by Frank Klose
One reason Pope Francis has captured the hearts of so many is his approach to moral issues. Instead of hammering doctrine, Pope Francis seeks to transform the hearts of believers, giving them the tools to make sound moral judgments. In this way, he empowers Catholics to take responsibility by helping them take on those virtues and habits that will lead to that which is already doctrine.
Pope Francis famously (or infamously, to some) cautioned that an obsession with issues such as abortion cannot be the only focus of the faith. He also addressed the mentality that leads people to have an abortion:
Pope Francis characterized abortion as a product of a “widespread mentality of profit, the ‘throwaway culture,’ which has today enslaved the hearts and minds of so many.”
So, I must ask: have we succumbed to this “throwaway culture” in our worship?
Back in April 1977, Omer Westendorf wrote in Hymn magazine (accessed via Donald Boccardi’s The History of Hymnals Since Vatican II) that the use of throwaway resources contributed to a throwaway culture that detracts from the faith:
The very concept of throwaway hymns and throwaway scriptures tends to reinforce their feelings of insecurity, of unending changes of a faith in a permanent state of flux.
Boccardi points out that environmental concerts, the waste of natural resources and money were among Westendorf’s further concerns:
If a year’s supply of missaelettes were bound into a hard cover book, each church would be throwing away each year huge quantities of hymn books yearly twice the size of the average Protestant hymnal. In a time of universal ecological crisis, of drastic fuel and energy shortages, the Catholic churches across the nation are disdainfully throwing into the trash heap nearly 7 million copies of these missalettes every month, or 84 million every year.
Thirty three years later we are still in a time of ecological crisis. One particular publisher reportedly distributes 4.3 million “missalettes” four times a year. The company Westendorf himself founded distributes multiple missals of the “throwaway” variety. Both the company I could find some data for and Westendorf’s company also sell permanent hymnals with a full three-year cycle of lectionary readings and psalms.
I will be the first to admit: I am very likely to use a disposable plate or cup over a reusable one for the convenience of throwing it into a trash can instead of washing it. I agree that it is also much more convenient to have a dated and updated worship aid in my hand over a permanent hymnal. But in doing so, we have succumbed to the “throwaway” culture.
While publishers have indeed taken steps such as using recycled paper to mitigate the environmental blow, we could be doing more. By choosing permanent resources for worship, we can help transform the mindset that Pope Francis is wary of: that everything is temporary and disposable. This is just one small step in negating a “throwaway” culture, but our worship space is a good place to start.
Dr. Francis X. Klose is a parish music director and college professor in Philadelphia, PA. Frank recently completed a doctoral degree from Drew University, where his dissertation focused on liturgical music in the United States since the Second Vatican Council.
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