Congregations 2012 Report: Part 2

August 7, 2013

Renovation and Rededication: Congregational Life Passages at St. Francis Xavier

by Samuel Backman (M.M. ’12)

As representatives of congregations from various denominations gathered for the 2012 Yale ISM Congregations Project, the focus of “time and life passages” led numerous individuals to assess the changing demands required by their own local church communities.  Saint Francis Xavier Church of Lower Manhattan brought to our attention a “life passage” affecting not only the local parish, but the entire English-speaking realm of Roman Catholics.  On the First Sunday of Advent in 2011, Catholic congregations faced an adjustment in the language of their common prayer as they began use of the third translation of the Roman Missal. 

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Shortly before the recent implementation of the third edition, the parish itself experienced a rite of passage, namely a renovation and rededication of the church.  Jacqueline Perez, a medical doctor very active in the church’s music ministry, stated that, prior to the renovation, “stations of the cross were so covered with soot, that every day was Good Friday.”  However, through the great effort of the parishioners, this beautiful nineteenth-century structure has been renovated to its former glory.  During the rededication in the June of 2010, Archbishop Timothy Dolan hailed this vibrant parish as a “booster shot of hope for the entire diocese.” 

Since its founding in 1847, this parish has embodied the principles of inclusivity and outreach so prized by the Jesuit community.  Reverend Peter Fink, S.J. asserts that the demographic of the congregation “truly reflects the diversity of its location.”  These diverse strands are braided through the full and active participation in prayer called for by the Second Vatican Council.  Because “St. Francis Xavier prides itself…as a community where music, drama, dance and symbolic gesture are an intimate part of our ordinary liturgical experience,” the new translation provided an opportunity to “experiment musically and textually with the third edition of the Roman Missal.”

Director of music John Uhlein stated his hope that the parishioners quickly internalize the new musical settings of the ordinary of the Mass.  Ideally, the changes in the liturgical seasons are marked by the use of different settings for each season.  Because the syllabification of the new translation is more Latinate than that of the second edition, plainchant, or melodies in the style of plainchant, seem to be implied.  The challenge is to find stylistically diverse Mass settings with idiomatic syllabification.  Though Uhlein claims that the adaptation to new congregational settings of the Mass has taken a bit longer than anticipated, he realizes that the first year is still one of experimentation.  In presenting at the summer seminar, he asserted that his undertaking was “not so much a project as a search for a project.”

Finding musical settings appropriate to this new translation is an inevitable adjustment, and associate pastor Peter Fink reminds us that this is a change with deeper implications.  With the new translation comes a shift in Christological focus, placing greater emphasis on the divinity of Christ.  Accompanying this shift is an increase in penitential language, which may well have prompted their congregation at the 5 p.m. Sunday Mass to kneel during the Eucharistic prayers.  However, it is not merely prayers of such liturgical weight as the Eucharistic prayers and Penitential Rite that have shifted in focus, but also the colloquial portions of the mass.  For the last few decades, the laity would hear the words: “The Lord be with you”, and respond “and also with you.”  Now, in the third edition of the Roman Missal, the correct response has been changed to “and with your spirit,” echoing the Latin “et cum spirito tuo.”

 
When presenting this change in seminar, Fr. Peter Fink asked whether the new language is “distancing or more personal,” provoking diverse reactions from the faculty and participants of the Congregations Project.  Father Anthony Ruff, OSB, opined that the new language of this responsorial dialogue was “dehumanizing and potentially hurtful” to the congregants.  Martin Jean countered this by claiming that the response “and also with you” sounded “distant, cold, and flat”.  Teresa Berger, professor of liturgical studies at Yale, commented that, “as a native of Germany, [she] believes ‘and also with you’ to be much too terse.”  She further stated her belief that, in adapting this new translation, “the English-speaking world returned to the fold.” 
Amid the various reactions one pragmatic realization among all parties emerged: the third edition of the Roman Missal is now in effect and no longer merely a consideration.  The parish of Saint Francis Xavier is undergoing a true rite of passage: something outside their control has called for an adjustment in the worship practices of the parish.  Reactions among the parishioners have ranged from “limited delight to distaste.”  Nevertheless, the issue does not seem to be divisive within the parish, as those who were displeased with the changes have weathered the storm.  “When people come to Xavier’s,” Fink said, “it is not the translation of the Mass that draws them, and a change in the translation certainly won’t send them away.”  With a steadfast commitment to social justice, preaching the Gospel, and fine arts, this church has much in common even when the words of their prayers are in flux.  

As the clergy, staff, and laity of Saint Francis continue to adjust to this new translation, they do so with the aim “not only to continue to advance our own prayerfulness at worship, but to become an example and leader within the archdiocese of New York for bold, culturally attuned musical Mass settings that involve full congregational participation.”

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