HPR | Cardinal Ratzinger on Liturgical Music
In light of the foregoing discussion, both “pop†music and the music of elitist aesthetes are unsuitable for divine worship. The latter, proclaiming art to be “for art’s sake†and for no other purpose, elevates the composer to the level of a “pure creator.†“According to Christian faith, however, it belongs to the essence of human beings that they come from God’s ‘art’. . . and as perceivers can think and view God’s creative ideas with him and translate them into the visible and the audible†(106).
On the other hand, hasn’t the Church’s liturgical music always drawn on popular music to renew itself? Isn’t “pop†music just what the Church needs in order to “relate†with contemporary culture? Cardinal Ratzinger recommends “treading carefully†in this area (107-108). In the past folk music was the expression of a clearly defined community held together by language, history and a way of life. Springing from fundamental human experience, it conveyed a truth, however naive the form may have been. Pop music, in contrast, is a standardized product of mass society, a function of supply and demand. The 20 th-century composer Paul Hindemith called the constant presence of such noise “brainwashing,†and C. M. Johansson claims that hearing it gradually makes us incapable of listening attentively: “we become musically comatose. . . . This medium kills the message†(p. 108 cf. footnote 19).
Cardinal Ratzinger insists that the faith must not be trivialized in the name of inculturating it. Today we do not have to limit church music so strictly to chanting of the psalms, because we have “an infinitely larger trove†of good liturgical music to draw on. But to hold the line against the onslaught of misguided attempts to import “modern†musical forms into the liturgy requires “the courage of asceticism, the courage to contradict. Only from such courage can new creativity arise†(109).
I don't make a habit of reading the Roman websites but when considering liturgy, they are struggling as much as the Lutherans. Mr. miller provides an excellent summary of an article written by Cardinal Ratzinger, now Pope in 1986. The cardinal offers some excellent insights and rephrases the catholic perspective in a few helpful ways. Enjoy.
