Some parishes will sing new musical settings earlier than planned

Some parishes may start singing the musical settings from the  new Roman Missal a few months sooner than planned.

New Orleans Archbishop Gregory Aymond, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, announced yesterday during the bishops’ spring meeting in Washington State that bishops may grant permission for parishes to introduce the settings in September as a way of providing more time to learn them.

The settings were originally scheduled to be introduced Nov. 27 – the start of Advent – when other changes in the language of the Mass are set to be implemented.

The musical settings that will be affected include the Gloria, the Holy, Holy, Holy and the Memorial Acclamations.

Without the variation, it would have been especially challenging for congregations to learn the new Gloria since the Gloria is not sung during Advent.  The first exposure to the setting would have been at Christmas.

A June 17 news release noted that the early implementation of the music settings was authorized by USCCB president, New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan, and adopted by the committee to allow parish communities to learn the various parts of the new translation “in a timely fashion and an even pace.”

The Committee on Divine Worship made the decision in response to requests from several bishops, echoed by the National Advisory Council. Some suggested that the various acclamations could be more effectively introduced throughout the fall, according to the news release, so that when the full Missal is implemented, people would already be familiar with the prayers that are sung.

“I ask you to encourage this as a means of preparing our people and helping them embrace the new translation,” Archbishop Gregory told the bishops.