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Muddy Waters

By Mary Ann Carr Wilson

This Rock Volume 19, Number 8   October 2008     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   How the First Christians Changed the World (and What We Can Learn from Them) By Fr. Michael Giesler   Suffering and Death Have Meaning   We Cannot Live without the Eucharist   Pop Goes the Mass: The Curse of Bad Liturgical Music (Part One) By Anthony Esolen   The Church Has Spoken. Is Anyone Listening? By Mary Ann Carr Wilson   From the Horse’s Mouth: Quotes from Church Documents By Mary Ann Carr Wilson   Muddy Waters By Mary Ann Carr Wilson   Why I Didn’t Convert to Eastern Orthodoxy By Fr. Brian W. Harrison, O.S.   Should Catholics Be Environmentalists? By Ron Rychlak   Children Indoctrinated at Museums   Sierra Club’s Two-Child Policy   Further Reading   Damascus Road No Longer Tossed To and Fro By John E. Lopez   By the Book How to Be a (Truly) Tolerant Christian By Jim Blackburn   Eyes to See What Is Hidden Will Be Revealed By Michael Schrauzer   Truth be Told The (Not-So-Mindless) American Catholic Voter By Robert P. Lockwood   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has issued two documents on sacred music. Neither is a binding legal document; rather, the bishops’ intent was to summarize the Vatican documents and to offer suggestions for their application. In practice, however, the USCCB documents often have been used to obscure rather than to illuminate the originals.

Music in Catholic Worship, released by the USCCB in 1972, came to be recognized as deficient in many areas and for this reason was replaced in 2007 with Sing to the Lord. Close observers speculate that Sing to the Lord may come to the same fate in a few years, and for similar weaknesses.

Both documents are mistakenly regarded by many liturgists and others serving in chanceries and parishes to hold binding norms. Meanwhile, many well-intentioned Church musicians are unaware of the contents of the Vatican documents and the (often minimal) liturgical training they receive is frequently at odds with them.