CDW Guidelines for Holy Week 2020

Fr. David Friel · March 20, 2020

ANY priests, parish musicians, and others have been wondering what this year’s celebration of Holy Week may look like, given restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW) has now released a short document with pertinent guidance.

The two-page text is available here:

* * PDF Download • CDW Guidance for Holy Week 2020

UPDATE: A second decree was published on 25 March 2020 with additional clarifications. It is available on the Vatican website.

As the decree notes, these guidelines are provided “by mandate of the Supreme Pontiff, for the year 2020 only.”

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

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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).

11 October 2021 • “Sing All Verses?”

Some claim Catholics deserve condemnation because (unlike Protestants) Catholics often omit verses when singing hymns at Mass. Is that true? The wonderful Sophia Institute Press—as part of a series on authentic sacred music—has provided an answer (PDF) to this question.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Where do Catholics find hymns?

The wonderful Sophia Institute Press has begun a “Q+A” section which tackles common liturgical questions, and here’s a sample: “At a conference I recently attended, the speaker said hymns don’t belong at Mass; was he telling the truth?” And you can read the answer. To access the complete set (which is a work in progress), scroll towards the bottom of this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski

28 September 2021 • FEEDBACK

From a reader: “I have read the pages explaining the Blessed Sacrament in the Brébeuf hymnal and plan on continuing to contemplate them. Moreover, the Christ the King Hymn is beautifully sung on the recording you posted (to the Watershed blog), and I wish my church would sing these hymns instead of modern ones from Choral Praise. We receive a wonderful explication of the Eucharist through this hymn. I am always impressed at the simple yet beautiful melodies in the Brebeuf hymnal.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Unfortunately, on the one hand a deadly error in judgment placed the official leadership of this committee into the hands of a man who—though generous and brave—was not very knowledgeable: Cardinal Lercaro. He was utterly incapable of resisting the maneuvers of the mealy-mouthed scoundrel that the Neapolitan Vincentian, Bugnini, a man as bereft of culture as he was of basic honesty, soon revealed himself to be.”

— ‘Fr. Louis Bouyer, an important member of the Consilium’

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About Fr. David Friel