• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

“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)

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Catechism of Gregorian Rhythm
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Too Many Options

Fr. David Friel · January 31, 2016

HAVE OCCASIONALLY had conversations with people who are choosing not to raise their children in any particular faith. This they perceive to be some sort of noble action, respecting and cultivating the future freedom of their children. The practical result, though, is that most of these children will never embrace any faith.

As a priest, I see firsthand the need for children to be raised in the faith. The Church perceives this to be so great a need that parents require assistance with the task; for this reason, we have the tradition of choosing godparents at Baptism.

I recently discovered a medical doctor who agrees that faith needs to be inculcated in children from birth. This doctor, Meg Meeker, M.D., has a great deal of experience as a pediatrician and as a counselor, so she approaches things from the perspectives of both medical science and psychology. Yet another qualification is that she is a wife and mother of four children, herself.

I discovered Dr. Meeker by reading a few chapters out of her 2008 book, Boys Should Be Boys: 7 Secrets to Raising Healthy Sons. In her chapter entitled “The God Factor,” Meeker addresses the problem of parents who do not stress the value of religion. This results in “religious ignorance among too many boys,” she contends. While young men earnestly want answers to life’s biggest questions, parents too often feel uncomfortable or too unprepared to provide them. On top of this, many of the same parents refuse to take their sons to church, where they might find the answers they seek.

Meeker observes:

As a doctor, my own clinical experience confirms what all the research tells us: that religion is good for boys. And I think too many parents have been mislead about what their responsibilities are in this regard. We baby boomers who have read reams of child care books and psychology books replete with tips on how not to stifle our child’s self-esteem and unique personality have faded quietly into the background of our kids’ spiritual lives. We so eagerly don’t want our children to be pushed by us in any direction educationally, psychologically, and spiritually that we hold back when we should lead. Many parents tell me that they want their kids to grow up to make their own decisions about God. They want their boys to make their own choices about which, if any, religion they want to believe. This is, in a way, noble. Our job as parents should be to educate and stimulate our boys to read and think on their own.

But this laissez faire approach does not, ultimately, work as intended. Children raised in no faith rarely become people of faith as adults. Meeker brilliantly captures the essence of the problem:

But the fatal flaw is that boys can’t choose from an empty menu. Asking a child to choose his own faith is like flying him to Prague, taking him to the center of the city, and asking him to pick out where to stay and what to do. He doesn’t have a clue, because he doesn’t know what his options are. He has never been there before, and the city is expansive and overwhelming.

Dr. Meeker makes a compelling argument that leaving faith up to an adolescent’s discretion is a form of parental indiscretion.

It strikes me that much the same thing is true in the world of sacred music. We live in an age when the GIRM gives us the freedom to choose what can be sung at many different times during Mass.

The unfortunate truth, though, is that very few parish musicians are equipped to be making such decisions. Like Meeker’s hypothetical child dropped in Prague with no further instructions, a great many parish musicians are volunteers with little liturgical formation and scant familiarity with the options that exist (beginning with the Propers themselves, moving to vernacular settings of the Propers, and devolving eventually to the four-hymn sandwich).

The solution to the present state of affairs is twofold. First, parish musicians need to be given better liturgical formation. We must make this an urgent priority. We need more initiatives like the St. Cecilia Academy for Pastoral Musicians.

Secondly, the Church needs to exercise her role as Mother. Just as parents must raise their children in the faith, rather than leaving it up to them to decide, so the Church must give clear direction to her children about what should be sung at Mass. The USCCB document Sing to the Lord, which is a vast improvement compared to the documents it replaced, leaves too much room for maintaining the status quo. We need more leadership like the Diocese of Marquette is receiving from Bishop John Doerfler.

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

Filed Under: Articles, Featured Tagged With: Authentic Liturgical Renewal Reform, Hymns Replacing Propers, Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, Propers, Reform of the Reform, Singing the Mass, USCCB Sing to the Lord Document on Music Last Updated: December 6, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel is a priest of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia and serves as Director of Liturgy at Saint Charles Borromeo Seminary. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

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

“Each of our sins was one more thorn in our Lord’s crown; one blow the more to His scourging.”

— Cardinal Merry Del Val (shortly before his death)

Recent Posts

  • “How to Conduct 90 Vespers Services Each Year and Live to Tell the Tale.”
  • 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C)
  • The Tallis Scholars
  • Music Director Job • $80,000 per year
  • Pope Saint Paul VI to Consilium (14 October 1968)

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up