In every discipline there must be a measure of the end in how one begins.
With this in mind, shouldn't we all want a little more for our children at Catholic school than this approach to liturgical music? The author of this article at "Corpus Christi Watershed" places this style firmly in the '60's, and yet, it still exists in many Catholic schools.
I can give simple examples: When I first played football, we didn't start by shooting baskets or by taking batting practice. We started with sound fundamentals that could be readily applied to the game at every level.
When I started playing golf, we learned how to swing the club. We didn't start by celebrating in the club house.
I would expect a good coach to instruct my children along similar paths should they choose to play golf or football.
I would also expect a Catholic school to instruct my children in a similar manner, with a fundamentally sound approach to the faith and practicing the faith.
The underlying principle is this: Success in any discipline demands an act of will.
St. Thomas Aquinas wrote, "If you want to be a saint, will it."
Are our Catholic schools working with the parents who want their children to develop the "will" to worship (at the very, very least to understand what they are doing at Mass), or are our schools working against the parents by leading our children to a concept of worship that checks "will" at the door and presents a precept of relativism which orders all things to Man instead of to God?
I know there are progressive arguments for every novelty, every innovation, for the demonizing of all previous generations, of all pre-Vatican II devotions, and even for a separation of praxis and theory that, according to Card. Muller, is potentially heretical.
I don't need to hear or read any more of these because they are all tripe. They are not ordered to God, but to Man and human ego. They will fall by the wayside, but not soon enough to spare my children from idiotic "liturgical" music and a false approach to worship at Mass.
We might not be able to address the problems in the Roman Catholic Church as a whole, but we can work to purify the streams which water our local pastures.
