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Views from the Choir Loft

The Church Must Be Countercultural

Dr. Alfred Calabrese · October 15, 2015

321DraperTallLaren3 NE DAY A YEAR OR SO AGO a priest was consulting with a bride on her upcoming wedding. She couldn’t understand why he wasn’t allowing a popular song to be sung during her nuptial Mass. The title sounded sort of sacred, something about ‘raising you up.’ And it was a nice melody, everybody knew it, and it meant a lot to her, and…The young priest finally asked her, “Would you like to have the Ave Maria sung at your reception?” Then she understood that there’s a time and a place for everything. And despite what the popular culture tells us, all things are not equal.

Letting the popular culture into the Mass is dangerous. The Church has been and needs to be countercultural. Consider the generation of Catholics who came of age in the heyday immediately following the implementation of Vatican II. I find it both interesting and ironic that many from that period thought of themselves as countercultural. They were cutting edge, agents of change, new and exciting. The future lay before them and they were shaping it. No innovation was too great for the seismic shift they envisioned for the Catholic Church.

All around this swirl of activity the secular culture was changing as well. In the Church, a vacuum of available music was filled with pop and folk inspired songs. I remember walking into church one summer Sunday and seeing kids from my high school standing up in front with guitars. They were singing music that sounded like it was from the radio. (I never listened much to the pop songs of the day, so I really hated what was happening). Of course, since all of this music was “new” and I didn’t really know any of it, I couldn’t participate in the Mass. At that point I had no idea about “actuoso participatio.” It all just felt weird. But at least the kids doing the music seemed like they were having a good time.

Now some (not all, some) of those same countercultural people, those who embraced radical change, those who were so progressive, hip, open-minded and open-armed, are the very same who, when confronted with a resurgence, or gradual re-discovery of chant, Latin, sung dialogues, solemn liturgical practices and gestures, and solid Catholic hymnody, are now rigid and unwilling to accept change. They don’t want the Church to be countercultural.

Thanks to websites like this and many others, the Church is once again becoming countercultural. Except now, the culture it’s turning away from is the one created by some dubious choices in music, architecture, and sacred language.

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. Alfred Calabrese

Dr. Alfred Calabrese is Director of Music and Liturgy at St. Rita Catholic Church in Dallas, TX. He and his wife have two children.—(Read full biography).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

    Introit • Candlemas (2 February)
    “Candlemas” • Our choir sang on February 2nd, and here's a live recording of the beautiful INTROIT: Suscépimus Deus. We had very little time to rehearse, but I think it has some very nice moments. I promise that by the 8th Sunday after Pentecost it will be perfect! (That Introit is repeated on the 8th Sunday after Pentecost.) We still need to improve, but we're definitely on the right track!
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Simplified Antiphons • “Candlemas”
    Anyone who desires simplified antiphons (“psalm tone versions”) for 2 February, the Feast of the Purification—which is also known as “Candlemas” or the Feast of the Presentation—may freely download them. The texts of the antiphons are quite beautiful. From “Lumen Ad Revelatiónem Géntium” you can hear a live excerpt (Mp3).
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Tempo?? • 𝘏𝘰𝘭𝘺 𝘎𝘰𝘥, 𝘞𝘦 𝘗𝘳𝘢𝘪𝘴𝘦 𝘛𝘩𝘺 𝘕𝘢𝘮𝘦
    Once, after Mass, my pastor said he really loved the hymn we did. I said: “Father, that's Holy God, We Praise Thy Name—you never heard it before?” He replied: “But the way you did it was terrific. For once, it didn't sound like a funeral dirge!” Last Sunday, our volunteer choir sang that hymn. I think the tempo was just about right … but what do you think?
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

It was thought important that the song should actually accompany the distribution of Communion. A Carolingian explanation of the Mass remarks that during the Communion “soft melody should touch the ear [of the faithful] so that hearing this sound they would busy themselves less with distracting thoughts and … their hearts would be moved to humble love for that which they receive.”

— Father Josef Andreas Jungmann

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