THE LITURGY OF THE ROMAN RITE PROMULGATED BY PAUL VI AND JOHN PAUL II ARE “THE SOLE EXPRESSION OF THE LEX ORANDI OF THE ROMAN RITE”????????????????????????

 

I have no problem with appropriate inculturation of indigenous music or singing, to include instrumentation, as long as any pagan elements have been purified and the melodies evoke a sense of piety, prayer and spirituality rather than entertainment or just plain raucous behavior.

In the various cultures of the Church, to include Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant, chant has its own cultural origins. Gregorian Chant and Polyphony have a particular cultural sound for Latin Rite Catholics, Byzantine Chant or chants from the Eastern Rites and Eastern Orthodox have another clearly cultural sound as does Anglican Chant and Lutheran Chant. These are all chant but from a cultural inheritance that transcends Christianity. 

I think there could well be African Chant(s) from their various cultural experiences and could in fact be applied to the more rigidly regulated Tridentine Mass Missal where it is required that the propers, meaning the Introit, Gradual/Tract/Alleluia, Offertory and Communion Chants that are prescribed are chanted. 

Hymnody could also be inculutrated as it is now. 

But with that said, how can Pope Francis and his altar boy, Cardinal Roche, say what Fr.David Evans observes in a comment on my post below this one:

The liturgy of the Roman Rite promulgated by Paul VI and John Paul II. 
These books are “the sole expression of the lex orandi of the Roman Rite.”
So what happened in Congo today, in a far flung faraway airport?

My final comment: This is clearly an African Rite and not the Missal of Paul VI or John Paul II—it is something different just as different as the Tridentine Rite is to the Modern Latin Rite. While I am not qualified to say “yes” or “no” to the type of music used in this African Liturgy, I think I can comment on this. If you go to the time prior to the Gospel, when the pope is placing incense into the thurible, there is an odd dead silence and you hear the laity have conversations as though it is an intermission of some kind of sporting or entertainment venue. It is rather shocking and has nothing to do with prayer as far as I can tell. Why can’t the pope condemn that sort of thing as he condemns those who prefer the Tridentine Rite? It makes no sense and points to a dramatic incoherence and the confusion of the Bergolian Church: