A friend of mine forwarded me an article that he was particularly excited about. Here’s an excerpt:

SILENCE MODERN MUSIC IN CHURCH, SAYS POPE
By Malcolm Moore in Rome (Filed: 27/06/2006)

The Pope has demanded an end to electric guitars and modern music in church and a return to traditional choirs… the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music. "It is possible to modernise holy music," the Pope said, at a concert conducted by Domenico Bartolucci the director of music at the Sistine Chapel. "But it should not happen outside the traditional path of Gregorian chants or sacred polyphonic choral music."

That’s from the Telegraph, a UK newspaper. Now part of me shared my friend’s excitement at the headline: has Benedict XVI at last issued the motu proprio prohibiting drum fills, rain sticks, and Ed Bolduc? Has Oregon Catholic Press been canonically suppressed?

But I fear that this is just terrible journalism. My suspicions began at the phrase, “the use of guitars and tambourines has irritated the Pope, who loves classical music.” Such a subjective analysis—as if a mere clash of personal preferences was the real story here—tells us much about the journalist’s categories of thought. It does not begin to tell us what actually happened in the Sistine Chapel last Sunday night.

(Imagine: Pope Benedict stands up in one of the most beautiful churches in Rome after a majestic, two hour concert of sacred polyphony, both classic and modern, and says, “The use of guitars and tambourines in liturgical music is, like, really irritating to me. I mean, I really love classical music.”)

I checked the Vatican Information Service’s English language report on the same event.
Of course the Pope didn’t say a word about electric guitars and tambourines. It is silly to imagine this consummately graceful and dignified Pope stooping to rant about guitars and drums at parish masses. (The very ungraceful and undignified ranting about the same will continue to be handled by me and my wife each week after Sunday Mass, thank you very much.)

What the Pope actually said was this:

CONCERT IN HONOR OF THE HOLY FATHER
VATICAN CITY, JUN 24, 2006 (VIS) -

This evening, the Pope attended a concert of sacred music in the Sistine Chapel, presented in his honor by the Domenico Bartolucci Foundation, directed by Msgr. Domenico Bartolucci…
"All the pieces we have heard," the Holy Father continued, "and especially their arrangement - with the sixteenth and twentieth centuries running in parallel - go to confirm the conviction that sacred polyphony, and especially that of the so-called 'Roman School,' is a legacy to be carefully preserved, kept alive and propagated, for the benefit not only of scholars and enthusiasts, but of all the ecclesial community for which it constitutes a priceless spiritual, artistic and cultural heritage…A true 'aggiornamento' of sacred music cannot be achieved except by following the great traditions of the past, of Gregorian chants and sacred polyphony. For this reason, in the musical field as in that of other forms of art, the ecclesial community has always promoted and sustained those who seek new forms of expression without rejecting the past, the history of the human spirit, which is also the history of its dialogue with God."

That’s more like it. What the Pope has actually said is a very positive statement about what in sacred music is good and worthy of living transmission. The only negative formulation to be found in his words is “don’t reject Christian history”, which, as a double negative (“don’t negate”) is essentially a positive statement.

It is clear that Benedict XVI continues to challenge the faithful to think critically, historically, and theologically about the music being made at them in Sunday masses throughout the Western world. But I have found that perpetrators and lovers of guitar-and-drums pop-worship do tend to get aggravated and defensive when challenged to respond honestly and intelligently to such reflections. Like the author of the Telegraph article, they project their own irrationalistic bombast upon the figure of the Pope, conjuring up a fearsome inquisitorial spectre, who, standing meaningfully in front of the Sistine Chapel’s “Last Judgment” fresco, pounds the butt end of his crosier on the marble floor and shouts, “SILENCE MODERN MUSIC IN CHURCH!”

The Pope who wrote such a beautiful and intelligent book as The Spirit of the Liturgy is never going to do that. (I, who have written nothing, just might.)