Monday, June 26, 2006

Next Stop On the Liturgy Train....

With the successful first vote on the Missale Romanum behind, the US bishops are girding to tackle the directives of Liturgiam authenticam with regards to liturgical music.

In its most recent Newsletter, the USCCB Committee for the Liturgy announced that a 9 October consultation is to be held in Chicago to seek "the advice of organizations and groups dealing with questions of music and the liturgy." LA, the 2001 Vatican instruction on vernacular liturgical texts, said that such pieces "are particularly important because they convey to the faithful a sense of the solemnity of the celebration, and manifest unity in faith and charity by means of a union of voices."

Within five years of Liturgiam authenticam, the document stipulated that each episcopal conference was to prepare an official Directory "or repertory of texts intended for liturgical singing" within its jurisdiction. The USCCB will likely be the first conference to vote on a proposed Directory at its November meeting, to be held this year in Baltimore.

As with the vote on the Order of Mass taken in Los Angeles eleven days ago, a US music directory must receive a 2/3 vote of active Latin-rite bishops and be forwarded to the Holy See for its recognitio.

The Chicago consultation will be held with an eye toward "discuss[ing] the revision" of Music and Catholic Worship and Liturgical Music Today, which are viewed as the "two foundational documents on the subject of the music and the sacred liturgy."

And so it goes....

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