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Home > World Youth Day > Article
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Chant the ‘essence of tradition’
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| By Sharyn Marchant
6 July, 2008 |
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| The Juventutem group outside St Augustine’s ... tuning up for July 16. |
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Gregorian chant will have the Pope’s blessing when it is performed at WYD08 this July, following Pope Benedict’s encouragement of the style of choral worship.
The endorsement is a major milestone for Juventutem, a youth group which celebrates the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite.
From the Latin word for “youth”, Juventutem is a movement dedicated to helping Catholics and non-Catholics alike discover faith through liturgical expression.
While still in its infancy, Juventutem hopes to provide pilgrims with the essence of the traditional liturgy.
“They will be better able to go forth into the world to bear witness to the light and truth of the Holy Spirit,” according to Tara Peters.
Tara, 24, is an associate of the Juventutem Australia committee and was also the Juventutem lay co-ordinator at WYD 2005.
“These expressions of faith are no longer the exclusive property of those who can recall their last vestiges in the time before the Second Vatican Council, for a growing number of younger Catholics have also embraced them with all the joy of their youth.”
The main Juventutem event will be held on July 16 at St Augustine’s Church, Balmain.
The day will start with catechesis at 9am and a Solemn Pontifical Mass in Latin at 11am celebrated by the Bishop of Lismore, Bishop Geoffrey Jarrett.
US chant expert Scott Turkington will teach a Gregorian chant class from 2pm, and the group will then sing Solemn Pontifical Vespers and Benediction with Cardinal George Pell and the Good Shepherd seminarians at 4pm.
Later that evening, Cardinal Francis George of Chicago will pray 20 decades of the rosary in a Vigil for the Holy Father’s intentions and will give a short homily on each set of Mysteries of the Rosary.
The day will be the culmination of weeks of hard work for 30 Sydney people who have been learning Gregorian chant with David Molloy at Balmain in the lead-up to the event.
Organisers hope WYD08 will spark enough interest to start a Sydney Gregorian chant school to teach sacred music on a larger scale.
“Pope Pius X in his famous motu proprio on Sacred Music written in 1903 requested that higher institutions of sacred music be established for the proper teaching of sacred music,” David said.
“This request was again reiterated by the Second Vatican Council in the 1960s. It has been taken seriously in some other countries.
“In Austria, each diocese has its own church-run conservatorium of music to teach liturgical music. In Germany there are several church music schools, Paris has its Gregorian Institute and the Schola Cantorum; in the US, courses are taught at places such as the Catholic University of America, and Rome has the Pontifical Institute of Sacred Music.
“Australia doesn’t have similar schools. Perhaps it’s time to take this very seriously and establish schools of liturgical music.
“Perhaps such schools could be attached to seminaries, Catholic universities or other established Catholic institutions.”
For more information, visit http://juventutem-australia.com, or to find out about learning Gregorian chant in Sydney after WYD08, email David Molloy at davidmolloy@bigpond.com.au
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