In a recently published book entitled “The American Catholic Revolution: How the ‘60’s changed the church forever” (2010), Fr. Mark Massa, S.J. writes that the “American Catholic Sixties” began on the first Sunday of Advent, 1964, with the revised order of the Mass. In Fr. Massa’s words “many Catholics in 1964 lived in a hermetically sealed universe when it came to their faith and religious practices…” They did not know or believe that religious practices could change: “This is the way it was and this is the way it will always be!” Fr. Massa asserts that the liturgical reform mandated by the Vatican Council II altered the allegedly changeless ritual of the Mass. For centuries Roman Catholics believed that everything liturgical came from the earliest apostolic days of the church and remained unaltered throughout the history of the Church. It was only after World War II and the 1950’s especially, that scholars started to look into liturgical history in depth and found that the practices and customs dealing with the sacraments had varied greatly over the centuries. They were not always unchangeable. This theological science called liturgical theology examined these ageless practices and customs and gave us insight as to what could be changed in the way we celebrate the sacraments. So Catholics now realized if the Church could change the ways we had been celebrating the sacraments (including using the vernacular languages instead of Latin), it was evident that changes could come in the future. For four hundred years, the Mass texts (completed after the Council of Trent, the Post-Reformation Council) were prayed in Latin. As the “new Mass” of the 1960’s changed what was being done since Trent, Catholics began to conceive that there could be changes in the Mass for English speakers in 2011 starting with the first Sunday of Advent when we begin our new liturgical year.

There is no problem in critiquing the new translation of the Mass texts. We should be free to give our opinion even though the books are already printed and mailed to parishes and religious institutions. Some of the new translations will please us; others may have us puzzled as to the meaning of some of the new wording. We have to live with it and see if the new translation “grows on us.”

Younger Catholics grew up in a world that had plenty of music in worship as well as outside the assembly. Older Catholics grew up often attending “low” Mass where music was never used. They had “solemn” Masses with plenty of music but “low” Mass was quite popular. After Vatican II this older generation paid attention to the statements in the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy (1963) which told us that participation in the liturgy can never be “full, conscious, and active” unless it is also musical. Music has a ministerial role. It helps us make worship more noble and solemn and music is one of the ways we pray, one of the ways we praise God. Praising God as a community is public worship. It is “Jesus and us” not just “Jesus and me.” It is a fact that music or certain types of Church music rub some Catholics the wrong way. Some would like Mass to be silent. But the documents for the past forty years tell us that music is the norm for worship; that having music is the normal way we celebrate Mass. Liturgical guidelines for example, even say if we do not sing the “Alleluia” at Mass we do not have to say it. That statement tells us in a positive way to sing the “Alleluia” if at all possible. Never the less, practically every Catholic parish with multiple Masses, has one celebration without music. Sometimes the reason may be a lack of musicians; sometimes to please those who do not like music. Parishes try to keep everyone happy!

The most recently issued document from the U.S. Bishops’ Conference dealing with music, Sing to the Lord: Music in Divine Worship states in #124: “Music does what words alone cannot do. It is capable of expressing a dimension of meaning and feeling that words alone cannot convey. While this dimension of an individual composition is often difficult to describe, its affective power should be carefully considered along with its textual components.”

Throughout the United States and other English speaking countries gifted musicians have composed or are currently composing new musical settings for the Mass. One year ago there were over ninety new Mass settings composed for parishes in the United States. There may be hundreds more by now. Musicians have been commissioned to write new compositions to go along with the new words in the various parts of the Mass. Patching “old wine skins onto new wine skins” will not work. Musicians will be composing new settings and not revised settings. Creativity will blossom in our Catholic Church! The result of these new compositions is the knowledge that there are many gifted musicians in our world who want to enhance our Mass with beauty. Choirs and congregations will be learning new rhythms that embrace the new texts of familiar prayers. Hopefully, the new music will help us learn the new words and prayerfully bring us closer to God.

Very Rev. Michael T. Driscoll, O. Carm.
Administrator Pro-Tem