Vatican Radio published a short report in English<\/a>.<\/p>\nAs a quick reaction I want to mention some observations I made when reading the address.<\/p>\n
First of all: It is a typical short, solemn, and diplomatic speech, so maybe one should neither expect too much from it nor read too much into it.<\/p>\n
Nevertheless there were three aspects that caught my eye:<\/p>\n
Francis refers to Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/i> 8 (not 5, as the Vatican website says) and 113 when he states that music makes the liturgy more “noble”\u00a0(pi\u00f9 nobile)<\/em> and a more adequate expression and experience of the heavenly liturgy. While Francis praises the introduction of the vernacular languages into the liturgy, he also says that this development sometimes led into “banality”\u00a0(banalit\u00e0)<\/em>. Although not cited in the text, this reminds me of Sacrosanctum Concilium<\/i> 34 where the Council declares “noble simplicity” as a principle for the renewal of the Roman liturgy. I cannot exactly define what noble simplicity is. But I think it is a very good verbal approach to a central aesthetic principle of Roman liturgy in contrast to Eastern liturgies. The latter can be described by principles like abundance, repetition, or redundancy (which I do not mean in a negative sense here). My conviction is that whenever you take the nobility out of the noble simplicity, you do not get simplicity, but banality. Maybe that is what Francis means as well, although I admit that nobility, simplicity, and banality are hard to define and to identify in an individual case.<\/p>\nSecondly, Francis demands good musical formation not only for composers, musicians, and singers, but also for priests. As far as I can see, musical formation for priests (and deacons and laypersons who are authorized to preside over public services) is not at all beyond questioning, not even when they work full-time in their ministries. How are bishops or heads of theological departments going to react when I base myself on papal authority in my request for more musical and aesthetic formation for students?<\/p>\n
Finally, Francis expects an ecumenical attitude in all musical efforts. Does that mean that Catholics are supposed to introduce music from other denominations into their liturgy? Should musical formation happen ecumenically, with students from different churches brought together? Should new liturgical music be generated by groups of composers and writers from different churches? We all know that since Vatican II everything in the Catholic Church has to be done in an ecumenical attitude, but I am not sure what Francis has in mind in this very case \u2013 or is it just a diplomatic phrase with respect to Vatican II and probably non-Catholic participants at the congress?<\/p>\n
Of course there are other interesting aspects in Francis\u2019 address, but these three caught my eye the most.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Some brief comments on Pope Francis\u2019 address to the participants of a congress on liturgical music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":65,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3116,13,20,25,2224],"tags":[2056,3021,2263],"class_list":["post-35812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news-new-ws","category-ecumenism","category-music-general","category-ordained-ministry","category-pope-francis","tag-liturgical-music","tag-pope-francis","tag-re-reading-sacrosanctum-concilium"],"yoast_head":"\n
Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Some brief comments on Pope Francis\u2019 address to the participants of a congress on liturgical music.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Home\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"411\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"90\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Liborius Lumma\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Liborius Lumma\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Liborius Lumma\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/056ff45a7a243849e2626c7bd910d876\"},\"headline\":\"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":509,\"commentCount\":23,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"Liturgical Music\",\"Pope Francis\",\"Re-Reading Sacrosanctum Concilium\"],\"articleSection\":[\"1_NEWS\",\"Ecumenism\",\"Music: General\",\"Ordained Ministry\",\"Pope Francis\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/\",\"name\":\"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/2017\\\/03\\\/04\\\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"description\":\"Worship, Wit & Wisdom\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Home\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2023\\\/09\\\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg\",\"width\":1340,\"height\":209,\"caption\":\"Home\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/logo\\\/image\\\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/056ff45a7a243849e2626c7bd910d876\",\"name\":\"Liborius Lumma\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2025\\\/04\\\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1\",\"caption\":\"Liborius Lumma\"},\"description\":\"Liborius Olaf Lumma studied theology and philosophy in Munster (Germany), Munich (Germany), and Innsbruck (Austria). He was assistant professor in Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at Innsbruck University from 2006 to 2024, in 2024 he became full professor. His major research fields are Gregorian Chant, Liturgy of the Hours, and Ecumenical Theology. He is a member of the Ecumenical Commission of the Austrian Bishops\u2019 conference and board member of the German section of the International Association for Studies of Gregorian Chant (AISCGre).\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/bibhist.uibk.ac.at\\\/lumma\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/praytellblog.com\\\/index.php\\\/author\\\/llumma\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home","og_description":"Some brief comments on Pope Francis\u2019 address to the participants of a congress on liturgical music.","og_url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/","og_site_name":"Home","article_published_time":"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":411,"height":90,"url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/pt.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Liborius Lumma","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Liborius Lumma","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/"},"author":{"name":"Liborius Lumma","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/056ff45a7a243849e2626c7bd910d876"},"headline":"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music","datePublished":"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/"},"wordCount":509,"commentCount":23,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["Liturgical Music","Pope Francis","Re-Reading Sacrosanctum Concilium"],"articleSection":["1_NEWS","Ecumenism","Music: General","Ordained Ministry","Pope Francis"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/","name":"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music - Home","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2017-03-04T19:31:16+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2017\/03\/04\/breaking-news-pope-francis-on-liturgical-music\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Breaking News: Pope Francis on Liturgical Music"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","name":"Home","description":"Worship, Wit & Wisdom","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#organization","name":"Home","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/cropped-BlogHeaderFinal2.jpg","width":1340,"height":209,"caption":"Home"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/#\/schema\/person\/056ff45a7a243849e2626c7bd910d876","name":"Liborius Lumma","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1","url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/lumma-96x96.jpg?crop=1","caption":"Liborius Lumma"},"description":"Liborius Olaf Lumma studied theology and philosophy in Munster (Germany), Munich (Germany), and Innsbruck (Austria). He was assistant professor in Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at Innsbruck University from 2006 to 2024, in 2024 he became full professor. His major research fields are Gregorian Chant, Liturgy of the Hours, and Ecumenical Theology. He is a member of the Ecumenical Commission of the Austrian Bishops\u2019 conference and board member of the German section of the International Association for Studies of Gregorian Chant (AISCGre).","sameAs":["http:\/\/bibhist.uibk.ac.at\/lumma"],"url":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/author\/llumma\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/65"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35812"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35812\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":35815,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35812\/revisions\/35815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}