Bishop John Doerfler of the diocese of Marquette, Michigan, building on the work of his liturgically traditionalist predecessor Alexander Sample, has mandated far-reaching music reforms for every parish in his diocese. If every parish in the world would do these simple rules, just imagine the higher quality of the Church's music tradition actually following Vatican II!
- every parish will sing the English missal chants for part of the year;
- every parish will sing the Latin Mass parts for part of the year;
- every parish will sing Communion antiphons every Sunday to a simple tone;
- other hymnals will eventually be eliminated and a new diocesan
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30 comments:
good for him. the lefties will go nuts that Sacrosanctum Concilium is finally being implemented.
A ray of light in a (liturgically) dark world.
A great example I would read later. Unfortunately without Ecclesiastical support from the top, laity and "music directors" (vs profesionally trained choir masters, there is a difference ...) would scream at a document like this, as it would affront their love of praise and worship music that many a Church and LifeTeen masses use.
We tried (first Sunday of each month) parts of the Mass in Latin at my parish in that diocese "to the north of Macon". Congregation wasn't really trained to do so and pastor gave it up a year or two ago. Ironically, some Episcopal parishes up here use Latin occasionally in their Evensong services, or around Christmas!
Good
I guess the churches must just be too crowded in Marquette. Looks like the bishop has hit on good way to thin out some of the leftie riff-raff to make more room for the "real Catholics". Each one will probably be able to have his or her own pew....
Maybe requiring women to wear hats would be another good idea...
Is it better to leave the Church because one doesn't accept it or to stay because the truth is watered down or not even Catholic?
Excellent question, Father...
Succinctly put, Joe Potillor!
gob,
What about this would cause anyone to leave, or not attend, Mass? And, what do women's hats have to do with anything?
Heck , I would like if we just sung all the stanzas of a hymn at our parish---we usually sing "just enough" to get the procession up and down the aisle (which often can be done in just 2 stanzas). If you attend an Episcopal Eucharist up here in Atlanta, you don't have to wonder if you will sing all the stanzas---even if on or around All Saints Day, that means singing all 8 stanzas of "For All the Saints!"
Also remember the irony one time of singing "Amazing Grace" (about John Newton's supposedly "getting saved" by accepting Christ as savior), right after the homily in which the priest noted the importance of works in our plan of salvation...
gob are you here for your comedic value?
I would send a donation to any bishop who mandated that "Amazing Grace" and "How Great Thou Art" never be played in any Catholic Church.
If the Bishop would mandate the burning of all Glory and Praise Hymnals, I would clean his house for him at no charge.
Why would you go to a church that sings Protestant songs if you don't want to be a Protestant just because the church claims that it is a Catholic church?
Bishops cannot force you to be a Protestant and sing Protestant songs and worship in a Protestant way. If you don't want to be Protestant, then don't go. It's simple.
What is the Bishop of Marquette smoking and where can I get some for my Bishop. St Michael the Archangel defend us in battle.
I guess you didn't get the memo, Anon 2:16. Here's the deal...you have to choose between going to Mass or going to Hell. You choose the latter?
That is such a beautiful Church, is that an Altar rail I see? Wonderful & kudos to the Bishop.
Anon at 5:44, so you think that God is pleased by Catholics offering Protestant worship and that assisting at that worship will save people from hell? If that's the case, then the Catholic Church is pointless.
The divine law of offering suitable worship is supreme over the church law that one has to submit oneself to the Protestant worship being offered in the vast majority of Catholic buildings. The law cannot force you to violate the first commandment, although the people running the show are determined to do so with their "obligations."
Cletus, Yes! "Amazing Grace" is about as protestant as you can get, while "How Great Thou Art" is pantheism/naturism.
Christ offers Himself in the Holy Mass, so every celebration of the Mass, no matter how poorly executed (and poor execution is, admittedly, the usual practice) is pleasing to God. So, if you skip Mass on a Sunday just because the execution is poor, and then afterwards you meet you Maker, then you'll be damned to hell.
Mere validity in the Mass does not make it pleasing to God. The validity of the Eucharistic consecration might actual exacerbate the problem of irreverence in the worship since the Real Presence is being desecrated and used as a part of a flawed worship in these instances.
It is manifestly true that God is concerned with whether the execution of worship is proper or poor. That is why he provided such detailed instructions in the Old Testament. That is also why, until recently, the Church understood that poorly offering Mass was a mortal sin for priests.
Moreover, even the Church recognizes that simply being present at a valid Mass is not, in itself, good. That is why the Church tells people to avoid assisting at Masses by valid, but unincardinated, priests.
Surrounding the valid Eucharist with heretical elements does not mean that the first commandment obligation of offering proper worship is met. If this were the case, the Anglican schism would have been no big deal since all those defecting priests and bishops were "valid" and offering "valid" Masses. The Church could not tell people to attend those due to the surrounding problems of heresy and false worship involved.
Dialogue, I do believe that Anon 5:44 was being facetious. His remark seems to have gotten past you...probably over your head. Do you HONESTLY believe that our loving, merciful, forgiving God would send one of his beloved creatures to burn in Hell for eternity for missing Mass?
That would be a bit like me punishing my 10 year old daughter who was disobedient once by sending her to her room for the rest of her life. (Of course "for the rest of her life" is WAY less than for "eternity".)
16% of the world is Catholic....25% of Catholics go to Mass. 96% of the people of the world do not go to Mass. Are 96% of the people on earth going to Hell? (If you don't like my numbers, you can look up your own....but I hope you get the idea...)
Mortal Sin. Hmmm, I wonder what that means. St Michael the Archangel defend us in Battle...
(this is Bee - OpenId is not working for me)
gob said, "16% of the world is Catholic....25% of Catholics go to Mass. 96% of the people of the world do not go to Mass. Are 96% of the people on earth going to Hell? "
Hey, I don't know. All I know is what Jesus taught and the disciples preached. According to them if you don't confess Jesus Christ is Lord you cannot be saved. I think you need to take this up with God if you're incredulous. But I can imagine there were some who listened to Jesus in person who thought the way you do (Roman soldiers, perhaps?), and they thought the same thing you are thinking.
So why is this even said? It's said because it's an invitation to salvation, not a condemnation of those who do not know Christ. It's a warning that if you hear of Him but reject Him, then you made your choice and you will live with it. But hey, take it up with God, not us. It's His truth.
Bee
All I know is what Jesus taught and the disciples preached. According to them if you don't confess Jesus Christ is Lord you cannot be saved.
Funny how the word 'Mass' is missing there, ne?
Bee is correct, of course. Gob, God does not work in percents. Although, ultimately, we cannot know God's will for those who are fallen away, we have no choice but to take His word seriously and consider these to be very strong warnings against a slack faith, unbelief, sin, and viewing God as an accountant.
gob,
Thank you for your comment. Would our loving, merciful, forgiving God allow children to die of hunger, when He could easily turn stones to bread?
"God does not work in percents". What a totally lame response. It doesn't mean anything...but, of course, it's all you've got. Also, of course. you have no idea how God works.
This is not God working. It is I. If GM had a 96% failure rate making cars and trucks, they wouldn't, shouldn't stay in the auto business. If God had a 96% failure rate making people, He wouldn't, shouldn't stay in the creation business.
The point being, God does NOT have a 96% failure rate. 96% of people are NOT going to burn Hell for eternity...because they're not Catholics, or because they miss Mass...(or look at the naked artwork at the Vatican...). There's a saying...probably an ughh Vatican II era thing that says "God does not make junk." Of course, we are allowed to make our own "junk"...guns, for instance...Peace be with you.
None of us dare say who is saved or how many are saved. But it might be instructive to read what some saints had to say on that subject. If they are correct, we Catholics should probably not be "celebrating" the anniversary of the Reformation, or singing songs that Protestants use in their services. And no matter how much our thinking "evolves", God remains the same yesterday, today and forever:
The saved are few, but we must live with the few if we would be saved with the few. O God, too few indeed they are: yet amongst those few I wish to be!'
-St. Alphonsus Maria de Liguori, Doctor of the Church
'If you would be quite sure of your salvation, strive to be among the fewest of the few. Do not follow the majority of mankind, but follow those who renounce the world and never relax their efforts day or night so that they may attain everlasting blessedness.'
-St. Anselm, Doctor of the Church
'A multitude of souls fall into the depths of Hell, and it is of the faith that all who die in mortal sin are condemned for ever and ever. According to statistics, approximately 80,000 persons die every day. How many of these will die in mortal sin, and how many will be condemned! For, as their lives have been, so also will be their end.'
-St. Anthony Mary Claret
'The number of the elect is so small - so small - that were we to know how small it is, we should faint away with grief. The number of the elect is so small that were God to assemble them together, He would cry to them, as He did of old, by the mouth of His prophet, "Gather yourselves together, one by one" - one from this province, one from that kingdom.'
-St. Louis Marie de Montfort
'Our chronicles relate an even more dreadful happening. One of our brothers, well-known for his doctrine and holiness, was preaching in Germany. He represented the ugliness of the sin of impurity so forceful that a woman fell dead of sorrow in front of everyone. Then, coming back to life, she said, "When I was presented before the Tribunal of God, sixty thousand people arrived at the same time from all parts of the world; out of that number, three were saved by going to Purgatory, and all the rest were damned.'
-St. Leonard of Port Maurice
'A great number of Christians are lost.'
-St. Leonard of Port Maurice
'What do you think? How many of the inhabitants of this city may perhaps be saved? What I am about to tell you is very terrible, yet I will not conceal it from you. Out of this thickly populated city with its thousands of inhabitants not one hundred people will be saved. I even doubt whether there will be as many as that!'
-St. John Chrysostom, Doctor and Father of the Church
The "failure rate" is not God's, it is our's. Gob, you have a very strange understanding of God.
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