Very thoughtful and timely piece. Having lived through (and indeed participated in) some of the "improvisations" in the liturgical 1970s, and suffered through bad music in some parishes to this very day, a reminder of Pope Benedict's corrective intervention is a sign of hope. But things happen for a reason, and neither the misbegotten excesses nor the banality of much of post-Council occurred in a vacuum. The truth is, the pre-Vatican II liturgy, as carried out in most parishes in most places, was neither beautiful nor inspiring. I recall no Gregorian chant save for the Requiem Mass for the grandfather. Banal hymns (and very few of them) were the staple, if music was provided at all. Too young to remember this detail, but I cannot imagine that Catholic homiletics then were any better than the hit-or-miss quality we still endure in too many places. Training in art, music, etc., was certainly not a staple of seminary formation before the Council, which unfortunately led even more tradition-minded pastors to defer to secularized architecture and modernist "music ministries." To some extent, this is a matter of the Church putting its money where its mouth is. I attend a parish that pays its choir, and the music is exquisite -- not a Dan Schutte or Michael Joncas to be heard. Very very few parishes do the same; bless those who volunteer to sing in church choirs, but you're at the mercy of the talent pool. The same for homiletics -- how much continuing education, real continuing formation, do priests receive (and dioceses pay for)? Judging by the results, not enough. As for kneeling, that seems to be pretty uniform in every parish I attend, although I know the practice in some of Europe is different. Anyway, my point is not to excuse mediocrity but to remind us that there was a lot of liturgical mediocrity before Vatican II, a concomitant and understandable attraction after the Council for a more participatory liturgy, and that there is still a long way to go -- with Pope Benedict's inspiration and, one hopes, a modification in coming years of hierarchical hostility to more traditional forms of worship.
Very thoughtful and timely piece. Having lived through (and indeed participated in) some of the "improvisations" in the liturgical 1970s, and suffered through bad music in some parishes to this very day, a reminder of Pope Benedict's corrective intervention is a sign of hope. But things happen for a reason, and neither the misbegotten excesses nor the banality of much of post-Council occurred in a vacuum. The truth is, the pre-Vatican II liturgy, as carried out in most parishes in most places, was neither beautiful nor inspiring. I recall no Gregorian chant save for the Requiem Mass for the grandfather. Banal hymns (and very few of them) were the staple, if music was provided at all. Too young to remember this detail, but I cannot imagine that Catholic homiletics then were any better than the hit-or-miss quality we still endure in too many places. Training in art, music, etc., was certainly not a staple of seminary formation before the Council, which unfortunately led even more tradition-minded pastors to defer to secularized architecture and modernist "music ministries." To some extent, this is a matter of the Church putting its money where its mouth is. I attend a parish that pays its choir, and the music is exquisite -- not a Dan Schutte or Michael Joncas to be heard. Very very few parishes do the same; bless those who volunteer to sing in church choirs, but you're at the mercy of the talent pool. The same for homiletics -- how much continuing education, real continuing formation, do priests receive (and dioceses pay for)? Judging by the results, not enough. As for kneeling, that seems to be pretty uniform in every parish I attend, although I know the practice in some of Europe is different. Anyway, my point is not to excuse mediocrity but to remind us that there was a lot of liturgical mediocrity before Vatican II, a concomitant and understandable attraction after the Council for a more participatory liturgy, and that there is still a long way to go -- with Pope Benedict's inspiration and, one hopes, a modification in coming years of hierarchical hostility to more traditional forms of worship.