Everything Fr. Rutler writes is worth reading but this piece is particularly insightful on the low-grade frenzy concerning the new translation of the Missal. A sample:
Publicly owned corporations are more accountable to their shareholders than tenured bureaucracies, which may explain why it took the Ford Motor Company only two years to cancel its Edsel, and not much longer for Coca Cola to restore its “classic” brand, while the Catholic Church has taken more than a generation of unstopped attrition to try to correct the mistakes of overheated liturgists. The dawning of the Age of Aquarius is now in its sunset repose and the bright young things who seem to be cropping up now all over the place with new information from Fortescue and Ratzinger, may either be the professional mourners for a lost civilization, or the sparks of a looming golden age.
One thing is certain to a pastor: the only parishioners fighting the old battles are old themselves, their felt banners frayed and their guitar strings broken, while a young battalion is rising, with no animus against the atrophied adolescence of their parents, and only eager to engage a real spiritual combat in a culture of death. They usually are ignorant, but bright, for ignorance is not stupidity.
They care little if the Liturgy is in Latin or English or Sanskrit, as long as they are told how to do it, for they were not told. Some critics of the new translations have warned that the changes are too radical, which is radioactively cynical from people who in the 1960’s wantonly dismantled old verities overnight, in their suburbanized version of China’s Cultural Revolution.
"…while a young battalion is rising, with no animus against the atrophied adolescence of their parents, and only eager to engage a real spiritual combat in a culture of death."
I don't think I have heard a more concise and beautiful expression of the sentiments of my generation. And listen to that alliteration! "…no animus against the atrophied adolescence of their parents…" Amazing.
Brilliant. "in their suburbanized version of China’s Cultural Revolution."
Just a minute there, you young supporters of the sacred suppository of superb, sanctified liturgical tradition – this "old" Cat never wore tie-dyed shirts, didnt' like the "Age of Aquarius" by the Fifth Dimension, didn't give in to the drug, sex and rock 'n roll culture of my "atrophied adolescence". There are quite a few of us old dogs and cats out there who wept for the lost liturgy and found choirs to join that actually used the old red Worship hymnal that at least tried to keep some of the traditional hymns and chants alive. Even the belove blue original St Gregory's hymnal…I still have mine – frayed and loose pages with loving finger marks at the pages I loved the most.
Ah yes, I'm old but not atrophied yet. And I love the traditional liturgy. That's why I'm gratefully singing with a young whippersnapper who knows the value of the old while composing the new for the translation due to be used in 20011. Remember the ground-breaking movie, "2001-a Space Odyssey"? Seems old and atrophied now, doesn't it? Soon we'll be saying the same thing about the Marty Mass, the Jesuit Jingle Mass and those soppy songs that try to pass for hymns that are currently in use in many Catholic churches. "I say YES, my Lord" – oops, did I just quote one of those hymns???
"And listen to that alliteration!"
What am I if not pedantic? Technically, if it's done with vowels, it's assonance, not alliteration.
I completely agree with the sentiment. While there are many of my generation (myself included) who want something greater from the liturgy, it's tough to be hostile to the previous generation. They're our parents, for one thing.
Thank you for posting this truly amazing article!
"The times, they are a-changing."
@AndyMO – Touche. Thanks for the correction.
@RedCat – We should always offer disclaimers before making generational blanket statements, shouldn't we. Of course not everyone in the boomer generation is an "atrophied adolescent", and it's the people like you who have held on to our heritage and have fought the good fight in turbulent times who are to be commended!
Thinking further about the "animus" toward the boomers from the younger generation, this definitely exists to some degree. But I think that when it comes to the liturgy most of us have no desire to harbor resentment or anger for the generational mistakes that preceded us, but rather are focused on the good that lies ahead!
Father Rutler's commentaries always make for good reading. I imagine these double-knit dinosaurs fighting this change might be able to apply for an indult for their private Masses since they are incapable of change at this point in their lives. So rigid, so inflexible.
Any animus should really not be given towards boomers. At the time of V2, boomers were anywhere from pre-teens to early 20's. The changes that followed VII came from the war generation in charge of everything, such as Rahner and Kung, and it is to be remembered these changes were imposed on the boomers and everyone else in the late 60's. The liturgical changes tried to make the Church so similar to the secular world of the time that there was little for the Church to offer that was different from that secular world, so there was little reason left for anyone to attend a liturgy instead of say a coffee house. When guitars came into the liturgy, the sacredness of the liturgy was lost, and the average boomers fled by the millions rewarded by finding better music and "food for the soul" elsewhere. It is those few boomers that stayed which are a curious lot, either to be pitied for their acceptance of banality, or praised for their perseverance.
Another angle on this is that a surprising number of Catholic 'boomers' involved in Church music now are converts who are sensitive to tradition and its implications for liturgical music. In many cases, too, their backgrounds make them familiar with polyphony and chant of one kind or another. Boomers like this figure significantly in the resurgance of interest in truly Catholic music. That's true of my own Schola and of others that I know.
This is not to say that they don't also include cradle-catholic boomers who love chant and polyphony. It's just that those who went through the upheavals and silliness of the 70s and 80s as faithful young Catholics were subject to considerable pressure to reject tradition and embrace revolution. It's difficult to blame those who fell for it.
Jeffrey Tucker (a convert himself) touches on this issue in the latest number of Musica Sacra.