The Committee on Doctrine of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) recently released a document which criticizes doctrinal problems it has found in the lyrics of some songs and hymns used in Catholic worship around the country.
Several years ago, I was part of a small group of deacons and wives planning the liturgical music for an archdiocesan deacon convocation. For this particular event, I collaborated with another deacon whom I had not previously met. As sometimes (well, nearly always) happens when worship music is selected by a committee, the committee members did not agree on all the music suggestions.
For these diaconate gatherings, I tend to favor familiar, "common denominator" songs: those which are likely to be known by most people, sung to tunes which are familiar. Among my suggestions for that particular weekend were "All Are Welcome" and "Sing a New Church". I thought both songs fit the event's theme of unity in diversity. And beyond their thematic suitability, there were some practical considerations: "All Are Welcome" is pretty well-known in many parishes, while "Sing a New Church" is set to a tune, NETTLETON, which is familiar to many people.
But my brother committee member objected to those two song suggestions. He said that both of them have doctrinal issues. For example, in his view, the phrase "all are welcome" implies that people in irregular marriage situations would be welcome to receive communion. As for "Sing a New Church", I think he objected to the idea that the old church should be replaced by a new one.
I wasn't bowled over by these objections. I had heard them before, from church conservatives and the "reform the reform" crowd. But in the spirit of working together, we worked out a compromise. I think we kept one and cut the other.
That little conflict came to mind when my wife recently called my attention to a new document which has been issued by the Committee on Doctrine of the USCCB. It is entitled, "Catholic Hymnody at the Service of the Church: an Aid for Evaluating Hymn Lyrics".
Broadly speaking, the document is in three sections. The first part lays out some criteria and a framework for evaluating the doctrinal content of hymn texts. The last part consists of appendixes with some doctrinal references.
It is the middle part which interested me the most. That section, entitled, "Examples of Applications of the Guidelines", names names: it analyzes some specific hymn texts, many of which are widely used in Catholic worship.
The analysis is done under the following topic headings:
- Deficiencies in the Presentation of Eucharistic Doctrine ("All Are Welcome" is dinged here)
- Deficiencies in the Presentation of Trinitarian Doctrine
- Hymns with Deficiencies in the Doctrine of God and His Relation to Humans
- Hymns with a View of the Church That Sees Her as Essentially a Human Construction ("Sing a New Church" falls afoul of this one)
- Hymns with Doctrinally Incorrect Views of the Jewish People
- Hymns with Incorrect Christian Anthropology
“Sing a New Church”9-- Refrain: “Sing a new Church into being, one infaith and love and praise.” This implies or even states outright that theChurch is essentially our creation. It also leaves open the possibilitythat there could be a new Church replacing the old one.
a. Catholic teaching about the Church is summed up in CCC, no. 766, where it isexplained that the Church is born primarily from Christ’s total self-gift,anticipated in the institution of the Eucharist and fulfilled on the Cross, andthat as such she is the new Eve born from the side of the new Adam. “Becauseshe is united to Christ as to her bridegroom, she becomes a mystery in herturn” (CCC, no. 772), and thus “is in history, but at the same time transcendsit” (CCC, no. 770).b. Hymns should avoid giving the impression that it is primarily our work thatbuilds or makes the Church or the Kingdom of God.
In accordance with c.827, permission to publish is granted on May 26, 2011 by Rev. Msgr. John F. Canary, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Chicago. Permission to publish is an official declaration of ecclesiastical authority that the material is free from doctrinal and moral error. No legal responsibility is assumed by the grant of this permission.
be helpful in assessing a grouping of hymns and other songs, such as those commonly used in a given parish for the Communion Hymn (for example). Different hymns may legitimately express or reflect different aspects of one doctrine, but if all of the hymns relevant to a particular doctrine express only one dimension of the doctrine to the exclusion of others, then the catechesis offered by the hymnody would, as a whole, not be in conformity with Catholic doctrine. For example, a collection of hymns that emphasized the Eucharist as table fellowship to the exclusion of the vocabulary of sacrifice, altar, and priesthood, would not represent the fullness of Catholic teaching and therefore would catechize those singing such hymns every Sunday with a deficient sacramental theology.
Argh, hymns as catechesis are a buzzkill. I prefer them as poetry. Though I have to admit there are some lyrics that jar my teeth. Not the ones your colleagues objected to, though.
ReplyDeleteI haven't heard any mention of "Catholic Hymnody in the Service of the Church" here yet. I think our archdiocese is still so much focused on pandemic issues as they affect our church communities that they don't have the bandwidth for the extra stuff right now. Which is maybe just as well.
I have heard some of the criticisms before, and like you, I bridle at them. I love "All Are Welcome", and of course it sets the PTB's teeth on edge. Because they would prefer that all are not welcome. If it were up to me, I wish we had open Communion; that the only criteria would be belief and a right intention. (yeah, there's a reason why I don't use my married name when posting.)
I am sort of a hymn collector. I have picked up a lot of hymnals at garage sales, of different denominations. Some are your standard Lutheran or Methodist ones; but I have one from the Ozarks that is early evangelical hymns written with shaped notes. And there are a couple of Mormon ones I like, "Come, Come, Ye Saints" and "The Spirit of God Like a Fire is Burning".
“Argh, hymns as catechesis are a buzzkill. I prefer them as poetry.”
DeleteAndrew Greeley would agree with you. He wrote a book Religion as Poetry which said that religion functions as poetry rather than by convincing us by prose. That view also accords with much information that religion is more about relationships rather than about ideas. We are more likely to change our religious practices when we develop new relationships than when we are exposed to new ideas. Sociologists found that cults did not brainwash new members. Rather new people developed personal relationship with members of a cult. Only after a long time did the new members come around to the beliefs and practices of the cult. Similar processes happen in mixed marriages.
"Come, Come, Ye Saints" is excellent.
Deletehttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ia3gYSvG8M
This committee would probably be surprised that I, as a social scientist, view them as sectarians (e.g. Protestants) rather than Catholics. They are essentially introducing divisiveness into the church saying that some hymns are better than others, and implicitly saying that some people, those that choose the right hymns, are better than others.
ReplyDeleteSectarianism only works within Catholicism in the form of religious orders and other movements, when some people adopt a better form for themselves but without saying that other people are wrong for not adopting that form of Catholicism. For example having guitar masses to attract young people or Hispanic Masses to serve Hispanics are Catholic forms of healthy diverse sectarianism. In fact Catholicism is really unity with diversity, i.e. adapting the universal to meet the needs of various groups. Those within Catholicism who say that we should not adapt actually risk becoming sectarians, e.g. those who want to retain the Latin Mass, or the Pre-Vatican II Mass as the only form of worship.
As a liturgy scholar, I would also say that these people have a poor idea of liturgy, i.e. they seem to view it mainly as catechesis, i.e. indoctrinating and explaining abstract truths to people rather than fostering a way of life. They don’t understand that liturgy functions more as poetry rather than as prose. When you have to explain liturgy in terms of a prose catechesis, you have really failed to do liturgy well.
The liturgy is sacramental and mystical. It celebrates death and resurrection, one God in three persons, the Mass is both the eschatological banquet and the sacrifice of the Cross. The challenge is expressing the fullness of the liturgy for the needs of our present time and place, a liturgy integrated with a way of life.
The same is true of the Gospel. We have a four- fold Gospel; the Church rejected early attempts to produce a harmony of the Gospels. We need their multiple perspectives.
Jack, I largely agree with you. I do think, though, that there is some intersection between liturgical texts and doctrine, i.e. lex orandi, lex credendi.
DeleteThe author of the preaching textbook we used during formation wrote that what Catholic preaching needs the most - the gap which most needs to be filled - is poetry. Preachers should be thinking and speaking in metaphor, with attentiveness to cadence and rhythm. I think that accords with your point of view.
But consider: just as a sound and true thought, poetically expressed, is likely to strike us more and be more memorable than the same idea expressed prosaically, couldn't the same be said about an unsound and false thought?
When an idea, poetically expressed, then is set to a tune, I think it is even more likely to burrow itself into our brain.
Under things that drive choir people crazy: when the music publishers keep tweaking the words of the songs. In non-Covid years there are paperback music editions in the pews that get changed out every year as part of a subscription and according to copyright regs. Typically these have only the melody line of music, or sometimes just the lyrics. The choirs have hardbound hymnals with four part harmony. They're expensive and we keep them from year to year. We kid about the little elf at the publisher who tweaks the words ever so slightly, and then tweaks them back the following year. We pencil in the changes, so we're singing the same words that the congregation has.
ReplyDeleteTypically the changes have to do with pronouns. As in, repeating "God" or "God's" over and over so you don't have to say "he" or "him". Jesus called God the Father "him", good enough for me.
Another thing that drives musicians crazy is when they drop a favorite song out of the congregation edition. An example is " We Praise You" (by Darryl Ducote) based on Psalm 135, which got dropped out this year. We can still sing it as a meditation, but it was one we used to get good congregation singing from.
I know the pandemic is probably hurting the music publishers, because now most parishes are not having missalettes or music editions in the pews. I don't know how things will play out afterwards, probably some parishes will keep on projecting the words on a screen or wall, if that's what they are doing now. Personally I hope they return to having missalettes in the pews at least. People like me who are visual learners get a lot more out of the Scripture passages if we can read along.
Right, those lyric rewrites typically are done to make lyrics more "inclusive". The "they" who do this would be the copyright holder (could be the composer, could be a publisher, could be someone else). There is more than one magisterium seeking to govern the content of lyrics.
DeleteI am sorry to hear that "We Praise You" has been dropped from the subscription service. I know publishers have to make those difficult decisions every year. The same process happens for successive editions of more permanent hymnals.
FWIW, our parish is supposed to be getting the projector screens. But during the pandemic, our archdiocese has banned congregational singing, so the screens won't be an immediate panacea for the hymnals being removed from the pews.
In the post, I mentioned the "negative aura" of this document which pronounces upon others' deficiencies and doctrinal incorrectness. I would contrast this approach, which is customary for doctrinal committees, with the spirituality of accompaniment which Pope Francis introduced in Evangelii Gaudium. The pastoral art of accompaniment requires that church authorities "remove their sandals before the sacred ground of others." It requires that they listen others. It puts forth dialogue, listening and reflection as the way to evangelize one another. I would contrast the accompaniment approach with judgments from on high of what is correct and what is incorrect.
ReplyDeleteThese lyricists are real persons, most of whom are still living. As I mentioned in the post, they are offering their work in good faith to the church. I would like to see the church authorities accompany them, rather than seek to publicly correct them.
"The pastoral art of accompaniment requires that church authorities "remove their sandals before the sacred ground of others."
DeleteWhat a concept, and one that has taken Christians centuries to learn, and unfortunately some still haven't learned it. Under the heading of ham-handed evangelization are stories such as St. Boniface chopping down the sacred oak of the pagans he was trying to convert. Heard a sermon lately praising that. I thought it was cringe-worthy.
"Under the heading of ham-handed evangelization are stories such as St. Boniface chopping down the sacred oak of the pagans he was trying to convert."
DeleteI haven't heard that story before. But it seems the equivalent of tossing Pachamama into the Tiber.
Similar kind of thing, only centuries earlier with St. Boniface.
DeleteThe ones who chucked the art into the Tiber could have learned some things if they had actually talked to the people the representations belonged to. The first thing would have been that they were not newly converted to Christianity, their conversion was a long time in the rear view mirror, centuries even. Another thing would be that the statues weren't representations of Pachamama, who was a Peruvian goddess. Also that they weren't the Virgin Mary. The explanation that made the most sense was that they represented the Amazonian women, the mothers, who occupied a place of importance in their society and in the Christian community.