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

Corpus Christi Watershed

“What earlier generations held as sacred, remains sacred and great for us too…” Pope Benedict XVI (7 July 2007)

  • About
  • Symposium
  • Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Obedience to the Church

Fr. David Friel · June 11, 2013

INDING TIME TO READ is difficult, but absolutely necessary for the life of the mind. My family and teachers taught me that the mind is a gift from God, and so we should do everything possible to develop it. Personally, I value reading a variety of things: news, fiction, professional material, poetry, periodicals, etc. Eight years spent in seminary formation, surrounded almost entirely by people with similar worldviews, taught me especially to value the purposeful digestion of other points of view. For this reason, I regularly read three periodicals: one with which I generally sympathize, a second with which I generally disagree, and a third that is published outside the USA and offers an international perspective.

A recent letter to the editor in one of those periodicals confounded me:

“The [Second Vatican] Council was, in many ways, our own Reformation. Yet many of its reforming efforts were largely thwarted by Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. Those popes imposed an atmosphere of obedience and ‘orthodoxy’ that has squelched dissent. . . . They made it impossible for dialogue and renewal to overcome the archaic demands of silence and obedience to church authorities. . . . But obedience is not what the church needs from the faithful. It needs compassion.” (Commonweal, May 17, 2013)

The author seems to have an understanding of obedience that is utterly unfamiliar to me. Obedience, in my life, is one of the greatest sources of my freedom. It is in my obedience to the truths of faith, the revelations of Jesus, and the authority of our Mother, the Church, that I have experienced the truest freedom. Since promising obedience to my bishop at ordination, I have found the natural result to be interior peace and freedom of soul, not feudalistic indentured servitude. I have found imitation of Mary’s profound obedience to be the core of my spiritual life.

Does the Church need our obedience? Well, Christ demands our obedience to Him, so, insofar as the Church is a structure of divine establishment, yes. One should always be cautious when the word “dissent” is employed positively while the word “obedience” is used negatively.

This letter to the editor caused me to think of a musical analogy. When I play an organ score, a satisfying performance begins with playing the notes that are written in the score and is intensified by the charisma I can bring to it. In a certain sense, every musician who desires to be great must, before all else, be “obedient” to the notes of the particular composition. Disregarding the notes in the name of “freedom” would not engender peace or beauty. The results, rather, would be chaos and disharmony. Discord and division, of course, are synonyms for sin.

A wildly misguided understanding of obedience is not a surprising result of a culture in which self is central and in which freedom and license are nearly universally conflated. The Church very much needs our obedience—to Christ, and to the Church He kindly established as our saving refuge.

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at Saint Anselm Church in Northeast Philly before earning a doctorate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America. He presently serves as Vocation Director for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”

I’m still trying to decide how to visually present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores, using what is (technically) the official rhythm of the Church. You can download my latest attempt, for this coming Sunday. Notice the “trochee trouble” as well as the old issue of neumes before the quilisma.

—Jeff Ostrowski
16 May 2022 • Harmonized Chant?

This year’s upcoming Sacred Music Symposium will demonstrate several ways to sing the CREDO at Mass. This is because—for many parishes—to sing a full-length polyphonic CREDO by Victoria or Palestrina is out of the question. Therefore, we show options that are halfway between plainsong and polyphony. You can hear my choir rehearsing a section that sounds like harmonized plainsong.

—Jeff Ostrowski
14 May 2022 • “Pure” Vatican Edition

As readers know, my choir has been singing from the “pure” Editio Vaticana. That is to say, the official rhythm which—technically—is the only rhythm allowed by the Church. I haven’t figured out how I want the scores to look, so in the meantime we’ve been using temporary scores that look like this. Stay tuned!

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Every experienced choirmaster’s work is founded on the following three axioms: (1) Few boys have a really good natural voice; (2) No boy is able to control his voice and produce good tone without training; (3) Most boys have a good ear, and considerable imitative capacity. It is on the last of these axioms that the choirmaster must begin his work.”

— Sir Richard Runciman Terry (1912)

Recent Posts

  • PDF Download • “A Canon Choirs Love!”
  • On Mistakes (Part I of II)
  • 19 May 2022 • “Trochee Trouble”
  • “Gregorian Chant Not In Danger Pope Tells French”
  • PDF Download • “O Salutaris” (Modern Setting)

Copyright © 2022 Corpus Christi Watershed · Gabriel Lalemant 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.