Catholic Music: the beautiful, the good, the bad, and the ugly

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire.” (Hebrews 12:28–29)

This weekend, I experienced the beautiful, the good, the bad, and the ugly of Catholic music, in less than 24 hours. Yesterday morning, I attended an introductory workshop on Gregorian chant, run by the Australian Sacred Music Association, held at St Thomas, Lewisham. Such wow for a Judeo-Christian tradition developed over thousands of years!

After a history lesson or two on sacred liturgical music, we practiced singing the Responses of the Mass, the Missa Primitiva Ordinary and one simple Eucharistic and Marian chant. During the lunch break, a priest who was previously based at the parish which the workshop venue fell under, and had pushed for a Gregorian chant culture during his time as parish priest there, commented to attendees that the community of the parish does not thrive and grow under an approach of allowing personal preferences to drive the liturgy.

It makes sense that deepening our communion with God, and deepening the Communion of Saints, occurs most effectively through keeping milennia-old (arguably eternal) traditions like Gregorian chant alive through liturgical practice. And it’s not like this tradition has remained static — it has also naturally developed over the centuries, according to historical records. It’s Catholic traditions like this that help me connect with my Church ancestors from time immemorial.

Later that evening I attended World Youth Day Info Night with Fr Rob Galea, run by the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney. Prior to the evening, I knew that Fr Rob is a social media influencer of sorts, but kept an open mind and didn’t think about that too much.

After catching up with some friends outside the venue, I walked into an auditorium with Fr Rob singing and playing his guitar, backed by a rock band behind him. You’d think this doesn’t seem to be a problem, however, I immediately felt Hillsong vibes. I was not expecting those vibes I felt long ago, before I finally returned to the Catholic faith, to return.

I recently went to watch Kate Miller-Heidke live, and I enjoyed her performance, superb as ever, partly because I wasn’t looking for God at her show. If I wanted a Hillsong experience, I would’ve attended Hillsong instead, and if I wanted to rock to live music, I would’ve waited for Kate’s next Australian tour instead.

Perhaps you could forgive Fr Rob for attempting to engage more Catholic youth on behalf of the Church (why are we competing against Hillsong and Kate again???). But I became less convinced that his ‘new evangelisation’ will bear long-term fruit at the start of Adoration last night.

Just before the start of Adoration, Fr Rob said he’s “fangirling” over Adoration. Then during Adoration he started singing to his pop music. And then the drumming (drummer positioned behind the temporary altar) got so loud that I could see the Monstrance shaking. Of course, the hypocrisy of this irreverence is that just before Fr Rob “fangirled”, a video was played on the big screen, explaining Adoration, including explaining that the real presence of Christ resides in the Monstrance during Adoration.

I couldn’t tolerate the desecration of Christ any further, so I left to protect my soul from further harm.

In the leadup to this weekend, I had planned to attend Christ Church St Laurence (CCSL) this morning, which I did (10:30am Solemn High Mass). CCSL is the principal centre of Anglo-Catholic worship in the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, where Anglicanism is predominantly Evangelical in character. In short, it felt like an Anglican vernacular Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) I could much more easily immerse myself in. Meanwhile the Vatican is still attempting to restrict TLM. Strange liturgical times we live in!