I suspect that nearly every one of these sisters either left their order or now run the Catholic Health Association.
Painful.
[wp_youtube]JdO3R5MlbxA[/wp_youtube]
To atone for this, right now go buy some Mystic Monk Coffee!
The Wyoming Carmelites wear habits, but they will never sing Kumbaya.
EH-VER.
Coat of Arms by D Burkart
on Rome 24/10 – LAST full Day 42: chores: “1. Qa1 threatens Qh8# So that works for mate in 2. 1. Qf1 threatens to bring the Q to the…”
on I had a funny thought about a possible US Ambassador to the Holy See – UPDATED: “I suggested that a couple days ago after I heard that he nominated Mike Huckabee as Ambassador to Israel. That…”
on I had a funny thought about a possible US Ambassador to the Holy See – UPDATED: “retired Archbishop Charles Chaput OFM Cap. formerly of Philadelphia, Denver, and Rapid City.”
on I had a funny thought about a possible US Ambassador to the Holy See – UPDATED: “Fr. James Altman. Extensive legal experience. (Member of the bar, I think). Acquaintance of PDJT.” on USA Day 2 – Scratching that itch: “At Tata Steel in India, Nodirbek is in the lead with 2.5 and three are tied at 2.0, including Wesley,…”
on Rome 24/10 – LAST full Day 42: chores: “I found 1. Qf1, 2. Qf8#, and I see A.S. Haley has 1. Qa1, 2. Qh8#. Do both work?”
on USA Day 1 – A soft landing: “Welcome back, Fr. Z. That looks like excellent pub fare. Delirium tremens is a very fine beer, one of my…”
on Martin Scorsese – new streaming series on four saints – 17 November: “What bad did Peter Jackson do in LotR with Aragorn and Faramir? I didn’t notice it.”
on USA Day 1 – A soft landing: “I’m sure you have heard that while you were gone, the Church of mercy, walking-together-ity, and “listening to the people…”
on A matter of fact, brutally clear, “handbook” on exorcism, demons, demonic influence and what can be done about it.: “Send the Exorcist to the Capital at Washington DC. Many many demons .”
on USA Day 1 – A soft landing: “A well-made cheeseburger is a glorious thing! Seeking out the good ones is rather a focus of my retirement.?” on USA Day 1 – A soft landing: “Black to move and mate in 4. [NB: I’ll hold comments with solutions ’till the next day so there won’t…”
Loading ...
A Daily Prayer for Priests
Nota bene: I do not answer these numbers or this Skype address. You won't get me "live". I check for messages regularly.
WDTPRS
020 8133 4535
651-447-6265
PLEASE subscribe via PayPal if it is useful. Zelle and Wise are better, but PayPal is convenient.
A monthly subscription donation means I have steady income I can plan on. I put you my list of benefactors for whom I pray and for whom I often say Holy Mass.
In view of the rapidly changing challenges I now face, I would like to add more $10/month subscribers. Will you please help?
For a one time donation...
Loading ... Loading ...
They find you a pro-life agent in your area who commits to giving a portion of the fee to a pro-life group!
Help Monks in Wyoming (coffee – UPDATED LINK) and Norcia (beer) and the wonderful "Soap Sisters" of Summit, NJ!
Please follow me on Twitter!
Use my code for a discount
Visits tracked by Statcounter
since Sat., 25 Nov. 2006:
And yet they were still in traditional habits!
Toe-curling! I only managed about 10 seconds.
On the habits, I expect the studio insisted on it.
Was this on the Ed Sullivan Show? Looks like it!
Nope. Can’t watch it. Sending email to Youtube to have it removed as “obscene content” and replaced with clips of Hilaire Belloc drinking beer and singing French folk songs….
Many years ago I met a former nun on a Middle States Association of Colleges and Schools acreditation visit, and we were in the rectory associated the Catholic school we were assessing. She found a album of the orders nuns, with many pictures having the letters RTW under them. I asked about it; she said it meant “returned to world.”
Whoa. How terribly sad.
I only made it to .46 on the video. Too painful. These kinds of nuns taught me in grade school, some with great love, but when I reverted at age 20, I literally could not remember the whole Hail Mary on my own.
They would sound so lovely singing Tantum Ergo.
Sorry, hugonis, got to disagree. The singing is awful independently of the dreary ditty, IMO.
RTW. Love it. Will use it.
I hate to deepen your conflict, Father, but I believe these nuns are of the same community as Sister Joan Chittister. Despite the lovely habits perhaps this is a sign that something was in the water even back then!
Difficult! So much has been lost. In mufti, these exceedingly beautiful women would be unremarkable.
Someone’s crying Lord….
I recall seeing this on YouTube a couple years ago when I was looking for a decent rendition of Kumbaya for a school project. I felt kinda embarrassed for them.
Did a google search and found them online. I can’t comment on them running CHA, but they are no longer in habits, that is for sure. :-(
She found a album of the orders nuns, with many pictures having the letters RTW under them. I asked about it; she said it meant “returned to world.”
I wonder whether one of them is the nun I heard about around 1970, who ran off with a priest, and the last anyone heard of them, they were selling portable toilets door-to-door in sweltering rural East Texas. This deepened my understanding of the Christian concept of “justice”.
My ex ‘wife’s’ aunt, Sister Rose, from youth seriously cloistered and then plunged for twenty years into harrowing social services in the worst slums of East St. Louis, worked to exhaustion, burnt out and then sent on a giddy round of ‘workshops’ and ‘retreats’ to be ‘re-trained’ by very young very modern and rather effeminate priests whom every sister despised and mocked. Shorn of their habits and respect and totally disillusioned she descended into channeling, paganism, Earth Mother gatherings and very extended ‘sabbaticals’, yet still clung to her order for the stipend and health benefits and died there of cancer, tended to by the last of the elderly sister nurses. It was all sham, betrayal and heartbreaking, may God remember her decades of service. Kumbayah!
Father, did you mean conflicted or afflicted?
The Erie Benedictines are still around (no habits anymore): http://www.eriebenedictines.org/
I think I saw Sr. Joan Chittister in this video, or someone who looked like her. These are the Benedictine Sisters of Erie or, as I like to call them, the Sinsinawas of the Benedictine world! ;-)
From what I understand, not long after this broadcast, the habits started coming off. Judging from Sr. Joan’s scrapbook of old photos, it looks like they had changed to a “modified” habit, then to a necklace with a dress, then to the pantsuits of today.
http://www.benetvision.org/slideshows/Biography/index.html
Foul, vile stuff. Thankfully, orders such as this are dying off and faithful, Catholic, God fearing orders are growing. Viva la Benedictine Reform!!!!
Where was whoopie? I didn’t see her.
I remember seeing this as a child-and weeping-not knowing why until now!
God Bless….Mother Mary pray for us.
These were the sister who taught me. It took me years to discover there errors they spread. I cringe when I think of what went on in our school. Of my siblings, I am the only remaining Catholic. Sadly, the Diocese of Erie is little changed.
What significance this has – the old orders of well-trained and habited nuns who gave up their lives to pray for the world. Here we see the beginning of the end, the loss of all that formation and training, turned into superficial staging and worthless singing.
Who among us could have resisted the re-training, bullying, and insanity that these women endured and which eventually broke them?
Today some of us are trying to put the Church back together, cobbling together forgotten practices and a brick or two from destroyed churches. Oh the lost knowledge that these women represent…
This show aired on January 15, 1967
Sr. Joan Chittister, OSB, was 20 years old (born April 26, 1936). She could very well be one of the young sisters in this video.
Sr. Joan was upstaged by Mick Jagger and Kermit the Frog?
The Sisters of St. Benedict (“Sisters ’67”) sang “It’s A Lovely Day,” “Consider Yourself” & “Kumbaya.”
Also on stage on the Ed Sullivan show that night were the Rolling Stones (“Let’s Spend The Night Together” – amid threats of censorship, Jagger mumbled the title lines of the song), Petula Clark, comedians Allan Sherman and Alan King, The Muppets; the Michael Bennett Dancers; and the Monroes (a balancing act from Madrid, Spain). There was also some film footage of a 14-year-old waterskiier, Ricky McCormick, doing stunts at Cypress Gardens, Fla. There was a cameo appearance (an “audience bow”) by Miriam Colon.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/35699272@N00/5369918713/
Well… it *was* the best rendition of Kumbyah I’ve ever heard…. not difficult, that….
I don’t know what the big deal is here. You weren’t expecting them to come on stage and sing the Magnificat in Latin chant, were you? As much as this folk tune has gotten a bad wrap throughout the recent decades, I think this is the most dignified I’ve heard Kumbaya sung. That having been said, I do think there were many beautiful hymns I would have chosen before this one.
Lighten up a little. It’s not like this is a liturgical setting.
@Cathomommy: like pumpkin pie, the best version of ‘Kumbaya’ just isn’t that much better than the worst version you’ve ever heard.
To borrow from Dorothy Parker, Kumbaya makes me want to fwo up.
RichR wrote:
Lighten up a little. It’s not like this is a liturgical setting.
Agreed. This is a clip from a TV show that was originally broadcast to a mainstream American audience in the 1960s. While it is definitely dated today, back then, it was nice PR for the Catholic faith.
Lighten up a little. It’s not like this is a liturgical setting.
Except for the last 4 decades it is precisely this type of thing that the KumByYa lovers of the ’60’s have been trying to inflict on liturgical settings. Fortunately “nuns” of the secularization of Catholicism pursuasion are dying out. The growing orders don’t sing KumByYa but they do an outstanding job with Gregorian Chant.
@ (Lighten up a little. It’s not like this is a liturgical setting.)
There is the source of the “conflicted” feelings.
It actually might be rather entertaining, and even a little fun,
to see a big group of Catholic nuns singing popular songs on a popular tv show …
If only the barrier between the Ed Sullivan show and the choir loft had held firm.
If only we could believe that those dear, young sisters would never sing Kumbaya in a liturgical setting.
If only mainstream Americans in 1967 had not already heard Kumbaya sung at Mass in their parishes.
If only we could presume that all of those sisters are still practicing Catholics, loyal to the Magisterium.
If only the Benedictine Sisters of Erie could still put together 44 young sisters for choir practice.
If only they could still chant the Magnificat in Latin, or even in English, without changing the words.
Better selling toilets than bad theology…
This puts this in a whole different light. Perhaps the nuns were invited to appear to offset audience complaints about the Rolling Stones?
It would be a little like listening to a lovely recording of “Nearer My God To Thee”, only to see that it was recorded on April 15, 1912, aboard ship.
That is just the definition of wasted effort. And the knowledge that was lost . . . it’s enough to make you weep.
I disagree about the quality of the singing — they have good pitch and can sing close harmony. Allowing for nerves causing a few little ‘splats’ here and there, I’ve got no problem with the singing itself.
It’s really too bad that – since they were singing two secular numbers – they didn’t put in something more appropriate. If chant would be nixed by Sullivan, then a SSAA setting of something choral — either go Renaissance with Byrd or Palestrina, or be daring and do some Poulenc . . . .
This video reminded me of this passage that I read a day or so ago when I saw Geraldine Ferraro had died. The author is describing a Ferarro campaign stop from the early 80s when she was running for Congress.
http://takimag.com/article/my_mugger-loving_mom
Thank you Fr. Z. I just lost my lunch! Those were the days, that we long to be long gone.
I wonder if Sister Joan Chittister is among the singers? Yes, it is awful; yes, it is ridiculous. BUT!
Yes, do consider the time this was done. At that time, it was a harmless novelty. It was what happened after this that was a lot worse.
I can handle nuns in full habit singing “Kumbayah” better than nuns in pantsuits singing “All are Welcome.”
Do not wish “justice” on those who left their orders and the priesthood. Let God take care of that, and pray for them.
The way I see it, at the time, no one knew what was coming, and even some of those helping things along in the direction they went, never imagined or intended what came. When everything seems so solid, a little slippage doesn’t arouse concern.
To say it another way, let me apply my personal motto:
“It seemed like a good idea at the time.”
(Hmmm…I wonder what that sounds like in Latin? Per Google translate: “Ut visum notitia bona id temporis.” Maybe I’ll put that on my crest someday?)
If we’re going down memory lane:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHhyyRByuJ0
O Lord…
Good Lord that was difficult to watch!
Oh, pardon me. Where are my manners?!
Good Mother Nature that was difficult to watch!
While we’re going down memory lane,
Hugonis, here’s a famous period-piece try at Tantum Ergo (well, OK, actually, Pange Linga) that seems to make the rounds every year about this time. Just enjoy it. You’ll thank me.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UW90wIHRVZA
Wait. I learned quite a bit of French listening to this album!
In my view this consistent disrespect and ridicule pointed at fellow catholics – folks who happen to have different taste and sentiments will slowly eat this community up.
Personally I very much liked/like Kumbaya my Lord – nothing wrong with it really in my view.
As we tell our kids:
If you can’t say anything nice…
Sorry but actually but these religious sisters (they really aren’t nun- nuns are cloistered) would have greatly displeased St Benedict who founded the Benedictines. He would have never approved of this being done. Christ said it would be better for a man to have a mill stone put around one’s neck and be thrown into the sea than to offend one of the “little ones.’ Sadly many of these type of religious sisters have offended thousands of little ones- generations of them. They have scandalized the faithful and betrayed their spouse Christ. No they should not be mocked (rather pitied) and yes their example and conduct is rightly deplored. Sadly some may have been deceived and coerced into sins aganst the Faith. They are one of the reasons millions of Catholics are so poorly catechized.
Some one mentioned they were probably on to “balance” the Rolling Stones. That is probably true as the Ed Sullivan Show would then have the gall to claim that the show was appropriate for the entire family and wholesome. Apparently the rot begin a long time ago in the TV. Our bishops made numerous pronouncements against the increasing immorality in in the movies during the 30s and 40s (11/15/1934 and 11/13/1940 by NCWC- precursor to the USCCB). Sadly now on the USCCB site they praise movies that are really filth. For example “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” is not deemed morally offensive- though it is admitted to be “soft porn.” They have got to be joking- it is so obvious. Since when does “artistic merit” take precendence over morality? Sadly the bishops slipped up years ago. We need our bishops and priests to get a backbone and once again call a spade a spade. Thankfully some already do but there are not enough of them and the media culture has desensitized many- including large numbers of the clergy to the immorality that is so prevalent in movies these days. If this was fixed we wouldn’t have to deal with religious sisters singing Kum bay ya- they would know better.
I’m probably as much of a crabby traditionalist as anyone, but I do not see any harm in religious sisters or brothers singing any spiritual song (that’s not heretical) in a non-liturgical setting. I did not view the entire video but what I saw impressed me; I saw joy in the eyes and faces of the sisters singing and the music was relatively well-performed. Certainly a good Catholic witness for most who saw the original broadcast. Also we should be careful about judging those in the video based on the subsequent history; I believe many lay Catholics left the Church amidst all the liturgical (and other) shenanigans after Vatican II and not all left out of disobedience or dissent. It is likely many lay people and religious left out of bewilderment and a sense of abandonment – the Church was no longer recognizable to many and in a sense, the Church “left them”. Now, of course, we know that theologically that is not true: the Church is the same and has “left” no one. But amid all the fine theological phrases (and I mean fine in the most glorious sense), the actions speak all the louder. The Church is the same; everything in the Church has changed. The Church is a family and in the field of family therapy such a state of affairs is known as a “crazy-making” family system. And for those who tried to cling to their sanity and who understood that for us frail humans, “the medium is the message”, and sought to retain the one thing that both Catholics and non-Catholics viewed as the unchangeable purveyor of the message, The Holy Sacrifice of the Mass – well, they were pretty much stomped on. For many lay Catholics it was devastating; for religious trying to be faithful to an order whose leadership were turning it upside down, it must have been hell. The tsunami of modernism destroyed so much in a few short years; brick by brick it will take generations to rebuild. So let’s go easy on the singing sisters. Many of those joyful and even humble faces probably had no idea of the ravagement the onrushing tsunami would soon inflict upon them.
This garbage started in Germany and France the 1920’s. Spreading throughout the Benedictine world in the 1940’s.
The monks at Gethesemeni Abbey were raked over the coals for not being modern (circa 1947) by several abbots from Europe. It’s plain as day if one reads the old journals.
Sister Joan Chichester, OSB, is one of the Erie Benedictine Nuns in this clip from the Ed Sullivan Show. NONE of these nuns wear the habit anymore and some even left the monastery completely.
I didn’t initially watch the video because I’ve never been a fan of “Kumbaya” (the song was already being mocked and derided when I was a kid in the late 1970s and early 1980s), but I have to say this version was actually quite charming. I enjoyed it. The sisters in full habit look magnificent, all together like that.
This is the sort of show my grandparents would have had on TV anytime we visited them. She often had records, too (yes, vinyl records…remember those?), of singing nuns and that kind of thing playing. And hey, at least these sisters aren’t singing “Dominique” for a change.
Nobody wants to hear “Kumbaya” in church (anymore, I hope). But on the Ed Sullivan Show…fine.
@Gary Page: What a beautiful and enlightening contribution to the discussion. Thank you.