LITURGICAL ARTS

...Commonweal 2 2 September 8, 2000 My problem with today's liturgical bureaucracy is that it new draft document...

...It at the heart of EACW...

...The very entrance of the priest, bearing in the Tridentine ritual, faces the altar away from the people the veiled chalice and paten and preceded by servers, an- rather than toward the community...

...was always an altar boy): "Ad Deum qui laetificat juventutem So the huge wake of sinners grows wider and wider meam" (Unto God who giveth joy to my youth...

...Has the current consultation process created liturgical art and architecture "I heat it with an alternate energy source- that deeply explore and powerfully express the unique soul fire and brimstone...

...Of course, some of my impressions are personal guage is, in fact, mortal, subject to modification and change or peculiar to Catholics of my generation...

...But they continue to favor bad now...

...It has its own authority...

...It may mean that for Latin...

...than legislate...

...Tina reads the National Catholic thoritarian in tone and judicial in procedure...

...I recall reading a poem removed...

...EACW embodies ferred to as a "traditionalist" and a "conserva- some of the best early post-Vatican II principles of liturgical tive...

...Just look about you...

...sentatives who have gone before such boards and you will That Catholics as seemingly opposite as Tina and Al get an earful...

...Inessential they may be, but many of the omitted in college by Charles Peguy in which God describes his viparts were beautifully apt and of great devotional value...

...on that action, not on each other...

...the old liturgy...

...Because it is no longer in colthe university chapel in Ypsilanti of which I am a member...

...idiom for a liturgical action instituted by Christ and repeatPersonal associations aside, I was struck by the power of ed by the church "until he comes again...

...It is appropriate that the laity should universal in Catholicism-with its great potential for an al- take an active, perhaps even leading, role in the movement most infinite variety of rich artistic expression-has been for cultural and liturgical renewal in the church...

...I have heard Tina called "liberal," Over the past decade, many proponents of EACW, per'progressive,' and a few other things...

...lightened projects...

...If eloquence is a quality we ask of the public prayer the weeds and wheat will have to grow along-side one an- of the church, it must be acknowledged that the contempoother for a while...

...Amen...

...Some projects will be downthey generally admit that the overall quality of liturgical art right bad...

...Hearing the Mass in Latin rather than in English, we are also reminded that we are as intimately associated with the THE TRIDENTINE MASS generations of earlier Christians who once celebrated it as we are with the present generation, that the church is very old ecently, for the first time in more than thirty as well as perennially young...

...I share Mitchell's admiration for EACW and his sense for the building of a new church smacked more of "indoc- that liturgical documents, in general, should persuade rather trination" than education...

...I have heard him re- rather than the literature of legislation...

...Certainly, I day action...

...cratic model the American church has embraced...

...Even nonbelievers like Carl Jung have ac- Probably the most striking difference between the Triknowledged that the Tridentine Mass is a solemn rite of ex- dentine and the present rite is the position of the priest, who, traordinary power...

...experts," he writes, "do not like the idea that head both yes and no when Mitchell, using EACW, takes ordinary, uneducated people may have ideas-good ideasDomus Dei to task for emphasizing mechanics over mystery- about how to shape ritual space, about how to create archiI agree with him that EACW intended just the opposite, but, tectural environments that are truly hospitable to the comas implemented, it is an imperfect tool for critiquing the munity that inhabits them...

...On the catechism in discussion, have aesthetic taste that is-as the other hand, Mitchell is not so sanguine about a new draft we say here in Cincinnati-soooo Cincinnati...

...I even question whether my grandfather was diocesan review structures because, "we can't have another right about bureaucracy preventing the worst...

...Tu solus Dominus...

...My own experience has been that bureaucracy and art are The skepticism and concern that Al, Tina, and many othnatural adversaries...

...Which is turned toward me...

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...LITURGICAL ARTS Building churches • the Tridentine Mass • lay preaching Joseph Schickel • Bill Shuter • William E. Simon, Jr...

...In educational outreach and community consultation, the In "Powers of Persuasion" (America, October 9, 1999), liturgical bureaucracy has nearly turned EACW inside out...

...It reads, says Mitchell, "like a poem, a wife identify strongly with Pope John Paul II...

...sion of prayer...

...But let's admit it, more than a few are downright and architecture is mediocre...

...bishops: "Although it seeks to persuade without derline affluent...

...From the repeated allusions to offering, obla- do not remember thinking of it that way at the time...

...But precisely because my life, the Tridentine Mass was the only Mass I knew...

...Again and again I have heard tential for improvement and innovation would seem to outthe sad story about how Saint Disaster did not meet the re- weigh the risk by far...

...of a worshiping community...

...or other bureaucratic structures to advance its goals...

...Lm : \'I I?I) O\ I III: (.\ \I I)[ a ul' S \I\'r I'm I." I \I\ I:R IT Commonweal 2 3 September 8, 2000 With less bureaucracy, the art and architecture of our wor- Latin, of course, is the language of the Tridentine rite...

...The particularly in the so called "education programs" and result has been the production of a plethora of technically "process" that are now considered the sine qua non for en- correct but banal and uninspired liturgical spaces...

...She is liturgical bureaucracy-in the form of diocesan guidelines single, feminist, an artist, and as repelled by the tang of or- and boards of review-that has become increasingly authodoxy as Al is drawn to it...

...Domus Dei seems to legislate without persuadcation program" being "foisted" on the parish in preparation ing...

...Real edunearly lost in the United States in favor of a sterile and ho- cation, like art, does not exist by legislative, judicial, bumogeneous "American" vision, one created by committees reaucratic, or clerical fiat...

...Angeli, adorant Dominationes, tremunt Pot estates...

...Or of the until it disappears and loses itself, imposing coda with which the old rite invariably concluded, But it begins with a point, which is the point of the those magnificent opening words of the Gospel of John: "In ship itself, and it is that point which comes toward principio erat Verbum, et Verbum erat apud Deum, et Deus erat me, Verbum...

...But I think he ignores a certain irony here: A few months later I had a lively talk with an acquaintance namely, that it is EACW's advocates who have contributed to visiting from out of state-call her Tina...

...Tu solus altissimus," or the pany and a former member of the Worship Commission of the Arch- so-called Common Preface, "Per quem majestatem tuam laudant diocese of Cincinnati...

...For the first half of and destined at some point to perish...

...loquial use, Latin, like ancient Hebrew and ancient Greek, is The Mass left me with a set of strong but conflicting im- said to be a "dead" language...

...do u~ tha`"`t' Iam' Jesus invited his disciples to serve the Gospel...

...That tion, and victim, it becomes dear that the action is a sacrifice...

...They read the liturgical document, Domus Dei, now being considered by National Catholic Register, do home schooling, and seem bor- the U.S...

...Al confided to me that the "so-called edu- legislating...

...Pope John Paul II's Letter to Artists advances measurable technical goals at the same time it di- (Origins, May 6,1999), strikes a deeper note...

...It reminded me of the Mass: I'm thinking, for example, of the priest who may have cele- Just as the wake of a beautiful ship grows wider and brated Mass every day for forty or fifty years introducing wider until it disappears and loses itself, each Mass with the psalm "Introibo ad altare Dei" (I will go But begins with a point, which is the point of the ship unto the altar of God) and of the response of the server (who itself...

...priest and people faced in the same direction signified to By its nature the Mass is always a sacrifice, but its sacrificial me that they were engaged in a common action, because character is more insistently affirmed and articulated in the people engaged in a common action focus their attention Tridentine than in the present rite...

...tion plan is in the works...

...There will When I raise these issues with diocesan liturgical staff, be less control, less uniformity...

...In practice, the drumbeat of "the people need to be educated" sounds early and often...

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...El rary English version is lacking in rendering either the exaltation or the concision of the climax of the Gloria, "Quoniam Joseph Schickel is a project facilitator for the Schickel Design Com- to solus sanctus...

...Even an older Catholic friend reto be reenacted...

...and this mantra is so broad and amorphous that it is impossible to determine what it means...

...In the case of the Mass the The present Mass is a good deal shorter than the Triden- people assemble and, led by the priest (in persona Christi), tine rite...

...The inessential accretions of centuries have been approach the throne of God together...

...To be sure, every human lanpressions...

...The results are dismal...

...Nothing seems stranger nounces that an action of extraordinary importance is about to younger Catholics...

...He and his art and architecture...

...It makes no reference to boards of review eliminates the worst and the best in art and architecture...

...My grandfather, the American stained- calls us to ponder the profound relationship between goodglass artist Emil Frei, once remarked that a board of review ness and beauty...

...II) \\ \I I. \HI.I...

...ship spaces would be far more diverse, creative, and au- Most of my older Catholic friends are grateful for the change thentically local...

...We need to emphasize more both unable to imagine attending a liturgy in a language other the local and the universal, to throw off the false security of than the one they speak...

...As the church existed before years, I had an opportunity to attend the Tri- the formation of modem nationalities, so Latin, the language R dentine Mass of my youth...

...He is happy to speak his mind either way...

...She said the "liturgical consultants' education pro- diocesan review boards probably do not see their role in gram" underway for the cathedral renovation "process" was this light, but talk to artists, architects, and parish reprereally not education at all, but "shallow proselytizing...

...It may be reenacted daily, but it is no every- members the priest as "turning his back to us...

...It is often used to stigmatize opponents (for their lack of piety or refinement), and thus to discourage open discussion of the many important issues that a building project brings to the fore...

...of liturgists at academic conferences and then imposed on Of course, there is risk in moving away from the bureaulocal communities through the so-called "education" process...

...So I find myself shaking my spaces: "We...

...Thanks to the current liturgical bu- ers have about the "education" they have undergone is, for reaucracy, the wonderfully paradoxical duality of local and me, a sign of hope...

...A vernacular liturgy has much to bureaucracy, and to take the risks required for cultural re- recommend it, but there are several things still to be said naissance and spiritual revival in our time...

...She worships at her facts on the ground which make the distinction between perdiocesan cathedral, a historic building for which a renova- suasion and legislation largely meaningless...

...BUILDING CHURCHES Nathan D. Mitchell, director of the Notre Dame Pastoral Center, states that documents like the 1978 EACW (Environment ome months ago I had a spirited conversation and Art in Catholic Worship), crafted primarily by the late with a friend who is a member of a nearby Robert Hovda, properly belong to the literature of persuasion S parish-let's call him Al...

...They refer to prayer," and is "lean, spare, strong, loving, and wise...

...That's better than living in a desert...

...Like Al, she is more haps unwittingly, have supported the creation of a new than happy to speak her mind and she speaks it well...

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...While the bulk of EACW is an exhortation to exshould find common ground in their opposition to these cellence in liturgical art and architecture, it is the smaller education programs bolsters my growing conviction that portion, dedicated to technical and specific recommendasomething is amiss in liturgical art and architecture, and tions, that has captured the attention of review boards...

...Still, the poSaint Disaster in this diocese...

...Members of Reporter...

...In theory, church building projects involve a process that includes town meetings, surveys, and many other opportunities for community input...

...As in EACW, its minishes the more essential immeasurable exhortative ones emphasis is exhortative and encouraging, not technical...

...It was celebrated at a it officially adopted, preceded the tongues we speak today, parish church in Flint, Michigan, by the pastor of a number of which it mothered...

...A wider variety of rich, artistic expression- from Latin to the vernacular, and most of the younger called for in EACW and welcomed in the Letter to Artists- Catholics I know take the English Mass for granted and are would be given freer rein...

...Commonweal 24 September 8, 2000...

...What it is no longer a "living" language, ecclesiastical Latin has, in to younger Catholics today might seem strange and per- a sense, passed beyond the reach of change and enjoys a haps alienating, impressed me at the Flint parish as familiar linguistic immortality that renders it a particularly suitable and even reassuring...

...In a recent column (Worship, July 1999), quirements of EACW, that the bishop was upset, and that Mitchell calls for a "vernacular" architecture in our worship this must not happen again...