Wednesday, January 31, 2007

MISCATEGORIZED, MISREPRESENTED

Kinda like the Florida chads in 2000, eh?

My prayers are with the Corning Curmudgeon. The poor guy joins a liturgy committee but becomes the odd man out as the liturgy committee in question is more the "stereotypical" liturgy committee. They can't even do polls right.

To say the least it has been an aggravating time on the "Liturgical Committee." I've come to the conclusion that it hasn't been worth it other than to fully define how bad things are in the parish and our diocese. It is clear that Diversity (and I know, I should have known this already) in Liturgy does not mean what it should. Instead, it means that Progressives get to run things and all the "wrong kind" of Catholics get to shut up, except of course, they need us when they want money. What are the "wrong kind" of Catholics. Anyone who doesn't agree with the progressive agenda of course. So that means trads, neo-con, conservative, or just Catholics who want Mass to be sacred, God Centered, and the Sacrifice of the Body and Blood of Christ like Mass is supposed to be. Instead we get "me centered" and "Jesus is my buddy" music, and an army of Eucharistic Ministers.

The best example of how things are going:
We did a poll at our parish, and the way it was worded was: Do you prefer:
A) Ancient Traditional (Gregorian Chant, Latin, etc.)
B) Traditional (Be not Afraid, Sing to the Mountains, etc.)
C) Contemporary Music

About as twisted as the Florida election chads of 2000, I think. How these polls should have been categorized (and I commented thus on the Corning Curmudgeon's post) is this:
A) Real Catholic Music (Gregorian Chant, Latin, etc.)
B) Greatest Hits (Be Not Afraid, Sing to the Mountains, etc.)
C) LifeTeen Music (self-explanatory)

Just because politicians misrepresent..... Sheesh!
Peace,
BMP

3 comments:

frival said...

Wow, that's ... painful. The good thing about the liturgical committee at my parish is that we don't have one. Unfortunately we still get warm-n-fuzzy music so I don't know if that's a real gain or not. BMP, any interest in coming up to NH to give a talking-to to a choir director? :)

Brian Michael Page said...

I will admit to having ONE very good liturgy committee to work with. Each department had its own rep, and we all reported to the pastor and each other. Considering that particular parish also had a Tridentine Mass, a lot was done with class. I can't say that about your "stereotypical" liturgy committee, sad to say.
I for one refuse to use "warm-n-fuzzy". I got chewed out by one parishioner a couple of weeks ago because she thought One Bread, One Body was a perfect fit and she didn't hear it, then proceeded to tell me I'm living in the "dark ages". Now, I'm a firm believer in Mass NOT being entertainment, but we also try not to put anyone to sleep at Mass either. (OTOH, City of God would be a "rude awakening"!)
What's this choir director in NH up to? I'm due for a good NH run. Haven't been there since 8/04 and the family's been wanting to go. ;)

BMP

frival said...

If I were to pick one thing, other than the usual banality of the selections (One Bread, One Body is high music) it would be his propensity to - how to say this - take the piano out for a drive on occasion. I told my wife at one point that he needed to be reminded that this was a Mass, not a concert or a piano recital. Don't get me wrong - he's pretty good, but we don't need to be reminded of that fact.

FWIW, I understand St. Marie's in Manchester is now using some Latin in their liturgies on occasion - that's major movement around here. Pretty soon I'll find out there's an actual Schola somewhere in NH. ;)