THE MYSTERIES OF THE EAST - A Liturgical glimpse at Asia part I

Solemn Mass at Bendigo Cathedral for Christ The King - Australia

Catholicism in Asia and in particular Southeast Asia is a great mystery to me and indeed for many Europeans and Australians.  I have noted among my co-religionists that thoughts about these areas are infrequent and even rare.

Understandably the North Americans, are more inclined to concern themselves with what their brethren in Latin America are doing before casting their thought towards Asia.  Certainly, it seems reasonable to suggest that Australia and New Zealand should be keenly aware and interested in what their neighbours are up to.

My experiences of the church in Asia are limited but perhaps more than many.  Indeed I have noted that the faith is quite vibrant in some areas, and the laity conduct themselves with great reverence, however the liturgy that I have experience is almost universally poor (by which I mean that there is little or no attempt to adhere to the rubrics and the music is banal) and certainly not transcendent.   Most of the Churches have been badly reordered with little respect for  heritage - the liturgy is reverent as far as it goes but utterly bland some priests seem to regard themselves as a cast who may dispense with the rubrics that they regard as unnecessary without any respect for the right of the laity to have a liturgy that is received rather than spontaneously achieved.

The will of the donors not respected.

Perhaps worst of all is the music.  The "Praise and Worship" genre has spread like wild fire - not as statement against truly sacred music like chant and polyphony but rather because it is accessible particularly for those who have little or no skill and because it has an "upbeat" happy feel about it.   Of course this "upbeat" or happy feeling is incapable of variation thus the same music might be used on Easter Sunday as it might at a funeral or a wedding.

 Is this simply a copying of all the worst aspects of current Western mis-practice?  Or a lamentable misapplication of the Conciliar liturgical reform it's aftermath imposed upon a people who are naturally disposed towards a culture of docility towards those in authority rather than confrontation?  Sadly the two are not mutually exclusive.  At this stage there does not seem to have been as great a loss of faith as in the West, but indifferentism and even syncretism are on the rise.

Below are some photos of  The Church of St Louis in Taiping is typical of the re-orderings that one sees in most places - all the side altars removed, the high altar removed and replaced with a liturgical wall and the a new altar placed close to the top step. The Sacrament is relegated to the side and the walls adorned with overhead projector screens to allow participants to join in the loud and heavily microphoned music - never mind the beautiful acoustic designed for singing gregorian chant.

High Altar replaced by a wall and a forward altar

Empty spaces where altars once where

Screens drawing attention away from the mysteries

Altar wall serves a a billboard for diocesan events

The outside of the building retains its integrity

A fusion of styles based on the Romanesque

One thing is certain if you believe the church's great adage "Lex orandi, Lex credendi" (The way of praying gives rise to the way of believing) then you may expect to see the imminent demise, in a short space of time of what the missioners of yesteryear had toiled over and so diligently achieved as instruments of the Holy Ghost.  I hope, and pray that it is not so and that under the inspiration and guidance of the Holy Ghost a genuine an authentic expression of the Catholic faith will be restored with all of it's inherent richness of tradition and the challenges which it casts before the faithful?

Australian Bishops miss the mark on church music - Wollongong gets it right!

I've just been looking through the Masses recommended by the Australian Bishops Conference, amongst them a re-hash of Br Collin Smith's Mass Shalom (is quite well done) and Richard Connolly's Mass (has some latin refrains) but do these really hit the mark.

Apart from the music provided in the Missal where is the promotion of Gregorian Chant which the much hailed 2nd Vatican Council asked all pastors to teach their people - surely the new translation and the 50th Anniversary of the Council was a good chance to finally implement this reform.

The universality of the Catholic Church has been the focus of the reign of Pope Benedict - The period of experimentation liturgically, spiritually and ecclesiologicaly is at an end the results are in.  Some less enlightened and out of touch bishops and dioceses persist in dated ecclesiological "visions of church" inspired not by the magisterium or the tradition of the church but rather by dated theological and sociological opinions which have already done so much serious damage.  The Wollongong Diocese is one such.

You might feel inclined to ask however "what has music to do with all this" ? Well apart from liturgy and music being part of the Diocesan Pastoral Plan all of the Popes including the Second Vatican Council have reiterated that music and in particular Gregorian Chant is an integral part of the liturgy.  What does this mean? It means that it is part of the substance or content of the liturgy, a fundamental component if you like.  Ideally of course it would be sung in the official language of worship in the church which is Latin but may also be sung in the vernacular to great effect.  What is being said here is that this chant should form the substance of our prayers: the Divine Office, Mass and Devotions in cathedral, convent, priory, abbey, school and parish church.  Surely then the question arises, if something so fundamental so integral (and clearly reiterated by the church) is not happening, what else has not been implemented?  What else indeed...?

Pope Benedict in Sacramentum Caritatis says among other things, that "Gregorian chant is to be not only held in esteem but employed".  The response of the Wollongong Diocese has produced and selected a beautiful offering of Gregorian Chants and produced a booklet and CD to be taught in Schools and in Church both in Latin and English....NOT!  Instead a most "relevant" offering for it's diocesan Mass called the Glendalough Mass claiming to be Irish folk in inspiration and written by an American and published by (guess who) GIA.  Tragically it can not be sung unaccompanied (perhaps that is not so bad after-all) Moving ahead in leaps and bounds! Of course this is not even one of the six recommended by the bishops - this can only be because of the superlative musical resources in the diocese of Wollongong their experts are better than the collective resources of the Australian Bishops.

Meanwhile the Diocese is called at enormous expense to reflect collectively on the decline in Mass attendance and the even greater decline in priests and examine different "models of church" after the tone has been set by a video which is as trite as it is patronising.   The people are lulled into excepting their fate in the guise of consultation and led to the "models" as solutions which are simply a rearranging of the deck chairs" so to speak, they do not address the underlying issues (which is of course lack of priests) at any level.

Young people attracted by authenticity - vocations on the increase

Inevitabley this rationalisation must take place (we all knew that) - and it is the job of the Bishop and his priests to organise themselves in such a way as to provide the service they reasonably can not to call on the the laity, "the baptised" to ratify their rationalisation in the name of consultation.  For if "the baptised" are really asked to stand up and take a stronger role then let us first receive a proper account of the stewardship of the diocese for the last 40 years.  Why have we arrived at this?  Perhaps we the laity have failed in some way?  Yes we have failed to keep our bishops and clergy accountable for their stewardship.  Please no more "models of church"!

While the statistics reflect what we suspected - not surprisingly the largest bureaucracy in the diocese, the Catholic Education Office (CEO) is doing well and expanding. It continues the trend of not teaching the faith and repeating the mantra "that parents are responsible for transmitting the faith to their children".  The CEO quotes a figure of 80% of their enrolled Children as baptised and since baptism has become a comforting social ritual for many we might conclude that an even smaller number of their parents practice the faith largely the result of the catechises of the late 70's, 80's and the beginning of the 90's which was a shameful parody of the faith, watered down to the point of being unrecognisable.

So as the diocese fades off into the sunset and prepares for retirement it has ear marked Irish folk music as the  backdrop for it's swan song - Perhaps it is a fitting Dies Irae for a "model of church" that should have been buried long ago - what is clear is that this generation must pass before a new generation can plant a fresh the garden of the faith in the Wollongong Diocese.

Meanwhile back in the real world increasingly secular and hostile to Catholicism, there is an increase in vocations in the western world, a new trajectory has begun to emerge mostly due to Pope Benedict the XVI.  A trend which has even reached our shores indeed with a return to sound catechesis, gregorian chant and vertical celebrations of the liturgy, authentic Catholicism proves once again that it has the ability to attract and reproduce itself.  Wollongong it seems, will have to wait for a another day before it can join with one voice the saints and countless Angels before God's throne in singing the great sacrifice of praise continually "Sanctus, sanctus, sanctus, Dominus Deus Sabaoth" Holy, holy, holy, O Lord God of Angel Hosts.