My previous post on Paul Inwood's concern about an Easter Vigil in America run amuck was startling to me because Praytell usually supports liturgical irregularities while deploring the EF Mass and those who attend it and wholeheartedly call for its expansion.
So I was relieved that Praytell has not abandoned its true reputation and posted a backhanded slap down of Inwood but in a nuanced sort of way, by Rita Ferrone who exerted Praytell's true Liturgical ideology:
Here's her comment on Inwood's post:
- #7 by Rita Ferrone on April 19, 2017 - 6:54 pm
Is it a black parish? I notice all the songs substituted for the psalms are spirituals, and another song later in the liturgy sung by the choir is too. The ad hoc choir is drawn from the Eritrean community… they may be trying to accommodate the elderly who have sung spirituals all their lives? Such songs are actually a very important anchor in the black church, and while it doesn’t conform to liturgical norms for psalms, it’s the stuff people sing even when memory fails — and it’s lived theology. I wouldn’t judge it too harshly without knowing some more about how this came to be. I also note the author says there was an “altar call” which is a borrowed term from the Protestant (often Baptist) background that many black Catholic churches include because their families span the ecumenical gamut too.
