catholic school all my life–I was never taught how to sing. If the liturgy is “the source and summit of the Christian life” and if we are beckoned to “active participation” then shouldn’t singing be something that is as important to teach as the Catechism? (Yeah, yeah, we don’t teach the Catechism either, you’re right.)
But it actually goes even deeper than that. The great failure of Catholic schools, going back to the 19th century, is that they have swallowed wholesale the erroneous Cartesian-Lockean metaphysical view of human nature, which is the master framework of modern schooling. The mind and the body are separate, so classrooms have chairs and desks so that the body can be turned off while the mind works. Children are blank slates on which knowledge is imparted by the teacher.
Also I'm pretty sure my singing voice was cast out of heaven pretty early on. If I were part of the heavenly host I would be given a triangle to hit about once every third song.
Our priest sings literally like a booming Broadway star. The first time I heard him I was blown away. Of course, the rest of us are barely audible, like usual. LOL
I was raised in the Catholic church, and I get constant compliments on my voice at any Protestant church I attend, and am a worship leader at our Protestant church. We attend a service at the Assisted Living Center where my FIL lives, also, and the elderly folks there make sure to save a space so they can hear me. Catholics sing just fine, thank you.
What a crock of hooey. Our Catholic choir is awesome. We sing all through mass.
I grew up with that album.
Catholic school was the worst two years of my young life. Catechism classes up through Jr. High ranked pretty low along with the priest who bad mouthed us at every turn. The nuns who outright lied to the testing class for application to Catholic HS was the last straw.
“Catholic liturgical singing is like “plaintive squeaks from depressed marmosets””
You might like to hear a mass for Knights of Columbus members.
You will hear strong, booming masculine voices singing with courage and conviction.
A Priest I know goes out and tells the congregation “Belt it out like you’re Baptists!”
One of the bad things about the Internet is that every self-absorbed yutz who thinks he’s better than others also seems to believe he’s a writer.
The Catholic elementary school I went to had a music class we went to once or twice a week. Then for the school Mass on Fridays they rotated through the grades each week on who helped with everything and did the choir. For Sunday Mass they had a choir that did all the songs.
And I never liked it. Part of why I don’t like going to Church is because of the rather annoying music (and my church at least plays normal songs. St. Rita’s has a full-retard rock band for their Masses..). I need to try to find a decent Latin Mass somewhere in Dallas area.. with proper Gregorian chant, and nothing else.
My parish has a new adult/kids choir director and she LOVES and I MEAN LOVES beloved legendary Christian hymms such as “The Old Rugged Cross,” “Near The Cross”, “Just As I Am”, etc. Not surprised.
Do you know why Episcopalians can’t play chess?
Get a life.