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VATICAN CITY — Benedictine Abbot Michael Zielinski was nominated by Pope Benedict XVI Nov. 24 to lead a new office on liturgical arts at the Congregation for Divine Worship.
His appointment comes just after the Nov. 14 restructuring of the congregation, which will mean that Father Zielinski’s new division will focus on art, architecture and liturgical music. His title, capo ufficio (head of the office), makes him No. 4 in the congregation’s hierarchy.
Father Zielinski has served in Rome since 2007, as vice president of the Pontifical Commissions for the Cultural Heritage of the Church and for Sacred Archaeology. Those two commissions merged in June, at which time he left that position. He has been a consultor to the Congregation for Divine Worship since November 2010.
He was born in Lakewood, Ohio, in 1953 and joined the Congregation of Saint Mary of Mount Olivet, part of the Benedictine confederation, making his final profession in 1975.
Father Zielinski was ordained a priest in 1977 after studying at the Pontifical University of St. Anselmo in Rome. He served as prior and novice master at a Benedictine abbey in Florence, Italy, and was elected abbot of a New Mexican abbey in 2003. He served as abbot at the Abbey of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Pecos until his appointment to the two pontifical commissions.
The abbot’s role at the congregation will include ensuring that the directives from the Second Vatican Council’s document on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, are carried out faithfully.
In a 2008 edition of the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano, Father Zielinski offered some thoughts on the musical heritage of the Church. “To recover the great treasure which the Tradition of the Church gave to us, it is necessary to begin with Gregorian chant, which is capable of communicating to the people of God the sense of Catholicity and to guide it towards a correct inculturation,” he wrote.
Father Zielinski wrote in a 2010 article for the scholarly journal Antiphon that “in recent decades, much of the cultural heritage of the Church — from venerable rites to the many goods employed in their service — has been endangered by an ideology of novelty that has misunderstood if not rejected the profound respect for the tradition that genuine creativity in continuity with tradition had always understood.”
As second in command at the Commission for the Cultural Heritage of the Church, he stated that “impoverishment” of sacramentals endangers “the very encounter with the incarnate Lord.”
Speaking of the importance of the Roman rite of the Mass as it was celebrated prior to 1962, Father Zielinski said, “I, too, have found that my vocation as a monk and as a priest have been renewed through a greater appreciation of the riches of liturgical tradition.”
Concluded Father Zielinski, “We must do all that we can — each of us according to our gifts — to move forward ... building upon the foundations of our forebears, that, by the fruits of our Christian lives, all that is true, beautiful and good in the cultural heritage of the Church will shine forth for the people of our day and for those of future generations, for our salvation and for the salvation of the whole world.”
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According to Sacrosanctum Concilium #116 from the 2nd Vatican Council and the 1969 General Instruction of the Roman Missal #41, Gregorian Chant is to have first place in the music of the Mass. So why is that not obeyed in most parishes?
We can chalk it all up to misapplications of misinterpretations of the whole lot of Vatican II, in the terminology of “Spirit of Vatican II.” That terminology has become nothing more than a termination of tradition, for the sake of a myriad of novelties in the liturgy. In my parish in Reston,, Virginia, it was common for a quite a while for cocktail-lounge type of piano music to be played as background during the Canon of the Mass. The priests of the parish seemed to be in the forefront of presenting every novelty. Fortunately, to some degree, that has diminished somewhat. I have found it very disconcerting at times to find myself wincing at some of the things I have heard and witnessed. The congregation of priests given charge of the parish need to reflect on their own heritage, and further moderate their promulgation of Vatican II misinterpretative accomodations to the “Spirit of Vatican II.” It has meant little more than change for the sake of change, in my view.
Can we get a loud AMEN for Fr.Zielinski!
Great that Fr. Zielinksi has been given this post.
The real reason that Gregorian Chant has not been given pride of place in the sacred liturgy is that because there are other parts of SC that can be construed and interpreted differently.
The modernists who developed the documents of VII and approved them, then went back to their dioceses and parishes in the 1960s and 70s cultural revolution and then IMPLEMENTED THE COUNCIL.
Remember, there is no authentically Catholic English or vernacular music. It is all chant and polyphony. The music you sign in your “conservative Novus Ordo” parish is PROTESTANT—nearly 100 percent.
The same bishops and periti who developed and promulgated the documents went home and implemented them. A tree will be known by its fruits.
The Traditional Latin Mass uses only Gregorian Chant and Sacred Polyphoy except for a few instances of authentic Catholic vernacular hymns for the entrance and processional.
Why we keep trying to put a round peg into a square hole, I don’t know. The Novus Ordo Missae was deliberately Protestantized—Latin, chant or not. Why attend it? So you and everyone else who has left the church can become Protestant?
You will know a tree by its fruits.
i like chant when done by a community of monks. I do not like it in the mass. First off most priests cannot sing. Chant done poorly is a major distraction at mass. You can just see peoples eyes glaze over when it tis attempted. The only thing worse is chanting in latin. I do not understand this fascination with the tradition of the middle ages. What about the living tradition of the faithfull of today? Contemporary Christian music is a billion dollar industry. Christians including Catholics are voting with their money on what that tradition of today is all about. Thirty or forty years ago there was a large charismatic movement near here. They were very big in more contemporary music.They would have concerts from time to time and my wife and I would go them and pay $10 or $15 per ticket to hear it. Today i cringe when I hear the titles of some of the songs that have to be used at mass. When the priest starts to chant I just tune out.
Thank God the Traditional Latin Mass with Gregorian Chan is still practiced at the Italian church of Indianapolis, “ La Chiesa del Santo” (Holy Rosary Parish). Our Administrator, Father Michael W. Magiera, was, at one time, a priest of the Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter, which has as its apostolate the spreading of the Extraordinary Form of Mass, and has been recognized by the Vatican.
In His Apostolic Letter of Pope Benedict XVI on the celebration of the Roman Rite according to the Missal of 1962 (Motu Proprio Summorum Pontificum of Pope Benedict XVI, 7 July 2007), The Holy Father stated, “Since time immemorial it has been necessary - as it is also for the future - to maintain the principle according to which ‘each particular Church must concur with the universal Church, not only as regards the doctrine of the faith and the sacramental signs, but also as regards the usages universally accepted by uninterrupted apostolic tradition, which must be observed not only to avoid errors but also to transmit the integrity of the faith, because the Church’s law of prayer corresponds to her law of faith.”
He went on to state, “Among the pontiffs who showed that requisite concern, particularly outstanding is the name of St. Gregory the Great, who made every effort to ensure that the new peoples of Europe received both the Catholic faith and the treasures of worship and culture that had been accumulated by the Romans in preceding centuries. He commanded that the form of the sacred liturgy as celebrated in Rome (concerning both the Sacrifice of Mass and the Divine Office) be conserved. He took great concern to ensure the dissemination of monks and nuns who, following the Rule of St. Benedict, together with the announcement of the Gospel illustrated with their lives the wise provision of their Rule that ‘nothing should be placed before the work of God.’ In this way the sacred liturgy, celebrated according to the Roman use, enriched not only the faith and piety but also the culture of many peoples. It is known, in fact, that the Latin liturgy of the Church in its various forms, in each century of the Christian era, has been a spur to the spiritual life of many saints, has reinforced many peoples in the virtue of religion and fecundated their piety.”
As for myself, along with my old Alter Boy friend’s from the 50’s (all Irish and Italian) back in Chicago, it would seem the USCCB has become too Americanized and at some point lost contact with the true intentions and directions of the Vatican. It would seem to us that they were trying to be ‘Politically Correct’ to some extent. It may be time to start pulling on the reins of some of their parish priests. I stopped at on church while traveling and when the choir started singing I thought I had walked into some kind of “Tent Revival.”
When I was in school the Nuns taught us to sing the mass in Latin and learn Gregorian Chant. It was called ‘Choir Practice’ and we sung at all High Masses and on Feast Days. What ever happened to those good old Nuns?
I was part of a Gregorian chant choir from 1958-1963. My Liber is well worn. The lost of this tradition has been a tragedy for the Church. My sense of Catholicity and the Trinitarian mystery was shaped by Gregorian chant. Fifty years without it has been too much to bear. Let’s reintroduce it to a new generation of Catholics who have no concept of what Gregorian chant Masses.
It does not matter whether people may “like” or “Not Like” Chant the fact of the matter is this is not about US the congregation. It is about the proper worship and adoration of God so yes it DOES belong in the Mass. The Tradition of the Church has always taught this even at Vatican II.If you like the current state of church music than start going to a Protestant Church, where much of today’s music comes from. Also Latin is the official language of the Church, and not to worry-Satan hates Latin too.
@ Anon from Wednesday, Nov 28, 2012 4:14 PM (EDT).
Just look at the demise of the Church since the implementation of the modernizations of the “spirit” of Vatican II. 75% of Catholics do not attend Mass regularly. This is what your music that you “like”, along with the discarding of other traditions in the Mass, has wrought in the Church.
@Mike O’Mara,
You ask, “What ever happened to those good old Nuns?” The good ones died off and the young nuns threw off their habits after Vatican II and ran wild with the ambiguity of the documents. Now we have the Nuns on the Bus proclaiming how the Church is outdated and needs to keep up with the times. They have done more harm than good for the Church since Vatican II.
I hate the way in which our holy mass has changed .One attends mass but without any feeling in ones heart .The only consolation for me is the Holy Eucharist bu even at that I know that i sin many times because I despise those who accept the Precious Body of our Lord in their filthy hands.and as far as the music goes.I do not like the guitars stuff .Our Holy Mother also does not like or approve of the guitars being broth into the House of God .she said that those are the instruments of Satan.
I don’t have a strong opinion on Gregorian Chant or newer, respectful music, but for all those who are so doctrinaire on this subject - how was it that the early Church got along as well as it did without Gregorian Chant? Or how did they manage to create the ritual and beauty of the mass before latin became standard (if only in the Roman and Latin rites)?
I was raised pre-Vatican II. The Council ended and many changes took root over the next five or ten years. Believe it or not, some of these were very good! We now have an Old Testament Reading, Prayers of the Faithful, a meaningful pre-Consecration rite (my prejudice), and other items, not the least of which is the use of the vernacular. We no longer have Rogation Days or fasting from midnight. There is much good and bit not so good on both sides of V II. As the Church said at the time, we gave the Holy Spirit a little room to work.
I get a little put out by folks who very sincerely yearn nostalgically for something they do not remember. This does not disqualify them from having an opinion, but there were real improvements. Old or “traditional” does not mean better.
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