One of the organizers of the FOTA conferences in Ireland sent a prospectus for the upcoming meeting.
It is too long to post, but here is a good item:
The theme of the conference is:
“Benedict XVI and Sacred Music”
10th – 12th July, 2010.
The Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork City, Ireland
The Conference will be opened by:
His Excellency the Most Reverend Raymond Leo Burke,
Prefect of the Signatura Apostolica
And he will speak on "The New Evangelization and Sacred Music: The Unbroken Continuity of Holiness, Beauty and Universality."
I have recently become aware of how the sacred (I should put that in quotes) music during Mass contributes to the decay and Protestantizing of the faith in the Novus Ordo. Such pieces as Taste and See by James E. Moore, Jr., We Are One in Christ by James Chepponis, Ubi Caritas by Bob Hurd, and the infamous Creation Mass by Marty Haugen, which is actually more pagan than Protestant, all feature words like “table” instead of altar, and “bread of life” instead of Body and Blood of Our Lord. Haugen’s Memorial Acclamation actually replaces transubstantiation with a new “mystery of faith”: “Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again.”
Just as Cardinals Ottaviani and Bacci warned, this is more evidence that the Novus Ordo embodies non-Catholic theology rather than just being a “revised rite.”
And this music is intrinsic to the Novus Ordo?
‘Christ has died, Christ has risen, Christ will come again’. We’ve been using that acclamation in Anglophonia since 1970 so in fairness to Mr. H he can’t be accused of nefariously introducing it! But I would imagine that the majority of the liturgical mafia in my dear homeland (Ireland) will be prominent by their absence at Fota :( Too many assumptions might be challenged, after all. I certainly know my own local ‘liturgy committee’ or whatever they call themselves wouldn’t even be aware of it.
I happened to tell some of my fellow friars about last years conference and how strange it was to have all those cassocks around. They started off slagging such ‘conservatives’ for wearing their cassocks until I pointed out we look no different as friars when all gather together in brown! Jaykay- invite the mafia! They might have an Emmaus experience and fall off their high horses. If we spread the word we could sow seeds of change. Brick by brick!
That’s the problem, Br. Tom. I actually *have* tried to spread the word (or in my case the note, as I’m in a choir). Brick by brick all right… I just run into the wall! But thanks for the encouragement. Really need it. And might even try to get to Fota myself. God bless.
Yes Sedgwick;
I don’t think Mr. Haugen created that acclamation (no pun intended) but that doesn’t make it any less suspect. You are certainly right about the use of the language of meal theology almost exclusively though in most contemporary music for Mass. Some of it gets lost in it’s own confusion of metaphors and symbols and ends up actually contradicting Catholic teaching (see David Haas’s “To Be Your Bread” for a particularly amusing example).
I hope the FOTA conference is a precursor of things to come…
Chironmo: yes, that such a conference should be happening (now for some years running) in Ireland, overcome as it is with liturgical banality, is truly a good sign. It would not have happened 10 years ago. Would that it were a bit nearer to where I live. It’s a small country but it’s still over 200 miles from me to there. You’ll laugh at that in the US… :)
YOu can view the Conference prospectus here http://en.gloria.tv/?media=68983