• 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)

  • Our Team
  • Catholic Hymnal
  • Jogues Missal
  • Site Map
  • Donate
Views from the Choir Loft

Liturgical Happenings at Notre Dame

Fr. David Friel · November 8, 2015

HE FIGHTIN’ IRISH are having a great season. They have an 8-1 record through this weekend and currently sit in first place among FBS Independent Schools.

But another season of football success is not the only good news on campus.

The Basilica of the Sacred Heart at the University of Notre Dame has been the hub of two recent and exciting bits of liturgical news. The first story is about the construction of a brand new pipe organ custom built to match the magnificent space. The second story is about the arrival of Byzantine liturgy on campus.

HE ORGAN PROJECT began back in 2012 and will be completed in the next year. The new organ, which is set to be premiered in December 2016, has four manuals and 70 stops (totaling 5,164 pipes). It is being built by Paul Fritts & Company, an outfit founded in 1979 and based in Tacoma, Wash. In addition to numerous churches of various denominations, Fritts and his team of builders have previously produced instruments for such venerable institutions as the Eastman School of Music, Princeton Theological Seminary, and the Oberlin Conservatory.

Fritts specializes in building organs that are meant primarily to lead congregational singing. For this reason, they model their building technique after the tradition of organbuilding in northern Germany and the Netherlands. Historical research of these organs reveals how they were built and how they were designed to support the music of composers like Bach, Buxtehude, and Sweelinck. This focus is reflected in the stop list of the new Basilica organ. A few sets of pipes representative of other traditions have been selectively added in order to help support the needs of organ performance.

One stipulation made by the organ company was that the carpet in the Basilica would need to be removed, in order to improve the acoustics of the space. That $500,000 project was completed in 2014.

The new instrument is replacing a Holtkamp organ that was installed in 1978, during the era of Father Hesburgh. With only 40 stops (totaling under 3,000 pipes), this organ was judged undersized for the voluminous Basilica, particularly when it is filled with worshippers. The Holtkamp organ will be reinstalled at St. Pius X Church, being newly built about five miles away in Granger, IN. Fritts Opus 40 will be the fifth pipe organ used in this sanctuary since it was built in the 1850’s. It is being donated by a married couple who are parents and grandparents of Notre Dame alumni. 1

ATHER KHALED ANATOLIOS is new to the theology faculty of the University of Notre Dame this semester. A newly-ordained priest of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church, he offered to make the Divine Liturgy available to the student body. The University has taken him up on the offer.

The Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, used by the Melkite Rite, will be offered one Sunday a month for now in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart. As Father Anatolios settles in, it may be offered more frequently.

Byzantine liturgy is not commonly found on college campuses. There is a Byzantine Catholic Mission at Penn State, and a Ukrainian Catholic shrine sits close to the campus of the Catholic University of America. The monthly Divine Liturgy at Notre Dame, however, seems to be the first regularly scheduled on campus Eastern liturgy.

There have been calls, from time to time, for more “diversity” among theology faculties. Such requests, of course, have not always been well motivated. Here, however, we have a case of true, authentic, catholic diversity. Here’s hoping that many students, faculty, and visitors will participate in and learn from this new initiative. 2

HE BUILDING of this organ and the offering of Divine Liturgy constitute encouraging news for the world of Catholic higher education. While there are many troubling things happening on our Catholic college campuses, there are also many wonderful things. The positive things deserve more of our attention, praise, and gratitude than they sometimes receive.

Named a Basilica by St. John Paul II in 1992, Sacred Heart has long fit the definition of a place of historical importance, architectural worth, and popular pilgrimage. One of 82 Basilicas in the United States, this campus church now has two more reasons to serve as a place of pilgrimage.




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Many of the details about the organ project derive from an article by John Nagy, published in the Autumn 2016 edition of Notre Dame Magazine.

2   Information about the introduction of the Eastern liturgy at Notre Dame comes from a piece written by John Burger over at Aleteia.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Byzantine Liturgy, Pipe Organ, Traditional Byzantine Liturgies Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe to the CCW Mailing List

Fr. David Friel

About Fr. David Friel

Ordained in 2011, Father Friel served as Parochial Vicar at St. Anselm Parish in Northeast Philly. He is currently a doctoral candidate in liturgical theology at The Catholic University of America.—(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

Quick Thoughts

6 January 2021 • Anglicans on Plainsong

A book published by Anglicans in 1965 has this to say about Abbat Pothier’s Editio Vaticana, the musical edition reproduced by books such as the LIBER USUALIS (Solesmes Abbey): “No performing edition of the music of the Eucharistic Psalmody can afford to ignore the evidence of the current official edition of the Latin Graduale, which is no mere reproduction of a local or partial tradition, but a CENTO resulting from an extended study and comparison of a host of manuscripts gathered from many places. Thus the musical text of the Graduale possesses a measure of authority which cannot lightly be disregarded.” They are absolutely correct.

—Jeff Ostrowski
2 January 2021 • Temptation

When I see idiotic statements made on the internet, I go nuts. When I see heretics promoted by people who should know better, I get angry. Learning to ignore such items is difficult—very difficult. I try to remember the words of Fr. Valentine Young: “Do what God places in front of you each day.” When I am honest, I don’t believe God wants me to dwell on errors and idiocy; there’s nothing I can do about that. During 2021, I will strive to do a better job following the advice of Fr. Valentine.

—Jeff Ostrowski
31 December 2020 • “COMITES CHRISTI”

The feasts for Saint Stephen Proto-Martyr (26 December), Saint John the Evangelist The Disciple Whom Jesus Loved (27 December), and the Feast of the Holy Innocents (28 December) seem untouched by any liturgical reforms. These are very powerful feasts—I believe they once possessed octaves—and I believe they could sometimes “overpower” a Sunday feast. The rules for octaves in the olden days are extremely complex. These feasts are sometimes referred to as a single entity as: Comites Christi (“Companions of Christ”). This is just a guess, but there seems to be a triple significance: STEPHEN martyred after Christ lived, JOHN was a martyr who knew Christ personally, and the HOLY INNOCENTS were martyred before Christ’s birth.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

Amid all these old liturgical books, I find that I am happy and at ease; I feel at home.

— Dom André Mocquereau (1884)

Recent Posts

  • Thou Hast Saved the Good Wine until Now
  • “Homily for the 2nd Sunday after Epiphany” (EF) • Father Valentine Young, OFM
  • Lies, Lies, Lies
  • What Color Is B-Flat? Life as a Musician with Synesthesia
  • Catholic Choirmasters • Never Fall For This!

Copyright © 2021 Corpus Christi Watershed · Charles Garnier 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.