| Home | About | Index | Donate | Search | Links | Contact |
|
The Purpose of this Index This index was developed to provide a swift and easy way to access all that the Vatican has said through papal documents, encyclicals, and instructions regarding the liturgy and sacred music over the past century. Information can be accessed through a simple word search, or by going through the topic lists. Word Searches Word searches can be deceiving—frequently the Vatican uses slightly different terms to refer to the same thing. For example, you can find information on funerals under “Masses for the dead”, “Masses of the dead”, and “funerals.” Word searches also only give you the exact iteration of that word (“local Ordinary” verses “local Ordinaries”) in the paragraph in which it appears. Topic Lists Because of this, the topic lists were developed. The topic lists are an attempt by a human being to intelligently categorize all of the information presented by the Vatican. In the topic lists, you’ll find the various variants of the same word or idea in one place. Documents in the topic lists are in reverse chronological order (most recent to oldest). References often include extra paragraphs to give the context of the statements in which the idea or word occurs. Lastly, older documents are included for two reasons: 1. To give the reader a sense of what came before, what’s been changed, and the progression of the Vatican’s view of sacred music 2. The older documents, unless they are directly contradicted by a later document, are still in force. Background I’ve spent eight years working closely with a pastor (Fr. Marcus Pollard, founding pastor for my parish) whose vision was to create a parish music program that did all of what the Vatican wanted. During that time, I found myself constantly amazed at how greatly the Vatican’s vision of sacred music and the Mass has been distorted and ignored both in the United States and abroad. In many cases, this has happened because 1. Many choir directors and priests aren’t familiar with what the Vatican has said, 2. The Vatican is not always particularly good at making information easily accessible, and 3. Choir directors, priests, and liturgists have been taught that the way to decide what will happen at Mass is either a matter of personal taste or of imitating those who do it “pretty well.” This index is an attempt to remove these obstacles so that those who are of good will who participate in the liturgy can have information from the Vatican easily at their disposal. The Story of St. Veronica Catholic Church If you follow the Vatican’s guidelines, you can expect your music program to be different from most—very different. When I started at this parish in 1999 (months after it was founded and before we even had a building), simply having a mix of traditional and contemporary hymnody was odd for some of the parishioners and it took a while before the choir was able to sing even the simplest chants in Latin. They learned, and came to appreciate and enjoy the chants of the Church, as well as a variety of Renaissance and classical polyphonic works. And, as the choir was ready to do more of this core Catholic music, the congregation was more prepared to sing it themselves and hear it sung. In 2006, my parish decided to implement the hierarchy of sacred music at Mass. To which, many choir directors would say (and have said to me), “The what?” Well, you’d have to have read Musicam Sacram to know that there’s a specific structure to what music the Vatican wants sung in the Mass. You start with the dialogue parts of the Mass, so the celebrant has to sing and the people have to respond. Only if you’ve done that, are you supposed to sing parts of the Mass like the Gloria (Glory to God in the Highest) or hymns. And that’s the exact opposite of what you find in most parishes in the US, where hymns are sung, followed by the parts of the Mass. What made the project even more fun was that the music to do it either hadn’t been written or wasn’t easily accessible either nationally or within my diocese. So the pastor, the organist, and I had to work together to come up with music that would work for our parish. Then, we submitted everything we did to the liturgy office at the diocese, since the Vatican has made it clear that it’s within the bishop’s rights to decide if new music is appropriate for use in the Mass. The bishops are supposed to do that through a sacred music commission or committee, staffed with experts in the liturgy and sacred music. The Vatican has been asking that these committees be formed in dioceses worldwide for almost a hundred years. Our diocese doesn’t have one (very few do), so we give copies of everything new to the liturgy office so that we’ve done our part to follow the Vatican’s guidelines. It was only after all of this was in place (and done gradually so as not to lose parishioners along the way), that the parish music program began to branch out into a variety of instruments and more contemporary worship music. Right now, we are at the point of trying to develop that sound with a variety of instruments while making sure that it is in keeping with the true spirit of the liturgy and of Vatican II. Parting Thoughts Over the years, I’ve talked to many choir directors who would do things differently if they simply had more information. It is my devout hope that this index will remedy that issue—whether others attempt to do all that is outlined in these documents is up to them.
|