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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)

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Views from the Choir Loft

Why Liturgical Bad Habits Must Be Broken

Dr. Peter Kwasniewski · April 11, 2013

UE TO THE PONTIFICATE of Benedict XVI, a steadily increasing number of Catholic clergy and faithful are increasingly likely to implement or request changes in the celebration of the liturgy so as to bring it more manifestly into continuity both with the great Catholic Tradition and with the obvious teaching of Vatican II and numerous postconciliar instructions. And predictably, there are members of the preceding generation who want to blow the whistle and say “Stop! You can’t do that. Even if you were right in what you’re asking for, we don’t want to alienate Catholics by suddenly changing the way things are being done.” And even the sympathetic will say: “We don’t want to make the same mistake as happened 40 years ago, when so many things were suddenly changed.” And perhaps now there will begin to be some who find in Pope Francis’s ars celebrandi a certain justification for the same attitude.

While one can certainly sympathize with a desire not to alienate or confuse, and while one must be gradual in making changes and careful in explaining them, it does seem that one must reject, lock, stock, and barrel, the underlying premise. To say “we don’t want to make the same mistake as happened 40 years ago by suddenly changing things” would be defensible if we were talking about indifferent matters, where the change is not from worse to better. But if what needs to be changed is itself an abuse, then the logic becomes: “We should not go from abuse to good use because it will alienate people, just as they were alienated when we went from good use to abuse.” Or: “Now that we are used to bad habits, we should not move too quickly back to good habits.” Good habits are meant to be made, bad habits are meant to be broken. The alcoholic does not benefit from toleration but from intolerance.

To not form people in a hermeneutic of continuity is to form them in a hermeneutic of rupture. There is no via media between continuity and rupture: you are either striving to follow all the teaching of the Council, the rubrics of the Ordinary Form, and documents such as Redemptionis Sacramentum, Sacramentum Caritatis, and Summorum Pontificum, or you are not so striving. To not act in favor of tradition is to act in favor of novelty, or at very least to allow novelty to prevail. Indeed, not acting is itself an action—at least an action of toleration or apparent approval. In this way, as the spiritual masters always tell us, not to be making progress is to be regressing. My argument about the liturgy is the same: if we do not correct abuses and improve our practices in accord with the mind of the Church, we are encouraging the permanence of those abuses and supporting ignorance or contempt of the mind of the Church.

“If we correct abuses and implement what Vatican II really asked for (such as that the faithful should be able to sing or say together in Latin the prayers of the Mass that belong to them), we will risk alienating some of the faithful!” Were bishops and priests worried about alienating the faithful back in the late sixties and early seventies? What of the large number of Catholics who simply quit going to church, either because they were disgusted by the changes, or felt that the whole thing no longer mattered, since it was all changing? In reality, what matters is the truth of the faith, not public opinion or approval. Catholics who are serious in their faith will understand the explanations given to them by their pastors and will remain Mass-goers; those who have a false understanding of the Church or of their place in it may, in fact, leave and never come back.

Have we, as a Church, forgotten what happens in chapter 6 of the Gospel of John? What did Jesus do when many left him because of his “hard sayings”? Did he run after them and plead with them that they should stay, because he didn’t really mean what he said? No, he let them go; indeed, he challenged the apostles: “Will you, too, leave me?” He was ready to let everyone go rather than compromise on the truth. It was Saint Peter who replied boldly that they would not leave him, for He has the words of everlasting life. Here we have the contrast between those who are Catholics for the right reason and those who are Catholics for the wrong reason. The liturgy is the most defining element of our very identity as Catholics. If it is messed up, our identity is messed up, our faith is messed up. When it is right, then it is that our faith and identity can be right.

Catholics have a right to a liturgy that is in accord with the mind of the Church and her tradition. In the long run, the Church is not built up and strengthened when her pastors ignore her conciliar teaching, repudiate her tradition, violate her rubrics and instructions, and merrily accept the status quo in all its mediocrity and disobedience. We see the Church thriving where she lovingly cultivates the memory of her Lord and of her life with him over the centuries, where she is stalwartly faithful to her laws and ideals, where she is sincere and consistent in practice, and where she gives herself body and soul to the demanding but liberating “work of God,” the sacred liturgy. Here is where renewal will begin, and nowhere else.

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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About Dr. Peter Kwasniewski

A graduate of Thomas Aquinas College (B.A. in Liberal Arts) and The Catholic University of America (M.A. and Ph.D. in Philosophy), Dr. Peter Kwasniewski is currently Professor at Wyoming Catholic College. He is also a published and performed composer, especially of sacred music.

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Music List” • 15th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 15th Sunday in Ordinary Time (13 July 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and propers for this Sunday are also provided at the the feasts website.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    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

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

“I left music college swearing never to write another note again … It was during the mid-1980s when esoteric and cerebral avant-garde music was still considered the right kind of music to be writing.”

— James MacMillan

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