Wednesday, June 28
This just in!
Pope wants guitars silenced during mass
VATICAN CITY, June 27 (UPI) -- Pope Benedict XVI is calling for an end to guitars and a return to traditional choirs in the Catholic Church.
The recital of mass set to guitars has grown in popularity in Italy and in Spain it has been set to flamenco music, the London Telegraph reported.
"It is possible to modernize holy music," the Pope said, at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci, the director of music at the Sistine Chapel. "But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."
The Pope's supporters say that the music played during mass is a vital part of the communion between worshippers and God, and that medieval church music creates the correct ambience for perceiving God's mystery, the newspaper said.
But Cardinal Carlo Furno, grand master of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem, said it was "better to have guitars on the altar and rock and roll masses than empty churches."
(HT to my Dad, who emailed this over)
![[SMMMHDH]](http://www.mgilleland.com/music/smmmhdh.png){kind=small}
