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The idea that the folksy, ... hand-clapping style in popular music is appropriate for Catholic worship has been part of this post-Vatican II circus.

The creepy thing is that the style of V-2 Catholic liturgical music has not been "pop" for over thirty years! It's another V-2 fly in amber, stuck in the '60s.

Much like the way Catholic philosophy and theology (and all Church pronouncements) are couched in the language of '60s existentialism and phenomenology.

(Let's go down to the coffee house and dig the happening.)

There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69.

"There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69."

LOL!

Valid point. Most of the clerical proponents are not quite as "cool" as Austin though. Equally silly, yes. Some church historian or sociologist should check on the history of "shag" carpeting at Catholic institutions in the '70s. I remember some sort of psychedelic burlap banners with garish orange and purple being exhibited in a college chapel in the 1980s! The jargon of "the spirit of Vatican II" and "Renewal" have been used to cover a variety of absurdities.

" The creepy thing is that the style of V-2 Catholic liturgical music has not been "pop" for over thirty years! It's another V-2 fly in amber, stuck in the '60s."

Yes. It's been "out of style" for quite a while. I started kindergarten in the late '60s so I remember the authentic "folk" gnosticism in liturgies well. A little too well maybe. You remember the version of the Lord's Prayer sung to the Maryanne Faithfull/Rolling Stones "As Tears Go By" melody? How about the Byrds' "To everything, turn, turn, turn..." at Mass? Or (horrors!)...the Godspell Masses? It's sad but occasionally some idiots still stage Godspell at Catholic colleges and high schools. Apparently completely oblivious of the outrageous bad taste and silliness of a clown mime Jesus in denim overalls.

Part of the problem is that elements within the clergy apparently come from dysfunctional families carrying a lot of strange and peculiar issues. They tend to try to work through their emotional complexes by these ridiculous displays of moronic idiocy. The in-your-face bad taste imposed on other Catholics is one of the worst symptoms of this malaise.

There is a STRONG need to teach Catholic sacred music, sacred art and architecture properly to the clergy and laity. How such monstrosities of bad taste, such as the ones exhibited over the last 35 years or so, are ever approved by pastors and bishops is a disturbing question. Liturgical gnosticism, wreckovation, minimalism, radical modernism in stained glass and cathedral architecture...all of these banalities are funded with the tacit approval of bishops and their staff. It's sad because the Catholic tradition offers such wonderful music and art to choose from.

If those who directed and funded the erection of that monstrosity parody of modernist kitsch in LA were unaware that minimalist modernism had been satirized long ago as the epitome of bad taste, one wonders what the clergy read or studied in college. Too much time viewing alternative magazines perhaps.

"Much like the way Catholic philosophy and theology (and all Church pronouncements) are couched in the language of '60s existentialism and phenomenology."

Another whole cultural safari altogether, going back to the 1920s, and even 19th- and 18th-century Germanic ideology considering that Hegel and Kant have something to do with it. What has happened to theology and philosophy at Catholic universities and seminaries is tragic. One of the more idiotic maneuvers was the turn toward Wittgenstein and "dialogue with analytic philosophy" at Notre Dame. The ideological distortions creeping in have corrupted much of Catholic higher education. Pandora's Box. Just consider that there is no universally accepted model of reality at work here. They make it up as they go along.

Nonsense always sounds more profound if Heidegger and Sartre can be enlisted in its defense along with highbrow-sounding German and French jargon. Relativism and nihilism answered to certain ideological needs in the '60s for studied ambiguity and pseudo-sophisticated obscurantism as the upwardly mobile middle class sought to disengage itself from Western Christian civilization and the structure and mores of traditional family life - the beginnings of the long road to Clinton and the Beavis&Buttheadization of America. But this was all part of a broad package including Kinsey, Transpersonal "encounter group" psychology, I'm OK, You're OK gnosticism, and, of course, the Madison Avenue pop paperback version of Freud. We're paying the price for it now. In spades.

There is an Austin-Powers-like quality to much in the Church, where time is frozen to the era around 1963-69.

One more vote for this one as quote of the week. I always say, "When the Church tries to be 'hip,' they miss by about 35 years."

Like when the pope had Dylan over to the Vatican a couple years ago. C'mon, Dylan was big back in 1964.

Apparently Pat Boone released a heavy-metal album. This is exactly what the Catholic Church looks like when it tries to keep up with the times.
In a Metal Mood: No More Mr Nice Guy

The worst part is that Pat Boone was doing this somewhat tongue-in-cheek, like "This is Spinal Tap," but the Church is actually serious when they try to foist this stuff on us.