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Bishop Thomas G. Doran of the Diocese of Rockford along with Monsignor David D. Kagan, Vicar General and Moderator of the Curia, released a statement regarding the error promoted by a youth group, "Young Catholics for Choice". The statement was published in the Friday 8 January 2010 issue of The Observer, the Catholic newspaper for the Diocese of Rockford.
December 21, 2009
My Dear Friends in Christ,
It has been reported to me that an organization calling itself "Young Catholics for Choice" has recently entered into collaboration with some of the family planning services in the State of Wisconsin. Through items placed in the secular media in advertising and in other ways, "Young Catholics for Choice" is attempting to convey the message that Catholics can disregard church teaching regarding conception, abortion and human sexuality in general and remain Catholics in good standing.
This is the egregious error of many Catholics in political life who are unfaithful to the Church and who purport to remain Catholics while deserting the moral teaching of Christ and the Church. Sadly, examples of this kind of conduct are not far to seek even for us in the Midwest.
This message of "Young Catholics for Choice" and of unfaithful Catholic politicians could not be further from the truth. People can call themselves by whatever name they wish, but it is the duty of the Bishops of the Church to state clearly, unequivocally and unambiguously that by professing and disseminating views in grave contradiction to Catholic teaching, members of organizations like "Young Catholics for Choice" in fact disown their Catholic heritage, tragically placing themselves outside that communion with the Church to which they are called. We pray that they may repent of their errors and renounce opinions which are contrary to the Catholic faith which they claim to profess.
The Most Reverend Thomas G. Doran, D.D., J.C.D.
Bishop of Rockford
The Reverend Monsignor David D. Kagan, J.C.L.
Vicar General/Moderator of the Curia
Showing posts with label Catholic. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Catholic. Show all posts
Friday, January 8, 2010
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Musicianship at Mass
Building a Musical Foundation on Rock
Over the summer I had the fortunate opportunity to work on an ongoing research project concerning sacred and liturgical music and the Roman Rite of the Mass under the mentorship of Father Michael Joncas, professor of Catholic Studies and Theology at the University of Saint Thomas. The summer afforded me the chance to look at Church documents and the Mass and music in a way I could not in the classroom yet had wanted to explore for a long time.
For the first phase of my research, I read numerous documents from Pope Pius X’s Tra le Sollecitudini through Sing to the Lord! Music in Divine Worship written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2007. I quickly realized sacred music and liturgy do not have the clear cut explanations I thought they might. In fact, I just became more and more confused as the research progressed. I began a second phase of the research which involved “participant observation”, that is, attending a Mass while observing reactions from the congregation, music style and performance, attention to rubrics, and other elements of the experience of Mass at any given parish.
These observations are not immune to my own personal reactions. In fact, my reactions are key. I was raised in a fairly “traditional” parish; many of the more “progressive” parishes stretched my sensibilities and made me ask serious questions about my own faith and prayer life, areas of critical importance when planning a career as a Church musician. Through all the subjective and varied opinions, I had to take a step back and search for the objective, some grounded truth on which I could be as one “who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock [which] could not [be shaken]…because it had been well built” (Lk 6: 48). Music at Mass is not just a service to the Mass. It is meant to become the liturgy itself. Hymns are secondary. The true music at Mass are elements like a chanted Eucharistic Prayer, the Great Amen, or a sung Responsorial Psalm. If music is liturgy, then how is musical artistry appropriately used?
Benedict XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote Spirit of the Liturgy in 1999. As a theologian from the Second Vatican Council, as one deeply devoted to music and liturgy, and as one elected to the Apostolic See of Saint Peter, I figured he would be a good place to start. He writes in his chapter, “Music and the Liturgy” that “Artistic freedom increasingly asserts its rights, even in the liturgy. … It is clear that these opportunities for artistic creativity and the adoption of secular tunes brought danger with them. Music was no longer developing out of prayer, but, with the new demand for artistic autonomy, was now heading away from the liturgy; it was becoming an end in itself…[and] alienating the liturgy from its true nature” (145-146). It is prudent to note, he was talking about the “Great Tradition” of Catholic music, that of the Middle Ages!
In our transitions as a culture from one age to the next, we find trends in the any era but especially the modern one, to see “music as pure subjectivity, music as the expression of mere will” (155). The Catholic musician must ground himself in the doctrine and devotions of the Church, using it as the inexhaustible source for further artistry and expressions of faith. Benedict reminds musicians that “Humble submission to what goes before us releases authentic freedom” (156) in the life of service to the Church.
As a musician, it is easy to fall into the “musician’s ego”, to worry about each last detail and be so consumed by the music you forget about the Mass and Who you glorify in the work. As Catholics, musicians need special devotion away from making music. Daily Mass and reception of Holy Communion, Eucharistic Adoration, devotion to the Blessed Mother, and contemplative silence are just a few concrete ways to build a steady relationship with the Divine. Many of the problems in maintaining a sense of orthodoxy to the Church and making the Mass accessible to all is a loss of the foundational devotion that has fed the Church for centuries. My purpose here is not to condemn or lift up one musical style over another. All genres must be analyzed with an orthodox heart and conscience.
The music before the Second Vatican Council was not broken; it worked and fed thousands of saints on the way to holiness! The test of time proves what works and what does not. Contemporary musicians ought to draw on the success of the Catholic Church’s store of musical treasures and once the house has been built on rock, then move forward to develop the Church in the new millennium, in the call of Pope John Paul II, “The New Evangelization”!
Trust Mother Church in all things. She has never steered a saint wrong yet!
This article was written for The Signature, the student-run newsletter of the Department of Catholic Studies at the University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Over the summer I had the fortunate opportunity to work on an ongoing research project concerning sacred and liturgical music and the Roman Rite of the Mass under the mentorship of Father Michael Joncas, professor of Catholic Studies and Theology at the University of Saint Thomas. The summer afforded me the chance to look at Church documents and the Mass and music in a way I could not in the classroom yet had wanted to explore for a long time.
For the first phase of my research, I read numerous documents from Pope Pius X’s Tra le Sollecitudini through Sing to the Lord! Music in Divine Worship written by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops in 2007. I quickly realized sacred music and liturgy do not have the clear cut explanations I thought they might. In fact, I just became more and more confused as the research progressed. I began a second phase of the research which involved “participant observation”, that is, attending a Mass while observing reactions from the congregation, music style and performance, attention to rubrics, and other elements of the experience of Mass at any given parish.
These observations are not immune to my own personal reactions. In fact, my reactions are key. I was raised in a fairly “traditional” parish; many of the more “progressive” parishes stretched my sensibilities and made me ask serious questions about my own faith and prayer life, areas of critical importance when planning a career as a Church musician. Through all the subjective and varied opinions, I had to take a step back and search for the objective, some grounded truth on which I could be as one “who dug deeply and laid the foundation on rock [which] could not [be shaken]…because it had been well built” (Lk 6: 48). Music at Mass is not just a service to the Mass. It is meant to become the liturgy itself. Hymns are secondary. The true music at Mass are elements like a chanted Eucharistic Prayer, the Great Amen, or a sung Responsorial Psalm. If music is liturgy, then how is musical artistry appropriately used?
Benedict XVI, then Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, wrote Spirit of the Liturgy in 1999. As a theologian from the Second Vatican Council, as one deeply devoted to music and liturgy, and as one elected to the Apostolic See of Saint Peter, I figured he would be a good place to start. He writes in his chapter, “Music and the Liturgy” that “Artistic freedom increasingly asserts its rights, even in the liturgy. … It is clear that these opportunities for artistic creativity and the adoption of secular tunes brought danger with them. Music was no longer developing out of prayer, but, with the new demand for artistic autonomy, was now heading away from the liturgy; it was becoming an end in itself…[and] alienating the liturgy from its true nature” (145-146). It is prudent to note, he was talking about the “Great Tradition” of Catholic music, that of the Middle Ages!
In our transitions as a culture from one age to the next, we find trends in the any era but especially the modern one, to see “music as pure subjectivity, music as the expression of mere will” (155). The Catholic musician must ground himself in the doctrine and devotions of the Church, using it as the inexhaustible source for further artistry and expressions of faith. Benedict reminds musicians that “Humble submission to what goes before us releases authentic freedom” (156) in the life of service to the Church.
As a musician, it is easy to fall into the “musician’s ego”, to worry about each last detail and be so consumed by the music you forget about the Mass and Who you glorify in the work. As Catholics, musicians need special devotion away from making music. Daily Mass and reception of Holy Communion, Eucharistic Adoration, devotion to the Blessed Mother, and contemplative silence are just a few concrete ways to build a steady relationship with the Divine. Many of the problems in maintaining a sense of orthodoxy to the Church and making the Mass accessible to all is a loss of the foundational devotion that has fed the Church for centuries. My purpose here is not to condemn or lift up one musical style over another. All genres must be analyzed with an orthodox heart and conscience.
The music before the Second Vatican Council was not broken; it worked and fed thousands of saints on the way to holiness! The test of time proves what works and what does not. Contemporary musicians ought to draw on the success of the Catholic Church’s store of musical treasures and once the house has been built on rock, then move forward to develop the Church in the new millennium, in the call of Pope John Paul II, “The New Evangelization”!
Trust Mother Church in all things. She has never steered a saint wrong yet!
This article was written for The Signature, the student-run newsletter of the Department of Catholic Studies at the University of Saint Thomas, Saint Paul, Minnesota.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Spiritual Practices
I've been told from a very reliable spiritual source never to change a spiritual practice in times of desolation. Always keep striving through the spiritual practices. As you may or may not know, I began writing here as a spiritual exercise to organize my thoughts, practice writing, etc., not really caring who saw it, just writing entirely for my own benefit. Recently I have taken a break as school started again and the semester began in full force…maybe to not pick it up again?
Well that all changed with a conversation over dinner at Scooter's when I find there are people who have discovered my writing and check frequently! And so here I am, motivated to write again…a kick in the pants from Our Beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
In keeping with the theme of spiritual practices, I have a story from my Catholic Studies class last Tuesday. My professor, Dr. Jonathan Reyes, shared a story of his family that fit in with our study of Genesis and the Creation. We were discussing the significance of six days of work and a seventh day of rest. Dr. Reyes and his wife felt a calling a few years ago to truly organize their family around observing Sunday in a special way. This included a dinner Saturday night once the vigil began and quality family time. After while of this practice, Reyes was putting his daughter to bed when she said, "Daddy? I think I figured out what Heaven is like. Heaven is like Sunday only it's every day."
When we make our time God's time and let Him control everything, He works wonders in our lives. As the semester, work, or whatever responsibilities we have pile up and our lives become hectic, let us remember to find Christ in all things and realize His powerful work in every second that is His.
We are United in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Well that all changed with a conversation over dinner at Scooter's when I find there are people who have discovered my writing and check frequently! And so here I am, motivated to write again…a kick in the pants from Our Beloved Lord Jesus Christ.
In keeping with the theme of spiritual practices, I have a story from my Catholic Studies class last Tuesday. My professor, Dr. Jonathan Reyes, shared a story of his family that fit in with our study of Genesis and the Creation. We were discussing the significance of six days of work and a seventh day of rest. Dr. Reyes and his wife felt a calling a few years ago to truly organize their family around observing Sunday in a special way. This included a dinner Saturday night once the vigil began and quality family time. After while of this practice, Reyes was putting his daughter to bed when she said, "Daddy? I think I figured out what Heaven is like. Heaven is like Sunday only it's every day."
When we make our time God's time and let Him control everything, He works wonders in our lives. As the semester, work, or whatever responsibilities we have pile up and our lives become hectic, let us remember to find Christ in all things and realize His powerful work in every second that is His.
We are United in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Monday, January 26, 2009
The Sure Foundation
I began to look though YouTube for a video or photo montage to post today. I had trouble finding a good one. There is one thing I had to trouble realizing: Satan is rampant throughout the media. He is using all the technology and influence on people to lead us away from Jesus Christ and His Church.
People who have no foundations in the Church and who are extremists and sensationalists take whatever they can and twist it. Another video makes the Church in Pope into thieving money mongers. According to one video, Pope Benedict XVI is the last in a line of 111 pontiffs before Rome, the Vatican, and perhaps the world, are destroyed. Another points to Francis Cardinal Arinze's election as the next pontiff and the world ending very violently by 2013.
Cardinal Arinze had something different to say. Praise God I found a video that explains truth. Let us rest in the Church built on a Rock. Let us rest on the sure foundation of faith and devotion to the Eucharist.
People who have no foundations in the Church and who are extremists and sensationalists take whatever they can and twist it. Another video makes the Church in Pope into thieving money mongers. According to one video, Pope Benedict XVI is the last in a line of 111 pontiffs before Rome, the Vatican, and perhaps the world, are destroyed. Another points to Francis Cardinal Arinze's election as the next pontiff and the world ending very violently by 2013.
Cardinal Arinze had something different to say. Praise God I found a video that explains truth. Let us rest in the Church built on a Rock. Let us rest on the sure foundation of faith and devotion to the Eucharist.
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Proclamation of the Date of Easter on Epiphany
20 + C + M + B + 09
Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.
through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year's culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising, celebrated
between the evening of the 9th of April
and the evening of the 12th of April.
Each Easter - as on each Sunday -
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days which we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the 25th of February.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the 21st [or 24th] of May.
Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the 31st of May.
And this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the 29th of November.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.
To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Proclamation of the Date of Easter on Epiphany dates from a time when calendars were not readily available. It was necessary to make known the date of Easter in advance, since many celebrations of the liturgical year depend on its date. The number of Sundays that follow Epiphany, the date of Ash Wednesday, and the number of Sundays that follow Pentecost are all computed in relation to Easter.
Although the calendars now give the date of Easter and the other feasts in the liturgical year many years in advance, the Epiphany proclamation still has value. It is a reminder of the centrality of the resurrection of the Lord in the liturgical year and the importance of the great mysteries of faith which are celebrated each year.
Source: MAGNIFICAT; January 2009 - Vol. 10, No. 12
Dear brothers and sisters, the glory of the Lord has shone upon us,
and shall ever be manifest among us, until the day of his return.
through the rhythms of times and seasons
let us celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
Let us recall the year's culmination, the Easter Triduum of the Lord:
his last supper, his crucifixion, his burial, and his rising, celebrated
between the evening of the 9th of April
and the evening of the 12th of April.
Each Easter - as on each Sunday -
the Holy Church makes present the great and saving deed
by which Christ has for ever conquered sin and death.
From Easter are reckoned all the days which we keep holy.
Ash Wednesday, the beginning of Lent, will occur on the 25th of February.
The Ascension of the Lord will be commemorated on the 21st [or 24th] of May.
Pentecost, the joyful conclusion of the season of Easter, will be celebrated on the 31st of May.
And this year the First Sunday of Advent will be on the 29th of November.
Likewise the pilgrim Church proclaims the passover of Christ
in the feasts of the holy Mother of God, in the feasts of the Apostles and Saints,
and in the commemoration of the faithful departed.
To Jesus Christ, who was, who is, and who is to come, Lord of time and history,
be endless praise, for ever and ever.
Amen.
The Proclamation of the Date of Easter on Epiphany dates from a time when calendars were not readily available. It was necessary to make known the date of Easter in advance, since many celebrations of the liturgical year depend on its date. The number of Sundays that follow Epiphany, the date of Ash Wednesday, and the number of Sundays that follow Pentecost are all computed in relation to Easter.
Although the calendars now give the date of Easter and the other feasts in the liturgical year many years in advance, the Epiphany proclamation still has value. It is a reminder of the centrality of the resurrection of the Lord in the liturgical year and the importance of the great mysteries of faith which are celebrated each year.
Source: MAGNIFICAT; January 2009 - Vol. 10, No. 12
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Your Cross
Christmas is almost upon us. We are now in those dreadful last days before Christmas when all stores and commercial outlets should be avoided for fear of last minute crowds shopping for those last few items on their list. You hear too often, "X number of shopping days 'til Christmas!" Everyone has ideas running frantically through their heads of the best Christmas ever: the perfect food, the family that gets along, the ideal presents for everyone.
Woah! Wait a minute! Hold the phone! If that is your gauge for a good Christmas, you will fail. I guarantee. Something, or everything will always go wrong. Isn't it all about our relationship with Christ? Do not let panic overtake you as you have your worries, concerns, scruples, pains, and sorrows in the days leading up to Christmas. Christ will take care of it all. Life does not stop when Advent and the Christmas season begins. Someone will fight on Christmas. Someone will die on Christmas. Someone will not make it home for Christmas. Someone will be alone for Christmas.
Take the time to fly to prayer in the coming days. If you are continually focused on Him, you will grow closer to Him in the ways He decides. You will be able to handle anything that comes your way. Only then will you be able to have your best Christmas ever.
YOUR CROSS
The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity, the cross He now presents to you as a gift from His innermost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it not be one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, and taken one last glance at you and your courage - has sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all merciful love of God.
-St. Frances de Sales
We are United in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
Woah! Wait a minute! Hold the phone! If that is your gauge for a good Christmas, you will fail. I guarantee. Something, or everything will always go wrong. Isn't it all about our relationship with Christ? Do not let panic overtake you as you have your worries, concerns, scruples, pains, and sorrows in the days leading up to Christmas. Christ will take care of it all. Life does not stop when Advent and the Christmas season begins. Someone will fight on Christmas. Someone will die on Christmas. Someone will not make it home for Christmas. Someone will be alone for Christmas.
Take the time to fly to prayer in the coming days. If you are continually focused on Him, you will grow closer to Him in the ways He decides. You will be able to handle anything that comes your way. Only then will you be able to have your best Christmas ever.
YOUR CROSS
The everlasting God has in His wisdom foreseen from eternity, the cross He now presents to you as a gift from His innermost heart. This cross He now sends you He has considered with His all-knowing eyes, understood with His divine mind, tested with His wise justice, warmed with loving arms and weighed with His own hands to see that it not be one ounce too heavy for you. He has blessed it with His grace, perfumed it with His consolation, and taken one last glance at you and your courage - has sent it to you from heaven, a special greeting from God to you, an alms of the all merciful love of God.
-St. Frances de Sales
We are United in the Hearts of Jesus and Mary!
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