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Views from the Choir Loft

Should the Liturgy Be Televised?

Fr. David Friel · November 15, 2015

NEW BOOK released in September 2015 is well worth your purchase and reading. From the pen of Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, it is entitled Signs of the Holy One: Liturgy, Ritual, and Expression of the Sacred. Like all of Fr. Lang’s writings, this book is timely and insightful.

Fr. Lang is a member of the Oratory of St. Philip Neri. In addition to his teaching at Heythrop College, he is also a board member of the Society for Catholic Liturgy and serves as editor of that society’s journal, Antiphon.

This new book wrestles with two separate questions. The first two chapters concern the various non-verbal “languages” through which the liturgy speaks. This section readily accepts that modern society has become what Ratzinger once called a “culture of images” (Introduction to the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church, xvii). The next three chapters deal more pointedly with issues confronting the disciplines of sacred architecture, sacred art, and sacred music.

N BETWEEN these two sections, the author includes what he calls an “excursus” on the topic of liturgy in the mass media. It is this brief (seven page) section on which I would chiefly like to focus.

The author first acknowledges three main reasons why the broadcasting of liturgical celebrations has been generally accepted:

1. First, telecast Masses sustain the presence of the Church in the public sphere, allowing a wide diffusion for her central and most significant act of divine worship.

2. Secondly, telecast Masses provide a service for those who are not able to take part physically at a liturgical celebration (those who are hospitalized, homebound, or imprisoned).

3. Thirdly, broadcasts of liturgical celebrations in the mass media can be a useful tool for evangelization and catechesis. (Lang, 63)

Like many other places, Philadelphia has a locally televised Mass that airs every Sunday morning. I have participated in these Masses numerous times over the years, originally as a musician and later as a priest. More recently, I was involved in televised Masses throughout the week of the World Meeting of Families (photos here, reflection here). Without a doubt, the airing of these liturgies has enabled many people to see the proceedings who would otherwise be unable to do so. This can certainly bear significant spiritual fruit while bringing about both healing & comfort. Nevertheless, my experiences with televised Masses have raised some concerns in my mind. The same appears to be true for Fr. Lang and others.

Karl Rahner and Josef Pieper—representatives of two very different Catholic perpectives—both rejected liturgical broadcasts outright. 1 According to Fr. Lang, the major objection raised by Pieper is that the liturgy “requires a threshold or even barrier that clearly distinguishes it from the sphere of the quotidian (the street and the marketplace). This threshold is mitigated, removed, or simply ignored by a telecast Mass” (Lang, 64). To televise the liturgy for all to see is certainly a far cry from the disciplina arcani embraced by Christians of the early centuries.

Another issue with liturgical broadcasts is that the sacred liturgy is designed to be “a unique event in time” (Lang, 65). Broadcasts, however, may be watched and re-watched without regard to the proper setting of the liturgy as it was celebrated in real time. Fr. Lang raises further questions about whether watching a televised Mass can in any way satisfy the demand for “full, conscious, and actual participation” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, #14). It is more natural to think of television viewers as spectators than as participants.

Finally, the excursus concludes with reference to the scant Church guidelines established for liturgical broadcasts, including a 1980 Instruction from the CDW entitled Inaestimabile Donum, which states: “Particular vigilance and special care are recommended with regard to Masses transmitted by the audio-visual media. Given their very wide diffusion, their celebration must be of exemplary quality” (#19). The other guidelines mentioned include the need for close governance by the local bishop, the preference for live telecasts, attention to proper ars celebrandi, and the need for discretion in accompanying the broadcast with commentary.

HESE ISSUES are fascinating to me. While I don’t think there are perfect answers to every pitfall of televised liturgies, these matters definitely warrant thoughtful consideration. What benefits or limitations do you see in the broadcasting of liturgies? Should such telecasts be encouraged or discouraged, permitted or forbidden? What other ecclesial guidelines might be useful? (Your input is again quite welcome via Facebook comments.)

This new book from Fr. Lang is easy to read, thoughtfully arranged, and rich in homage to the teachings of Cardinal Ratzinger/Pope Benedict XVI. I am certain that anyone who enjoys reading Views from the Choir Loft will also enjoy reading Signs of the Holy One.




NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   K. Rahner, “Die Messe und das Fernsehen,” Orientierung 7 (1953): 179-83; J. Pieper, “Zur Fernseh-Ubertragung der Heiligen Messe (1953),” in Pieper, Werke, vol. 7, Religionsphilosophische Schriften, ed. B. Wald (Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 2000), 587-90.

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

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Evangelization, Liturgical Abuse, Society for Catholic Liturgy Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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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).

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President’s Corner

    PDF Download • “Polyphonic Extension” (Kevin Allen) for Gloria III
    EVIN ALLEN was commissioned by Sacred Music Symposium 2025 to compose a polyphonic ‘middle section’ for the GLORIA from Mass III, often denoted by its trope name: Missa Kyrie Deus sempiterne. This year, I’m traveling from Singapore to serve on the symposium faculty. I will be conducting Palestrina’s ‘Ave Maria’ as well as teaching plainsong to the men. A few days ago, I was asked to record rehearsal videos for this beautiful polyphonic extension. (See below.) This polyphonic composition fits ‘inside’ GLORIA III. That is, the congregation sings for the beginning and end, but the choir alone adds polyphony to the middle. The easiest way to understand how everything fits together is by examining this congregational insert. You may download the score, generously made available to the whole world—free of charge—by CORPUS CHRISTI WATERSHED:
    *  PDF Download • Gloria III ‘Middle Section’ (Kevin Allen)
    Free rehearsal videos for each individual voice await you at #24366. Related News • My colleague, Jeff Ostrowski, composed an organ accompaniment for this same GLORIA a few months ago. Obviously, the organist should drop out when the polyphony is being sung.
    —Corrinne May
    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    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
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

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“Except the psalms or canonical Scriptures of the new and old Testaments, nothing composed poetically shall be sung in church, as the holy canons command.”

— ‘Council of Braga, 563AD’

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