Enthroning

Well, the papal enthronement is over. Turns out I was wrong about the date....it was this morning instead of yesterday. So, I watched it, at least from 4:30 on. It was interesting trying to figure out what the service was supposed to be called. CNN called it the "Inaugural Service" on their picture frame (was it recycled from Bush's two church services last January?), but when they cut away to other national news services, the other countries were using various forms of the words enthronement and coronation. When I looked at the Order of Service I got from Rome, it was written in Italian, and only said, "CELEBRAZIONE EUCARISTICA PER L’INIZIO DEL MINISTERO PETRINO DEL VESCOVO DI ROMA," which means "eucharistic celebration for the beginning/start of the Petrine Ministry of the Bishop of Rome" ("Petrine Ministry" refers to St. Peter's work as the first pope). The Italian word for "inaugurate" is "inaugurale," while "inizio" comes from the verb "iniziare," which means "to begin." I guess the American networks are just trying to be anti-monarchial and democratic in their terminology, however inaccurate.

Anyway, it was a more interesting service than JP2's funeral. I think they had enough people complain about putting that long litany of saints after communion at the funeral, so they started the service this morning with it! And I was so glad they let just one representative of the College of Cardinals come up and kiss his ring instead of parading all 182 living cardinals down to do obeisance. His Holiness gave a very nice sermon, though my Italian sucks and I couldn't follow it all. It seemed very interestingly educational and historic, though. The only "policy" cue he gave was a good sign, and that is his wish for Christian and religious unity. He also invited representatives of the Orthodox Church and the Anglican Church to attend, as well as some Jewish representatives. He gave homage to Jews and their role as God's chosen people. So, things are looking good for Catholic/Orthodox/Anglican/Jewish relations. I think he may have missed an opportunity to include Muslims, though. After all, Christians, Jews, and Muslims all worship the same God and share the same Abramaic tradition, regardless of how poorly everyone is playing with others today. But, at least he's making initial overtures to other faiths, especially after the paper he wrote a few years ago as head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, and I've been encouraged in the past week that he's seeming to be more pastoral and consultative on issues, rather than taking a hard line on everything.

I think I figured out what's wrong with the Sistine Chapel choir and why I think they have been so unimpressive this month (other than the fact that the men sing flat and the boys don't stay together). One of my Catholic musician friends commented this morning that they are boring and sing everything the same way. Yes, that's true. But, what's behind that is the tradition of Gregorian chant in monastic worship. Remember a few years back when that Spanish monastery did an album called Chant that was on the top of the classical crossover chart for months? Remember how its beauty was in the tranquility of its musical worship? Chant is not supposed to be splendid, broad, emotional, and dynamic music. It is an aid to meditation and religious contemplation. And herein is where the fault lies. The musical directors of the choir have no flair, no style, no sense of selecting music appropriate to either an occasion or a location. Neither JP2's funeral nor this morning's enthronement took place in a monastic setting. Neither did they occur in the Sistine Chapel. They were outdoors in St. Peter's Square. Now, the choir and that awful, rinky-dink, portable, electronic organ they used were on the porch of the chapel, but still, they were outside. The resonance, echo, and reverberation of the chapel in which they are used to singing was not there. That is why they sounded so thin, and maybe even why they had pitch and intonation problems. So, for what they were doing, they were ok. They just shouldn't have been doing it. The problem was one of musical leadership and their boring, inappropriate, musical selections. This is a television age, and major international services need to have more of a sense of grandeur and even "Hollywood" excitement in the "soundtrack."

Now, how am I supposed to help local Catholic parishes have exciting, inspirational, religious music if their ultimate example—the Vatican—is boring, too?

Did anyone notice the organ postlude at the conclusion of the service? It was Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D minor, also known as the music from the movies Phantom of the Opera and Rollerball. I thought that very odd. Were they trying to scare us? Did Halloween come early in Rome? Was that a tribute to the Pope's German ancestry? Very odd. Very, very odd, especially when the Pope as cardinal was quoted as having said he preferred Mozart.