On liturgy in choir duty : Letter of Pope Paul VI to superiors general of clerical religious institu


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Sacrificiimx Landis

Letter of Pope Paul VI
TO SUPERIORS GENERAL OF CLERICAL
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTES BOUND BY THE

OBLIGATION OF CHOIR DUTY.

The sacrifice of praise, the offering of lips proclaiming the

Lord, psalmody and hymnody, whereby the hours, the days, and

the year’s cycle are rendered sacred with the glow of religious

piety, the Eucharistic Sacrifice being as it were the brilliant astral

center drawing all things unto itself, has ever been held in high

esteem by your families so devoted to God. Justly it has been

regarded that nothing should be preferred to so holy a work. What
glory has thereby been given to the Creator of all things and what

benefits have through it accrued to the Church, can readily be

understood. By means of this particular and assiduous form of
prayer down through the centuries you have afforded indisputable
evidence of* the importance that must needs be accorded divine

worship in human society.

However, from certain letters received from among your midst

and from some reports coming from other sources we have learned
that in your houses and provinces—we are speaking of those only
that belong to the Latin rite—variant practices have been intro-
duced in your liturgical functions; some cling tenaciously to the

Latin idiom; some are requesting that the vernacular tongue be

employed in choral services; and still others, hither and thither,

would want to abandon the chant, commonly known and charac-
terized as Gregorian plainsong, in favor of hymns and melodies

composed in the present day and age. Indeed supplications are

not wanting that the Latin speech itself be abolished.



We must confess that requests such as these have startled us
not a little and have also caused us some anguish of soul. Spon-

taneously the question arises whence has such an attitude of mind

and the hitherto unknown aversion been produced and what are
the causes of their diffusion?

You are aware and can harbor no doubt how much we love
and esteem your religious communities. The remarkable piety that

they have shown and the monuments of sincere religious cult and

devotion, which they have reared and ennobled, often are to us a

cause of admiration, and we deem it a pleasure to ourselves to
accede to their wishes and enhance their happy status and condi-

tion, whenever an occasion is offered us to do so legitimately and

fittingly.

But what we have said above about the present day state of
affairs has come about after the Second Vatican Council has ex-

pressed its mind in such studied and solemn words (cf. Constitu-

tion on Sacred Liturgy, n. 101, 1), and in succeeding instructions

clear and unmistakable norms had been laid down on this matter.
In one of the instructions “Ad exsecutionem Constitutionis de
Sacra Liturgia recte ordinandam,” issued on Sept. 26, 1964, it

was decreed: Clerics are bound to retain the Latin language in

the discharge of their divine office in choir (no. 85) ; and the other,

which is entitled “De lingua in celebrandis Officio divino et Missa

‘conventualV aut ‘communitatis’ apud Religiosos adhibenda” and

was published on Nov. 23, 1965, that same injunction was con-

firmed, while at the same time due regard was had for the spiritual

welfare of the faithful and of the prevailing circumstances and

conditions that, affect the spread of faith in missionary regions.

Until therefore it has been legitimately ordained and established

otherwise, these laws remain in force and exact obedience, which

above all it behooves Religious members, the dearest children of

Mother Church, to show and commend by their example.

But we are here dealing with the question not merely of retain-
ing the Latin language, which, far from being neglected, is in itself

assuredly worthy of being guarded with alacrity, inasmuch as, in

the Latin Church, it is a most fertile mainspring of Christian human
culture as well as a truly bounteous treasury of piety; but also of

maintaining unblemished the propriety, the beauty, and the native

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vigor of its prayers and hymns: it is a question of a choral office

expressed in an idiom of melodious resonance in the Church (S.

Aug., Conf. 9, 6; P.L. 32, 769), which your founders, great masters

and saints in heaven, the lights of your families, have bequeathed

to us. We must not suffer the loss of institutions that have been
built up by your forefathers and served as an ornament to you for

long centuries. The peculiar character of your choral office has

been really one of the chief causes why your communities them-
selves stood up so firmly and waxed strong in their joyous increase.

Are we then not to marvel, when, owing to a suddenly risen squall

of emotion, some would seem to think that its form and use should

now be doomed to extinction?

At this juncture what idiom, what chant, can take the place

of the formulas of Catholic piety, what you have used until now?

Were this glorious heritage to be cast aside, should we not be
apprehensive that a worse condition may ensue? There are reasons
to fear that the choral office may be reduced to an unseasoned,
impromptu form and manner of recitation in which you your-

selves may be the first to feel and experience the lack of substance
and good taste. The question may also be asked whether people,
who are eager to participate in your sacred prayers, will continue
to flock to your temples in such numbers, if their old and native

language, coupled with chant replete with such gravity and gran-

deur, will no longer be heard resounding there.

We beg all concerned, therefore, to think over and ponder
well, what they would want to give up and not permit the sources

to cease flowing and dry up whence they have drawn so copiously

in the past.

Undoubtedly the Latin language may create some, and per-
haps not slender, difficulty to the recruits to your sacred militia.

This, however, must not be regarded to be of such a nature that

it could not be conquered and overcome, particularly in your case,

since you, living in a milieu more secluded from the concerns and

bustle of the world, can devote yourselves more fully to the study

of letters. For the rest, these prayers, endowed with noble majesty

and singular merits of venerable antiquity, will continue to attract

to you youths, who are called to share the Lord’s portion in life;
on the contrary, a choir, shorn of a speech than transcends all

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national limits and pulsates with a life of admirable spiritual vigor,

and of the melodies that spring from the innermost sanctuary of

the soul, where throbs the life and faith and charity toward fellow-

men is aflame with ardor, we mean to say Gregorian chant, is
likened to an extinguished candle, which no longer sheds its light

nor draws the eyes and minds of men toward its flickering flames.

However the case may be, dearly beloved sons, the requests,
referred to in the foregoing words, involve matters so grave in

import, that we cannot at the present time grant them by derogating
the norms of the Council and the aforementioned instructions.

We therefore earnestly exhort you to think and weigh well this
complicated question in all its forms and facets. In accord with

the good will, with which we embrace you, and the high esteem,
which we cherish toward you, we do not wish to permit this cause
to meet with a fate that might reflect no slight detriment upon you

and would be certain to bring a feeling of distemper and sorrow

to the whole Church of God. Allow us, then, to defend your own
cause, even against your wishes. From that very same Church,
that has, for pastoral reasons for the good of the people ignorant

of Latin, introduced the vernacular into the Sacred Liturgy, you

have also the mandate to preserve the dignity, beauty and gravity

of your choral duty, handed down to you, both as to language and
chant.

Therefore submit in obedience with a sincere and tranquil

mind to these ordinances, which not an immoderate love for prac-

tices of a venerable antiquity has suggested, but paternal charity

toward you proposes and a truly solicitous care for divine worship

has prompted.

Finally, as a pledge of heavenly favors and an expression of

our paternal sentiments toward you and all those under your

charge, we most gladly impart to you the apostolic blessing in

the Lord.

Given at Rome, near St. Peter’s, the 15th day of August, on

the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, in the

year 1966, the fourth of our pontificate.

* * * *

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