Catholic Sensibility

Traditionalist-Progressive Common Ground Your input requested, if you please. I'm mulling over these seven points of common ground between liturgical progressives and traditionalists. There was a point 8, but it's gone out of my mind. Can you think of something I've missed? 1. From the start, liturgy must be a higher priority in most parishes. Though educators and catechists might disagree, most liturgy people of both left and right agree that liturgy gets short shrift in their parishes. In too many places, building a school takes precedent over a worship space. Sadly, some bishops actively encourage this misalignment of priorities. If Sunday liturgy is to achieve its fullest potential for sanctifying the faithful, beautiful and well-built churches will need to be first on the building effort, not a second thought once classrooms, gym, and ball fields are provided. 2. More clergy support is essential. Closely following from number 1, most every liturgically inclined person wants the parish priest behind worship 100%. Poor preachers, bored presiders, and clock-watching pastors sap the energy right out of liturgy, regardless of style. Music and liturgy should be a higher priority in seminaries. More than that, liturgy should more deeply inform a priest’s prayer life in order that his spiritual example becomes something to admire. We might all agree that such a good example is vital to the young and serves as a model for the other parishioners. How many people complain because their priest is too prayerful? 3. Catholic church music deserves the highest professional standards. Some pastors and long-suffering parishioners might wince at the thought, but the liturgy is generally better off in the hands of a highly skilled church musician. Many open-minded musicians are able to appreciate quality across the lines of various styles, even in genres with which they are unfamiliar. When done with skill, even disliked music can still be respected. In such instances, dislikes become more a matter of taste than anything else. At their best, a fine organist and chant schola will win grudging admiration from a person of modern tastes. And ensemble musicians, especially guitarists, can never be harmed by diligent attention to the musical craft. 4. Strive for higher standards in musical performance or repertoire. Any serious choir director will find deficiencies in his or her choir. Not sure about that? Maybe the director needs some updating, too. More skill in the hired positions in a parish should trickle down to the volunteers: except for the lazy and self-satisfied, we can all likely agree on that. A folk group can sing plainsong; an ensemble or chant schola might tackle a bit of polyphony; a skilled choir might expand its repertoire with some of the modern sacred music coming from Eastern Europe, or even try pieces from the Orthodox liturgy. Good choirs are more than a collection of good singers. Groups, be they singers or instruments should work on collective performance skills. Finding the very best repertoire is a natural outgrowth of the desire to excel. 5. Insist on higher standards in music publishing. Are the Catholic music publishers doing their very best to develop the very best church music? Do parish musicians settle for less than the best because it’s easier to plug in selections from a known composer’s twenty-somethingth collection? 6. Ordinary laity need a deeper appreciation of prayer and liturgy. Sure, triangulate the discussion and blame somebody else. But apathy in the pew is a most discouraging reality for many liturgical ministers. The centerpiece of liturgical reform has been “full and active participation.” And even traditionalist-leaning Catholics would agree that a deeper interior engagement in the liturgy is an ideal worth working toward. Avoiding the extremes of browbeaten alienation and wishy-washy passivity, people can be encouraged with baby steps toward a fuller understanding and appreciation for worship well done. Sharing the success stories in making this happen might yield some mutual appreciation among music directors in parishes heading in different directions. 7. Beauty is a quality anyone can appreciate. Beyond music, the internal décor of a church is often a vigorous flashpoint in the left-right struggle. Is it too much to ask that art be of high quality? Do we have common ground in saying that mass-produced statues are an inferior idea? Or maybe the whole danged thing is hopeless ...