The Recovering Choir Director

There was a letter to the editor of Zenit recently concerning an article that highlighted the PIMS director’s favor for the establishment of a curial office for sacred music. The author of the letter desired that the role of “praise and worship” music* be affirmed for church services (based on my colored reading of the letter).

David Delaney of Cosmos-Liturgy-Sex (whose RSS feed led me to discover the article and letter in question) offers a response to the letter that in short reflects the mind of the Church. He considers the suitability of praise and worship music for perhaps prayer meetings or paraliturgical events — which in many circles would fall under the umbrella term of church services — but affirms the primacy of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony for the Mass.

*These are not scare quotes; I do not deny that people currently find this genre worthy of their ears. Rather, I employ these quotes to emphasize the narrowness of the genre it defines, and the fact that Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony are properly employed within the context of praise and worship in the Latin Catholic Church.