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Hymns/songs not to be sung at my parish. The list as worked on by my pastor and I--still in progress!
There are many things that must be evaluated in choosing music for the liturgy, including its musical quality and singabilty, its sacred character, and its theological correctness. Then, of course, there is the liturgical suitability: is this song appropriate for today’s scriptural texts, the season we are in, and the particular part of the Mass.
In the degrees of importance, we want to give first place to singing the parts of the Mass and the responses of the faithful. This should eventually include our learning to occasionally sign the proper Introit antiphon (entrance chant) and Communion antiphon.
Although newer songs are welcome and can be enriching, pride and place should be given to Gregorian chant, and then to hymns that form an important heritage of Catholic music.
The following points are in no particular order…
• Overplayed, stale, banal or uninspiring, and not sacred music
• Uses term “Yahweh”
• Refers to the Eucharist as only a symbol/sign
• Attempts to speak for God
• Focus is on us (the congregation) instead of God.
• Songs which should not be done from Heritage Missal or Music Issue because they have changed the traditional text.
• Finally there are probably others that are not mentioned, simply because they are not common / familiar, but would also be evaluated as unsuitable.
For hymns/songs that fall under these categories, please contact me.
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4 comments:
I'm pretty sure that each of the hymnals that you reference have an Imprimatur. I don't think you should be trying to trump the hierarchy by "banning" these songs. I trust the bishops know better than us.
We're not exactly banning them--if you'll note, the word "banned" is not used. However, using the guidelines of the Church itself for the appropriateness and suitableness of certain songs for Sunday Mass.
I'm not sure that i agree with the 'attempts to speak for God' criterion. I don't think there is any danger of people not understanding that God is being quoted.
I loved the 'stale, banal, or uninspiring' criterion, however. Anything that doesn't show the Catholic faith as something more than just a nice feeling is worthless at best.
is there something wrong with the changed texts?
You know anonymous person, whoever you may be, bishops aren't infallible. That being said there's no trumping going on here. Some songs, and other practices, just straight up aren't appropriate at mass. By the way, my bishop, not naming any names, seemed to think that having a group of kids (who seemed rather similar to Green Day in their "musical" abilities) come out and play the "music" for sunday evening mass was a splendid idea. We were rocking out man, it was so cool to have rock music and mass!!! You know what I'm sayin homie?
Anyway, It seems that there are a number of bishops out there who really don't have the slightest idea what's going on, or are perfectly happy to let some seriously offensive things go on in their diocese. But hey, don't let me stop you from trusting the non-infallible bishops on this one.
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