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“A much greater source of anxiety to Us is the style of action of those who maintain that liturgical worship should shed its sacred character, who foolishly say we should substitute for sacred items & furnishings ordinary common things in daily use.” —Pope Saint Paul VI (14 Oct 1968)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Sacred Music As Entertainment

Guest Author · July 10, 2014

0319_Card-Flute-LG UMMER AND AUTUMN in the Midwestern United States are filled with church and parish festivals. Anyone armed with a copy of the diocesan newspaper, opened to the “date book” section, could spend every weekend or so visiting a new city, a new parish, and taking in the sights and sounds of the parish festival. These festivals, however, also bring out the annual “Polka Mass” for the parish.

If you’re not familiar with the “Polka Mass,” it is a regularly celebrated Ordinary Form Mass in which the music is done by a polka band and choir. The Ordinary of the Mass and all the hymns are sung in the style of polka music. Unfortunately, very often the texts of the Ordinary are paraphrased, changed, or from previous English translations. The melodies are often traditional polka tunes with the Mass text or hymn pasted onto the melody. While it’s not my desire now to critique these so-called “Polka Masses,” a recent headline in a Midwestern newspaper encouraged me to think.

The headline read Polka choir marks 40 years of entertaining. Entertaining? A church choir is all about entertaining? I wasn’t taught that in my years of seminary. And yet there are so many people who feel that Mass needs to be more “fun” (or, in other words, “entertaining”). If only the choir wasn’t so dull, some say, those pews might be full. It’s really one symptom of a larger problem that the headline alludes to: is Sacred Music simply for entertainment value?

ET’S TAKE A LOOK AT SOME of the Church’s teaching in regard to Sacred Music. St. Pius X in his motu proprio Tra le Sollecitudini calls Sacred Music “a complementary part of the solemn liturgy” and states that its “principal office is to clothe with suitable melody the liturgical text proposed for the understanding of the faithful” and that its “proper aim is to add greater efficacy to the text.” I don’t see anything in there about Sacred Music’s entertainment of the congregation.

In Pius XII’s encyclical Musicae Sacrae, Pius explains that Sacred Music has a special power and excellence that should lift up to God the minds of the faithful who are present. Pius further explains that Sacred Music “should make the liturgical prayers of the Christian community more alive and fervent so that everyone can praise and beseech the Triune God more powerfully, more intently, and more effectively.”

Finally, the 1967 Instruction on Music in the Liturgy, Musicam Sacram, from the Sacred Congregation of Rites, written after the Second Vatican Council, makes clear that the duty of the choir is “to ensure the proper performance of the parts which belong to it, according to the different kinds of music sung, and to encourage the active participation of the faithful in the singing.”

HAT IS THE POINT OF ALL THIS? Sacred Music and the choir of a church aren’t there for entertainment value. Music isn’t part of the liturgy to add “spice and flavor” to the liturgical action. St. Pius X described Sacred Music’s function as “suitably clothing” the liturgical text and its aim as adding greater value to the text. Pius XII elucidated the effect that Sacred Music has on making the community’s prayers more alive and more fervent, so that everyone can praise and entreat God “more powerfully, more intently and more effectively.” Musicam Sacram continues in this thread by stating clearly that a choir should encourage the active participation of the faithful in the singing.

The Liturgy and Sacred Music aren’t the theatre―a place built for entertainment―but rather a place for worship of God and prayer to Him. The Liturgy is “a sacred action surpassing all others; no other action of the Church can equal its efficacy by the same title and to the same degree” (as says Sacrosanctum Concilium). We go to theatres and cinemas for entertainment. The newspaper article I read headlined the forty years of “entertaining” that that polka choir has done: I hope there’s also been forty years of encouraging the active participation of the faithful in the singing; and “suitably clothing” the liturgical text so that the community’s prayers can be more alive and fervent.


We hope you enjoyed this guest post by Fr. Alan M. Guanella.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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President’s Corner

    15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    This coming Sunday—13 July 2025—is the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). All the chants have been conveniently assembled and posted at the feasts website. The OFFERTORY, Ad Te Levávi, is particularly beautiful.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
    Our readers will be interested in this job offering for Music Director at Saint Adalbert’s Basilica, located 40 minutes from where I live. My pastor was recently elevated to this basilica. He is offering $80,000 per year, plus benefits. I’m told Saint Adalbert’s Basilica is utterly gorgeous and contains one of America’s most magnificent pipe organs. It would be fantastic to have a colleague nearby!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplest “Agnus Dei” Ever Published
    Our choir is on break during the month of July. I needed a relatively simple “Agnus Dei,” so I composed this setting for organ & voice in honor of Saint René Goupil. It has been called the simplest setting ever composed. I love CARMEN GREGORIANUM (“Gregorian Chant”), especially the ALLELUIAS, INTROITS, and COMMUNION ANTIPHONS. That being said, some have pointed out that certain sections of the Kyriale aren’t as strong as the Graduale or Vesperale. There’s a reason for this—but it would be too complicated to explain at this moment.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Pope Pius XII Hymnal?
    Have you ever heard of the Pope Pius XII Hymnal? It’s a real book, published in the United States in 1959. Here’s a sample page so you can verify with your own eyes it existed.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    “Hybrid” Chant Notation?
    Over the years, many have tried to ‘simplify’ plainsong notation. The O’Fallon Propers attempted to simplify the notation—but ended up making matters worse. Dr. Karl Weinmann tried to do the same in the time of Pope Saint Pius X by replacing each porrectus. You can examine a specimen from his edition and see whether you agree he complicated matters. In particular, look at what he did with éxsules fílii Hévae.
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed

Random Quote

“In all this mediaeval religious poetry there is much that we could not use now. Many of the hymns are quite bad, many are frigid compositions containing futile tricks, puns, misinterpreted quotations of Scripture, and twisted concepts, whose only point is their twist. But there is an amazing amount of beautiful poetry that we could still use. If we are to have vernacular hymns at all, why do we not have translations of the old ones?”

— Fr. Adrian Fortescue (d. 1923)

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