Catholics will sing when there's only one `Amen,' one `Alleluia'

The Boston Herald

BEVERLY BECKHAM

I don't know if an ambassador can do this. Probably not. It will probably take divine intervention on a grand scale. An edict by the pope or something. But maybe Ray Flynn can get the ball rolling. Or put a bug in the pope's ear, to coin a cliche or two.

"Here ye, here ye, Catholic Americans. Get your act together. Learn how to open your mouths, raise your voices to Heaven and praise the Lord."

We're bad at this, you know. Catholics do not sing. Protestants belt out hymns with the passion of converts, but we Catholics don't even bother to mouth the words. We stand silent in our churches and let the organists and the one vocalist who substitutes for a choir do all the work.

We weren't always like this. We used to be passionate, prayerful singers. For centuries Catholics sang: "Tantum ergo, sacrementum" and a host of other Latin hymns, which even now evoke the sweet smell of incense. We knew some English hymns, too: "Holy God we praise thy name," and "Oh Father St. Frances before thee we pray."

But then Vatican II came along and everything changed. Up was suddenly down. Black was suddenly white. It was like falling asleep at the beach and waking up on the moon, quite unsettling because the best thing about being a Catholic had been the assuaging routine. Catholicism was a follow-the-yellow-brick-road religion: Make a good confession on Saturday, go to Mass on Sunday, avoid the occasions of sin and you had it made. Regimentation was salvation.

Then presto: The Mass was in English, the altar was turned around, and most incredible of all, Catholics were hearing all kinds of music in church - folk songs, rock songs, even love songs.

Join in, the priest invited. Please sing along, the choirmaster, strumming a guitar, entreated. Many of us sat dumbfounded. For one of the things the nuns had continually drummed into our heads was how special the Catholic Church was in that it was the same all over the world.

It was like McDonald's (my analogy, not theirs). Catholics could visit any church in any nation and feel at home because the Mass was always in Latin and always the same. Protestants weren't so fortunate. If they visited a church in France, they couldn't be guaranteed such quality control.

How strange it felt then in light of all this to be sitting in a familiar pew in our parish churches hearing English and feeling as if we didn't belong.

But all this is ancient history. The fact is, most Catholics readjusted. It took a while, but we even shake hands in church now without looking pained. The only thing we don't do well is sing. And you know what? It's not our fault.

I finally figured this out last Sunday. We don't sing not because we can't and not because we don't want to. We don't sing because in no two Catholic churches in America will a person ever hear the same songs, never mind the same notes.

Where once the church was a paragon of ritual, every nuance of every prayer programmed, now it's all over the place. Nothing is uniform, not even a simple "amen." "Amens" leap up and down the scale in Catholic churches every day.

"Lord hear our prayer." "Lamb of God, have mercy on us." These should not be difficult to sing. "Christ has died. Christ is risen. Christ will come again."

I hope He does. We need God's help to get us singing.

The truth is we want to sing. We yearn to sing. We sing at Christmas because no one, as yet, has messed around with "Silent Night." We sing on Thanksgiving, "My Country 'Tis of Thee." We sing when we know the tune. When we don't, we stand in silence because what else can we do?

"The Roman Catholic Church has its own sacred music tradition, but that tradition does not include a long history of singing in the English language. Unlike their fellow Americans of the same `melting pot' culture, Catholic parishes for the most part have yet to experience the same vitality of song that echoes from their neighboring Christian churches."

This apology was written in the introduction of the hymnal used in the Catholic Church I attended last week. The date this was written? 1975. Nearly 20 years ago.

Flynn needs to get a directive from the pope that says, "American choirmasters: Leave those notes alone! We need one `Amen,' one `Alleluia,' one `Hosannah in the highest."'

Then and only then will Catholics begin to sing.