On 21st November the Belmont Community began a year’s celebration to mark the 150th anniversary of its founding. Various events are being planned so that all connected with the Abbey, monks, oblates, parishioners, clergy, religious and friends, can take part. Some will be simple and homely, like the inaugural Mass last week, while others will be grand occasions with large numbers of guests.
Belmont has a fascinating and unusual history. It was the brainchild of Francis Richard Wegg-Prosser of Belmont House, Clehonger, Herefordshire, who, to mark his conversion to the Catholic Church, decided to build a church. For this he engaged the services of Edward Pugin, but they were unable to build all that was planned. Only about a third of the project was completed. On 21st November 1859 the first stage was officially opened and given to the English Benedictine Congregation. The church was blessed by the first Cathedral Prior, Dom Norbert Sweeney, and, on the following day, the first Mass was offered by Bishop Thomas Joseph Brown of Newport and Menevia, whose cathedral it now became. Later that day a Solemn High Mass was celebrated by Bishop Bernard Ullathorne.
Belmont was unique in that it was a cathedral priory, just like the great medieval Benedictine houses at Canterbury, Rochester, Durham, Worcester and so on. It became the mother church of a fledgling diocese as well as a monastic church where the divine office was sung each day in full by Benedictine monks from Downside, Ampleforth and Douai. They formed the cathedral chapter and prepared both Benedictine and diocesan candidates for the priesthood. It also served as common novitiate and house of studies. An aspect of Belmont’s importance lies in the fact that countless Benedictine priests were trained here, priests who were to serve all over England and Wales in a period of consolidation and growth. Many parishes owe their origin to the English Benedictine Mission. The training they were given was of a very high standard, as was the monastic formation they received. Among the professors was Dom Cuthbert Hedley, successor to Bishop Brown.
Belmont was pivotal to the movement for monastic reform that was gathering momentum in the second half of the 19th Century. It is interesting to note that Abbot Prosper Guéranger of Solesmes preached at the dedication of the church on 4th September 1860. Belmont was instrumental to the reintroduction of Gregorian Chant to Britain and for 60 years was the only cathedral in the world where the Chant was sung every day at Mass and Divine Office. Also of note is the fact that many “Belmont men”, such as Dom Bede Vaughan, took an important role in the Church’s mission to Australia.
A new chapter in the life of the community began with independence, first as a Priory in 1915, then as an Abbey in 1920. Dom Aelred Kindersley, last of the Cathedral Priors, was elected first Abbot of Belmont. The community grew quickly, but was desperately poor, for although Belmont was a foundation of the English Congregation as a whole, it was never endowed or provided with a means of self support. Individual monks were loaned to the other houses to serve on their incorporated parishes. It was not until 1926 that a small school was opened, the founder not wishing Belmont to have a school, but to dedicate itself to the evangelization of Wales and Herefordshire. The first incorporated parishes were taken on in 1934. In addition to training its own men, Belmont also trained priests for the Archdiocese of Cardiff. Archbishop Michael McGrath continued the tradition of ordinations at Belmont well into the 1940s. There have always been and continue to be close relations between Belmont and the Archdiocese.
Eventually the school at Belmont grew to around three hundred and there were two prep schools. They were well known for their high academic standards and for their sporting, artistic, musical and theatrical endeavours. Sadly economic difficulties led to their closure, but Belmont continues to be involved in education through its parish schools and through the successful education programme whereby schools from the West Midlands and Wales visit the abbey as part of their curriculum.
One of our monks, Dom Aelred Cousins, helped found the Monastery of Christ the King at Tororo in Uganda, today a flourishing community. In 1981 Belmont made a foundation in Peru, originally near Tambogrande in the north and now at Pachacamac just south of Lima. The Monastery of the Incarnation continues to grow in spite of the many hardships and difficulties inherent in any monastic foundation. There are strong links between Belmont and Peru, where an extraordinary amount of pastoral, educational and social work has been undertaken and supported.
Today the Community numbers about 45. There is an extensive retreat programme and excellent guest facilities at Hedley Lodge. Belmont has pastoral care of fourteen parishes and several chaplaincies. God continues to bless us with vocations. There are seven young monks in formation at Belmont and six in Peru. Recently, with the help of a grant from the Heritage Lottery Fund, we completed important repair work to the abbey church as well as building new facilities. We are also undertaking, with the help of benefactors, the renovation and improvement of the great organ in memory of Abbot Alan Rees. The Community invites you to join with us in giving thanks to God for his many blessings to Belmont over the past 150 years. May we continue to be faithful to his call and ever ready to do his will.
All of us are familiar with the forty-day fast before we celebrate the Feast of the Resurrection of
our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ (Pascha). This is called the Great Fast (Lent). However, in the Church
there are three other seasons of fasting, namely, the Apostles Fast (Before the Feast of Ss. Peter and Paul); the Dormition of Our Lady or Spasa Fast (August 1-15); and the Fast of St. Philip before the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord
(Christmas).
The Fast of St. Philip or the Nativity Fast is comparable to the Advent season in the Western
Church. Advent means “coming.” In the Western Church, the faithful await the coming of Jesus at
Christmas. We, on the other hand, call this preparatory period before Christmas the Fast of St. Philip or the
Nativity Fast rather than Advent since we realize that Jesus is already with us. “Lo, I am with you always
until the end of time.” We prepare for His Birth by making ourselves aware of His presence rather than
waiting for Him to come.
History of the Fast
Before we can consider the history of the Fast, we must remember that the Feast of the Nativity of
our Lord (Christmas) is not as ancient as the Feast of Pascha. The early Church celebrated both Christ’s
Birth and His Baptism (the Incarnation and Theophany) as a single feast on January 6. The celebration of Christmas being separated from His Baptism cannot be ascertained before the middle of the fourth century. We know that the feast of the Nativity of our Lord and Savior was first celebrated separately from the feast of the Theophany on December 25, 336 in Rome and that St. Gregory Nazianzus introduced this separate feast in Constantinople sometime between 379-388
A.D.
We also know that when St. Gregory left Constantinople, the celebration of Christ’s birth as a
separate feast was neglected and it was not reinstated until 395 by Emperor Honorius. Through the sermons
of St. John Chrysostom, we can ascertain that he introduced this separate feast in the Church in Antioch
around 380 and this was done in imitation of the Church in Rome.
Eventually, the Feast of the Nativity of our Lord began to be celebrated universally in the Church
on December 25 and the feast of the Theophany on January 6.
With the introduction of this feast, there was already a mention of the need for a preparatory
period before celebrating Christmas at the Council of Saragossa in 380. The Church fathers stated that
every Christian should go to Church daily from December 17 until the Feast of the Theophany on January
6. In 581, the Synod of Mac in present day France decreed that the fast should begin on November 11 (the
Feast of St. Martin of Tours in the Western Church) and last until December 24 and that every Christian
should fast three times a week, namely, on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. They called this preparatory
season the Fast of St. Martin. Even in the twelfth century the famous Byzantine canonist Balsamon
expressed the opinion that it would be enough for the Christian to fast only one week before Christmas.
Scholars also do not agree about the exact time when the preparatory period was developed in the
Eastern Churches. Some claim it was as early as the sixth century, others believe it was developed in the
seventh or eighth century. Even then, it was not until 1166, at the Council of Constantinople, that it was
decreed that there would be a fast of forty days, beginning on November 15 and lasting until the Divine
Liturgy on Christmas Day. Through this fast, called the Fast of St. Philip (since it begins the day after the
Feast of St. Philip) the Church would be properly prepared for a worthy celebration of the Birth of Christ.
The Ancient Fast
The regulations for the Fast of St. Philip, probably formulated by the monastics, were based on the
Great Fast (Lent) before Pascha but were not as strict: no meat was to be eaten during this fast; Mondays,
Wednesdays and Fridays were days of strict fast; on Tuesdays and Thursdays, one was allowed olive oil
and wine (alcoholic beverages), but no fish. If a feast, a prefestive or a postfestive day fell on a Monday,
Tuesday or Thursday, fish was allowed, but if the feast fell on a Wednesday or Friday, only olive oil and
wine were allowed. On weekends and certain great feasts, fish, oil and wine were allowed. However,
during the Prefestive period of Christmas (December 20-24), no fish was allowed and Christmas Eve was always a day of strict fast. If November 15 fell on a Saturday, the fast began the preceding day (November 14) and if it fell on a Sunday, the Fast began on Monday in honor of St. John Chrysostom.
The Fast began with the celebration of Vespers on November 14 in the evening and was similar to
Vespers beginning the Great Fast. Great Prostrations were made during the service and the Prayer of St.
Ephraim was recited. At Matins on the first day of the fast, as well as on all weekdays not having a feast,
Alleluia was sung in place of “God is the Lord.” At the recitation of the Hours, the Penitential Hymns were
taken in place of the regular troparia and kontakia. Great Prostrations were made at all the services on
weekdays. The Divine Liturgy was not to be celebrated on the first day of the fast or on any of the
“Alleluia” days. The Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts is only celebrated during the Great Fast (Lent).
Disagreements arose regarding the fasting regulations at the very onset.
Some said that they were monastic rules and that they should not bind the faithful. The bishops tended to agree. They decreed that the regulations were the ideal and that the faithful, if they so desired, we are allowed to eat fish throughout the entire fast but meat was still forbidden. They stated that the regulations applied only to the priests and monks. Later, it was then stated that these fasting regulations applied only to monks. Apart from the first day of the fast and on the Friday before Christmas if the feast fell on a Saturday or Sunday, the celebration of the Divine Liturgy on weekdays was also allowed in parish
churches except in the Cathedral parish and in monasteries.
The Fast Today
We have seen in the history of this Fast how over the centuries our observance of the Fast of St.
Philip has changed. Today it is still a penitential season similar to Lent, but in practice, its observance has
gradually almost fallen away completely.
Every year Bishop Robert writes a letter to the faithful about the Fast of St. Philip. How can we
today observe this Fast? First it must be said that today there are no particular penitential acts required by
law. By tradition, the first day of the Fast, Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are observed by abstinence
from certain foods. Christmas Eve is still a day of strict fast except if it falls on a Saturday or Sunday.
Therefore, in order to prepare ourselves for Christ’s Birth, Baptism and the beginning of His
public ministry, a spirit of the fast is recommended. On one or more of the traditional days of fasting why
not try to abstain from foods that you find extremely pleasing to taste or from excessive eating? Why not
set aside meat or dessert on these days? Look at the Fast of St. Philip as an invitation to humble ourselves
in some small way in imitation of Christ who “made Himself poor though He was rich, so that you might
become rich by His poverty” (1 Corinthians 8:9).
St. Paul also reminds us that “the Kingdom of God is not food and drink, but righteousness and
peace and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 14:17). Thus, our preparation during the Fast of St. Philip is
more than just abstinence. Make more time for prayer and acts of charity. Visit the sick, do acts of kindness
towards your neighbors, help those who are in need of your assistance, make more time for your family.
The possibilities are endless.
As St. John Chrysostom said:
Let the hands fast, by being free from avarice.
Let the feet fast, by ceasing to run after sin.
Let the eyes fast, by disciplining them not to glare at that which is sinful.
Let the ears fast, by not listening to evil talk and gossip.
Let the mouth fast from foul words and unjust criticism.
For what good is it if we abstain from birds and fishes, but bite and devour our brothers?
Here is a short account of Gertrud von le Fort's life:
Baroness Gertrude von Lefort (1876–1971) is the author of over 20 books (poems, novels and short stories), honorary Doctor of Theology and «the greatest contemporary transcendent poet». Her works are appreciated for their breath-taking profoundness and virtuosity, beauty and actuality of her ideas, and for the sophisticated refinement of the form. Hermann Hesse, who evaluated her talent, proposed her as a candidate for the Nobel Prize.
Von le Fort was born in Westphalia, Germany, and studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Berlin. A Protestant of Huguenot descent, von le Fort converted early to Catholicism.
Her novel Die Letze am Schafott (The Last or Song at the Scaffold), by far her most famous work, was the basis for Dialogues of the Carmelites. Set during the time........... of the French Revolution, the von le Fort novel tells the story of a troubled, frightened, and strange girl, Blanche de la Force, who has lived in fear from the moment of her birth. To overcome her affliction, she decides to become a nun of Carmel. Little does she know that she is no safer from fear at this convent than in the secular world.
The character of Blanche was von le Fort’s creation, but the other nuns in the story historical figures. Notice the similarity of "von le Fort" to "de la Force." This was no coincidence: much of Gertrud von le Fort’s inspiration for her novel came from her own experiences during World War II and her hatred of Nazism.
She recorded the origin of her 1931 novel: " The point of departure for my creation was not primarily the destiny of the sixteen Carmelites of Compiègne but the figure of the young Blanche. In a historic sense she never lived, but she received the breath of life from my internal spirit, and she cannot be detached from the origin, which is hers. Born in the profound horror of a time darkened by the signs of destiny, this figure arose before me in some way as the embodiment of the mortal agony of an era going totally to its ruin."
Interview With Orthodox Monk on Old and New Challenges
By Antonio Gaspari
ROME, NOV. 5, 2009 (Zenit.org).- Having survived Soviet Communism, Russian Orthodox monasticism now faces the new threat of secularization as it passes through a period of testing that only time can heal.
Father Petr Mescerinov expressed these ideas as he discussed with ZENIT the new and enduring challenges of Russian monasticism. The hegumen (a title similar to abbot) of the St. Daniil Monastery of Moscow was in Italy for a conference on Eastern and Western monasticism.
Father Mescerinov is vice-director of the Center for the Spiritual Formation of Children and Adolescents of the Moscow Patriarchate.
ZENIT: How important is contemplation and action in Eastern monasticism?
Father Mescerinov: I can speak of Russian monasticism. Already from ancient times, by tradition, we have two different monastic ways connected to two Russian saints: St. Nil of Sora and St. Joseph of Volokolamsk. They were contemporaries and argued vehemently, even among themselves.
Those were very profound diatribes, rather complex disputes, and I could summarize thus, briefly, the currents that the two saints advocated: Nil of Sora defended the contemplative dimension, whereas Joseph of Volokolamsk defended the active dimension.
It cannot be said that these two aspects are in contradiction to one another, because in regard to the contemplative dimension, we see its influence also in Russian cultural life, in literature, in the rediscovery of the Church Fathers. On the other hand, if we take St. Joseph Volokolamsk's more active current, more involved with the social [realm], we can observe that with his action he did not intend to replace the state, but remained firm in his adherence to his own contemplative roots.
To conclude, we can say that there is no real contradiction between the two dimensions.
Already St. Macarius the Great said that each monk has his specific vocation, his specific activity; therefore, those who contemplate should not judge those who serve and vice versa, those who serve should not judge those given to the contemplative life, because they are profoundly linked with one another and together constitute the true Christian monastic community.
ZENIT: Who are the martyrs of Russian monasticism? How many are there?
Father Mescerinov: In regard to Russian monasticism, we can speak above all of the new martyrs of the 20th century. Many have been canonized and many others are yet to be canonized, but the massive closure of monasteries in the Soviet age attests that the monks gave their life to defend the monastic ideal.
ZENIT: In face of the rapid and uncontrolled race of modernity, how are Russian monastic communities reacting?
Father Mescerinov: The monastic communities are reacting in two different ways. To answer this question it is necessary to keep in mind that the Russian monastic tradition was violently interrupted during the Soviet period, and because of this, Russian monasticism today is in fact looking for an answer to this question.
For the time being, no answer has been found, so there are two variants: either a radical separation and self-exclusion from the world, which is not the healthy "leaving the world," which was understood in the past when thinking of monasticism, but a maniacal way to protect oneself from the aggression of the world. [And] the second variant is linked to secularization, declaring oneself exteriorly to be a monk, but in reality one is inserted in the course of the secular life of everyone.
This moment of testing has not yet found an answer in the life of the Church. In my personal opinion, I think the community must certainly protect itself from certain phenomena of the modern world, but this protection must happen in a sober, appropriate, healthy and ecclesial way, and not in an asocial way.
ZENIT: What is the reality of these communities today?
Father Mescerinov: The principal tragedy of our ecclesial life today is the absolute lack of community. There are communities that are born in contrast to the position of the Church in a general sense; however, there are no communities as such as a norm of community life.
This is linked no doubt to the Soviet legacy, because in that period every aggregation was regarded with suspicion and in danger of being repressed; in fact, an anti-solidary instinct has been created in the very conscience of many generations of persons.
When people enter the Church today, educated according to this mentality, it is very difficult [for them] to feel and even to understand that it is a Christian community, because any form of aggregation suffers the influence of Soviet collectivism, whereas the Christian community and Soviet collectivism are two things that have nothing to do with one another.
Because of this, Russians today do not have a predisposition to community life, and this is also reflected in monastic life. We do not have true communities and our own monastic communities; we have formally organized monasteries, there are some monks, some individuals alone with a straight and sincere vocation, but they are not able to insert themselves well in the community.
This is no doubt a task for the future, or perhaps our ecclesial and social life has arrived at a point of no return in which it is practically impossible to return to genuine solidarity. But the future will show this.
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"Most Holy Father, in This Era of Irrational Barbarism..."
An appeal to Benedict XVI "for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred art." The main signatory is the great German writer Martin Mosebach. And in the meantime, the meeting between the pope and artists in the Sistine Chapel is drawing near
by Sandro Magister
ROME, November 5, 2009 – A few days before the meeting announced for November 21 between the pope and artists in the Sistine Chapel, an appeal anticipating its principal motivation has already come to Benedict XVI's desk.
The appeal is "for the return to an authentically Catholic sacred art," and was signed not by artists, but by scholars and other figures who are passionately concerned, for various reasons, about the fate of Christian art. Two names stand out above all: Martin Mosebach, and Enrico Maria Radaelli.
Mosebach is an established German writer whom Joseph Ratzinger knows well. His latest book: "The heresy of the shapeless. The Roman liturgy and its enemy" was published this year, including an Italian edition by Cantagalli. And it is a stunning apologia on behalf of great Christian art, and more than that, of the Catholic liturgy itself as art. With biting invective against the iconoclasm that reigns today within the Catholic Church itself.
Radaelli, a disciple of the great Catholic philosopher and philologist Romano Amerio, is a sophisticated scholar of theological aesthetics. His masterpiece is: "Ingresso alla bellezza [Entryway to beauty]," released in 2008, a magnificent introduction into the mystery of God through his "Imago," which is Christ. Beauty as the manifestation of the truth.
The appeal was born from seminars held in recent months in the library of the pontifical commission for the cultural heritage of the Church, hosted by the vice-president of this Vatican commission, Benedictine abbot Michael J. Zielinski. Active participants in the meetings included Fr. Nicola Bux and Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, consultants for the office of papal liturgical celebrations. Fr. Lang is also an official at the congregation for divine worship. But no clergyman figures among the promoters of the appeal, not to mention any Vatican official. The signatories are laymen, of various competencies and professions.
After a brief introduction, the test unfolds in seven small chapters dedicated to the causes of the current fracture between the Church and art, to theological references, to the commission, to the artists, to the sacred space, to sacred music, to the liturgy.
And it ends with the appeal itself, which is formulated in this way:
"For all the reasons set out above, we are eager to receive from Your Holiness a fatherly listening and the merciful attention of the Vicar of Christ. We beseech you, Holy Father, to read in our heartfelt appeal our most pressing concern for the appalling conditions of contemporary sacred art and sacred architecture, as well as a modest and most humble request for your help so that sacred art and architecture can once again be truly Catholic. This so that the faithful can again enjoy the sense of wonder and rejoice once again at the presence of the beauty in God's House. This so that the Church can be once more regain her rightful place, in this era of irrational, mundane and malforming barbarism, as a true and attentive promoter and custodian of an art that is both new and truly "original": an art that today as always flowers in every age of progress, which reflowers from its ancient roots and eternal origin, faithful to the most intimate sense of Beauty that shines in the Truth of Christ."
The complete text with the list of signatories can be read, in multiple languages, on the website created for this purpose:
> Appeal to His Holiness Pope Benedict XVI for an authentically Catholic sacred art
The following is a sample chapter:
VI. SACRED MUSIC AND LITURGICAL CHANT
Holy Father, the Church has today the opportunity to regain his "highly" role in the magisterium of music, mainly in the field of sacred music and liturgical chant, which must necessarily respond to the categories of "good" and "right" for their intimate connection, not just correspondence, with the liturgy itself (Paul VI, Address to the singers of the papal chapel, March 12th, 1964).
In the ancient history of Christianity the dialectical relationship between sacred music and secular music has produced many times the intervention of the Church to "clean up the building of the Roman liturgy" (a term explicitly used by many popes) from the secularist intrusions that the music itself lead in the temple and that, over the centuries and the gradual technical and musical development, have become increasingly severe and spill-over from the proper liturgical use, ending often in the assumption of roles of self-referencing or profane nature.
From the time of the Const. Ap. “Docta Sanctorum” issued by Pope John XXII (1324), the magisterium has always indicated the righteous ways of understanding music in the service of worship, gradually adopting new techniques compatible with the liturgy, but always and consistently pointing up to the present day (including the magisterium of Vatican II and the entire post Vatican II period) in the Gregorian chant, the primal root, the source of constant inspiration, the highest – because it’s simply the most noble – form of music that can perfectly embody the Catholic liturgical ideal also by virtue of its anonymity and its meta-historical true aesthetical, verbal and sensitive universality.
We cannot now definitely establish musical forms and styles a priori, but the
recovery of Gregorian chant, good polyphonic and organ music (even inspired by the Gregorian), – ancient, modern and contemporary – would certainly, after decades of absolute shock and “probability” in music, recall the liturgical "words" that the Catholic tradition in art and music has given us for centuries: they have worked – using a representative expression of Pope Paul VI in the Enc. "Mysterium Fidei" – as real "tiles of the Catholic Faith", which was always founded on sensible data, endowed with truth and beauty; and always devoid of sterile and mannered or archaeological intellectualism, to be avoided with care (as indicated by Pope Pius XII in Enc. “Mediator Dei” that introduced the liturgical reform of the late twentieth century.
Maybe in the arts devoted to the service of worship, music is the strongest, for that constant "catechetical" meaning which the magisterium has constantly recognized, and also the more delicate because, by its nature and unlike the other arts, requires a tertium medium between the author and the viewer, or the interpreter. For this reason the Catholic Church should take better care of the music than of other arts and should, as happened in the past, urge the education of both authors and interpreters: for sure today the effort is much more difficult than in Middle Age, Baroque period or in the XIX century, since the actual society is completely secularized. However today is needed a clear knowledge of the fundamentals so that the musicians – once endowed with the needed expertise – can recover the "sensus ecclesiæ" together with the "sensus fidei".
___________
And about the meeting between the pope and artists...
The announced meeting between Benedict XVI and artists will take place the morning of Saturday, November 21, 2009, in the Sistine Chapel.
The program of the meeting will be as follows. After a musical prelude, Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the pontifical council for culture, will extend a greeting to those present in the name of the pope. Then a few passages will be read from the “Letter to Artists” by John Paul II, from April 4, 1999. Finally, pope Joseph Ratzinger will give his address. A second musical performance will close the meeting.
The Sistine Chapel is modest in size, so there will be at most five hundred artists present, from all over the world and from all disciplines: painters and sculptors, architects, writers and poets, musicians and singers, men of the cinema, the theater, dance, photography. The invitations were arranged by the pontifical council for culture.
In addition to the letter from John Paul II in 1999, another important precedent comes from forty-five years ago. It is the meeting between Paul VI and artists on May 7, 1964, which also took place in the Sistine Chapel.
The motivation for the new meeting is that “for some time the alliance between the Christian faith and the arts has been broken.” This is how Archbishop Ravasi spoke in announcing the event last September 10.
The alliance between faith and art is inseparable from the Church’s identity. Judaism prohibited sacred images. But faith in the incarnate God quickly prompted the Church to take Greek and Roman art as its own figurative language.
This genial marriage between the Church and art has periodically met with iconoclastic opposition. In the first millennium in the East, and in the second millennium in the West, first with Protestantism and today with the general anti-figurative tendency, not only in art but also in ecclesiastical patronage.
By meeting with artists in that supreme place of Christian art which is the Sistine Chapel, Benedict XVI intends precisely to arrest that decline and restart a dialogue, in the hope that a fruitful alliance between art and the Church may reemerge.
At a time when “in vast areas of the world the faith is in danger of dying out like a flame which no longer has fuel,” pope Ratzinger may be thinking of what Saint John Damascene said in the thick of the iconoclast storm:
“If a pagan comes and says to you, “Show me your faith!”, bring him to church and show him the decoration with which it is adorned, and explain to him the series of sacred paintings.”
___________
The twofold official presentation of the meeting on November 21 between Benedict XVI and artists, made in two installments by Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi, president of the pontifical council for culture, and by Professor Antonio Paolucci, director of the Vatican Museums:
Not in a concert, but in a Mass. It will be conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the most brilliant interpreter of Palestrina's music alive today. He was removed as head of the Sistine Chapel choir twelve years ago, but now, with Pope Benedict, has finally been rehabilitated
by Sandro Magister
ROME, November 16, 2009 – Among the arts to be represented in the Sistine Chapel next Saturday, November 21, at the highly anticipated meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, music is perhaps the one that has suffered the most from the divorce that has taken place between artists and the Church.
The distress in music has been the first to afflict the Church. Because while the masterpieces of Christian painting, sculpture, and architecture still remain accessible to all, even if they are ignored and misunderstood, great music literally disappears from the churches if no one performs it anymore.
And one can effectively speak of an almost generalized disappearance when it comes to those treasures of Latin liturgical music that are Gregorian chant, polyphony, the organ.
Fortunately, however, during the same days when pope Joseph Ratzinger will be seeking to reestablish a fruitful relationship with art, the organ and great polyphonic music will return to give the best of themselves in the basilicas of Rome.
They will again be heard not only in the form of a concert, but also in the living environment of liturgical action.
The culmination will be on Thursday, November 19, at the hour of evening when the setting sun blazes through the apse of Saint Peter's. That evening, making his solemn return to the basilica to conduct a sung Mass, will be the greatest living interpreter of the Roman school of polyphony, the one that has come down from Giovanni Pierluigi of Palestrina – whom Giuseppe Verdi called the "everlasting father" of Western music – to our own day.
This interpreter of undisputed greatness is Domenico Bartolucci, for decades the "permanent maestro" of the Sistine Chapel choir, the pope's choir, and now, at age 93, still a miraculously adept director of Palestrina.
Bartolucci is a living witness of the elimination of liturgical music from the West, but also of its possible rebirth. The last time he conducted a complete Mass by Palestrina at Saint Peter's was all the way back in 1963. The last time he conducted the Sistine Chapel choir was in 1997. That year he was brutally dismissed, and without him the choir fell into a sorry state.
But now comes its return – powerfully symbolic – to the basilica built over the tomb of the prince of the apostles.
At the Mass on November 19 at Saint Peter's, Bartolucci will not conduct Palestrina, but his own polyphonic compositions, in alternation with Gregorian chants from the Mass "De Angelis." And with that, he will show how it is possible to cherish the best of the Latin musical tradition even within the canons of the modern post-conciliar liturgy: just what Pope Benedict wants, as a profound theologian of the liturgy and a music connoisseur. Naturally, Bartolucci's secret dream is to return at last to conduct the emblematic "Pope Marcellus Mass" by Palestrina, as a Mass celebrated by Benedict XVI at Saint Peter's.
The anticipation that these signs will soon be followed by a change of the conductor of the Sistine Chapel choir will become more impatient from this point forward.
***
The context within which Bartolucci will return to conduct a Mass at Saint Peter's is that of the International Festival of Sacred Music and Art, which is held each fall in the basilicas of Rome, and is marking its eighth edition this year.
The program this year has two focal points: Roman polyphony, and organ music.
The inauguration will be on Wednesday, November 18, in the basilica of Saint John Lateran, with a concert in the spirit of Palestrina, conducted by Bartolucci himself.
Another event in the spirit of the Roman school of polyphony, in a modern reinterpretation, will be the oratory "Paolo e Fruttuoso," composed and conducted by Valentino Miserachs Grau, conductor of the choir of the basilica of Saint Mary Major and head of the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music, the Vatican's "conservatory."
The second focal point will be the organ. The Fondazione Pro Musica e Arte Sacra has completed the restoration of the huge Tamburini organ of the Roman basilica of Saint Ignatius of Loyola. Its inauguration will involve a series of four concerts performed by the organists who supervised the restoration – Goettsche, Paradell, and Piermarini – and by other world famous organ virtuosos like Leo Krämer and Johannes Skudlik.
The organ is the main instrument of liturgical music, which unforgivably has been overlooked despite the fact that it is present in countless churches. But non-liturgical music will also be included in the program, with works by Mendelssohn, Mozart, Schubert. On November 20, the octet of strings and woodwinds of the Wiener Philarmoniker will perform Schubert's sublime Octet in F Major in the basilica of Saint Mary Major.
The Wiener Philarmoniker is a constant presence at the Festival of Sacred Art and Music. Of all the major orchestras of the world, it is the one in which sacred and profane music are most closely intertwined.
For the next edition of the festival, the Wiener Philarmoniker has already agreed to perform Bruckner's ninth symphony and a selection from Wagner's "Tristan und Isolde" in the Roman basilica of Saint Paul's Outside the Walls, on October 26, 2010.
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The detailed program of the concerts at the basilicas of Rome:
The three most recent CD's he has recorded (the third is about to be released), with a cappella music for choir by Palestrina, Victoria, Lasso, Morales, and Bartolucci himself:
