I think what I’ll take away from the Legatus conference more than anything else (aside from the revelation that Kate O’Beirne is really tall….) was the music at the liturgies.

It was provided by the Schola Cantorum San Francisco, which used to be associated with the the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi in San Francisco, but I gather, after years of financial struggle (on the Shrine’s end), that tie had to be cut. (Those in the know can correct me). The Schola is now reorganized and is an independent entity, providing music around the Bay Area.

They are, of course, professionals, and some of the music they sang was too complex for your normal, average parish, but much of it wasn’t.  It was marvelous, and – this is important – simple, in its essence. This is, I think, something some folks don’t understand. The best liturgical music is a mysterious weaving of simplicity and depth, in which the music, through what it is, reveals even more about God. It is not florid or showy (this is the constant struggle in liturgical music, and did not begin in the post-Vatican II era. Many, many statements warning against theatricality and ultimately self-referential music have come from Rome for centuries) .

Three points:

1) I had a brief chat with the Schola founder and director John Renke on Saturday evening, a conversation in which I undoubtedly revealed myself as a complete musical bumbler in my questions, but the good news was that he reports that he senses a turnaround. There is much, much resistance out there from clergy still fearing, in that reflexive way, "THEYJUSTWANTTOGOBACKTOPREVATICANII!!!" but things do seem to be changing, the hunger for that radiant evocativeness of chant and so on is growing and being increasingly recognzied. Support your local Schola!

2) Most of the Mass parts were in Latin (and Kyrie in Greek etc), and the response was vibrant – even, I was surprised to see and hear, when, on Saturday night, the Credo was intoned. A lot of (older) people around me, I could tell, joined right into the Latin without looking at the music program – at least for the first few lines. Then most of them had to refer to it, but at the beginning – they were there.

Now…you’re probably going to say…oh, this is Legatus – they’re all conservative anyway. Well, from my experience, in speaking to many local chapters and attending the Mass before dinners…liturgically, they’re not. The liturgies have been your basic sort of daily Mass, and if there was music at all, it was all from Gather, etc. So, no, I wouldn’t say Legatus is a hotbed of Chantmongers.

3) Check out the Schola’s CDs. I brought one home – it’s lovely.  Here’s a link.