Raymond Arroyo, commenting on the odd choices for some of the music in the liturgy at Nationals Stadium, after listening to an absolutely awful conga version of an offertory hymn (including bongos and a some sort of steel kettle drum) just said that “the music in this liturgy, is out of character for papal masses of late. The music has a sort of amazon flavor to it!”
Funny and sad.
Update: That mass, musically speaking, was one of the oddest things I have ever seen. It was so multicultural that it ceased to have any culture whatsoever! There were so many different bad songs in different languages it served merely as a testament to how multi-culturally banal we are. Father Neuhaus, commenting on EWTN, went so far as to call it mere chatter. That is a very polite way of putting it. All this banal and incomprehensible chatter reminded of a passage in Genesis.
“Come, let Us go down and there confuse their language, so that they will not understand one another’s speech.”
Apparently, we didn’t need God to intervene this time, we did it to ourselves.
Beside the conga, the Amen sounded like to beginning of the chariot sequence from Ben-hur. Perhaps this was a tribute to Charlton Heston? Whatever it was, it was certainly bizarre.
One cannot help but wonder what the Holy Father must think of it. If we are lucky, perhaps this multicultural conflagration will put an end to the stadium masses once and for all.
April 18, 2008 at 4:31 pm
“How arrogant and self serving were those who made the preparations for this mass. It went directly against what Pope Benedict has been teaching regarding the celebration of the Eucharist.”
This and other comments seem to be indicating that the Holy Father is some brain-dead figurehead. He’s the Pope, the supreme head of the Church, not to mention an incredibly intelligent man and world-renown scholar. If he didn’t want these things at his masses, he could have stopped it before it even got started. Months ago, when preparations were being made, he could have said, “No stadium masses, no pop music, no pro-abortionist receiving communion, etc.”
Since he didn’t do any of this, I can only assume that he agreed with all of it.
It’s a shame, because he could really have made an important statement and really have put all those wayward bishops in their place.
Since he didn’
April 18, 2008 at 4:38 pm
My husband and I laughed so hard we cried listening to Fr. Neuhaus… one of our favorite statements went something like “those who organized this must not have read any of the Pope’s writings on the Mass, liturgy and sacred music.”
And several times I swear I heard Raymond snicker when Fr. N would comment.
The comments during and after made it worth the watching!
April 18, 2008 at 6:01 pm
“Since he didn’t do any of this, I can only assume that he agreed with all of it.”
That’s because you also assume anyone in charge can just wave a magic wand, and the magic just happens….
As he was leaving office, President Harry Truman was heard to have said this regarding his successor: “Poor Ike. He’ll get in this office, and think he’s still in the Army; telling everyone, do this, do that, and wondering why it doesn’t get done.”
It is a fact of human nature and human organization, where someone at the top must eventually delegate certain tasks to those beneath him. The Holy Father is no exception. He has made his wishes more than clear. He must also count on those who are accustomed to taking the passive-aggressive approach, knowing that he will not stand up and call a halt to it the moment he sees something not to his liking.
That being said, adherents to Catholic tradition can take solace in knowing, that Pope Benedcit has a much better idea now, of what the faithful must endure on any given Sunday.
And THAT is a much safer assumption.
April 19, 2008 at 5:10 am
I didn’t find the music offensive at all. I did find Arroyo suitably annoying as always.
The multicultural critique we all have here reflects a desire for a much more restricted medieval Roman antiphony. I don’t have a problem with that, and I expect much of the Church is heading in that direction more long term.
I think when we get there, we will truly be a remnant–faithful–but a remnant.
April 19, 2008 at 10:45 am
“The multicultural critique we all have here reflects a desire for…”
…the mind of the Church with respect to the role of sacred music in the liturgy. She DOES have an opinion, you know? Someone even put it in writing. (Yeah, who knew?) Such a conviction leaves little room for music as entertainment for the crowd, as opposed to turning the crowd toward the worship of God. I didn’t find most of the music annoying either. I simply didn’t find it appropriately used.
What we witnessed was the Holy Father’s introduction to the status quo in the USA. I’m just glad Placido Domingo showed up. His Holiness appeared relieved.
April 19, 2008 at 4:21 pm
Pope St. Pius X weighs in in his motu proprio “Inter Sollicitudines”: “Among the cares of the pastoral office, not only of this Supreme Chair, which We, though unworthy, occupy through the inscrutable dispositions of Providence, but of every local church, a leading one is without question that of maintaining and promoting the decorum of the House of God in which the august mysteries of religion are celebrated, and where the Christian people assemble to receive the grace of the Sacraments, to assist at the Holy Sacrifice of the Altar, to adore the most august Sacrament of the Lord’s Body and to unite in the common prayer of the Church in the public and solemn liturgical offices. Nothing should have place, therefore, in the temple calculated to disturb or even merely to diminish the piety and devotion of the faithful, nothing that may give reasonable cause for disgust or scandal, nothing, above all, which directly offends the decorum and sanctity of the sacred functions and is thus unworthy of the House of Prayer and of the Majesty of God.”
I am confident that Pope Benedict is of the same mind on this matter – but there is so much work to do and so little time. Long Live Pope Benedict. Kit
April 19, 2008 at 4:35 pm
P.S. I didn’t mean to imply that Pope Benedict doesn’t have much time. He may live to 100. I fervently hope that he does, may it please God. However, even twenty years or more may not be enough to clean up the mess that liturgical music has become. Long Live Pope Benedict. Kit
April 20, 2008 at 3:40 pm
I am tired of multicultural ‘celebrations’ of our diversity at what should be the Holy Sarifice of the Mass with the emphasis NOT on us but on the worship of God. And that is what was lost in that debacle in DC.
That is also what I experience in our local parishes–whether it be the bilingual Mass we all hate or the round church singing of how great ‘we’ art.
Instead of ‘celebrating’ our diversity, why don’t we concentrat on the worship of God in our common and official language where we can come together as one–yes, I mean Latin. Time to learn or relearn it. Time to be on the same page. Time to embrace our liturgical heritage.
April 21, 2008 at 1:31 pm
I was busy preparing to go to Dunwoodie, and missed the TV broadcast of the Nationals Mass. These comments tell me I was fortunate.
Instead, I watched the Mass at Yankee Stadium twice.
What heavenly music; Beethoven, Panis Angelicus, and so much Latin!
THAT was a Mass worthy of the Holy Father and Our Lord.
Fr. Neuhaus gave it his highest praise, he said it was the best possible Mass outside of the sanctuary of a Church. I agree.
Kudos for the Archdiocese of New York!
August 1, 2008 at 4:26 pm
What do you mean?
June 22, 2010 at 9:40 pm
I find that the limits we Christians put on God and His Omnipresent Goodness are apalling. See Psalm 150, and think on these things! If we only offer The Mass, and the Holy Father when he blesses us with his presence, Western European Music, what then are we saying about our beautiful eclectic musical heritage? As to the quality of the musical offering, perhaps we should address the Music Director for the occasion. -Bj.