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Leo XIV: sacred music ‘is not an ornament’
Leo XIV devoted his catechesis to sacred music; tradition had already fixed Gregorian chant and the organ as the measure of worship.
At the general audience of Wednesday 19 August, in St Peter’s Basilica, Leo XIV devoted his catechesis to sacred music. He taught that singing and music in the liturgy are not an ornament added to the celebration, but a “necessary and integral” part of the sacred action: to sing and to play, he said, “means to pray.”
He called for a form “noble and simple,” one the whole assembly can perform, texts that are profound and intelligible, drawn first from Sacred Scripture and the spiritual Tradition of the Church, and music that answers the mystery celebrated “beyond the fashions or the particular sensibilities of composers.” He granted Gregorian chant a pre-eminent place and the pipe organ a particular regard, admitting other instruments if they suit the dignity of the temple and edify the faithful. Citing St Augustine, he recalled that “cantare amantis est,” to sing belongs to one who loves; with St Ignatius of Antioch, he invited the faithful to “become a choir” singing with one voice to the Father.
None of this is new, and none of it belongs to the Council. That sacred music is an integral part of the solemn liturgy, that Gregorian chant is its supreme model, that the organ holds first rank among instruments and that profane styles are banished from the temple: St Pius X fixed it in the motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini of 22 November 1903, and Pius XII confirmed it in Musicae sacrae disciplina (1955) and Mediator Dei (1947).
The law remains the one St Pius X laid down: the more a composition approaches the Gregorian melody, the more sacred it is; the more it departs from it, the less worthy of the altar. To deplore today “the fashions” and “neglected music” in worship is to name a disorder that could enter only once the discipline these popes had sealed was loosened.
Sources. St Pius X, motu proprio Tra le sollecitudini (22 November 1903); Pius XII, encyclical Musicae sacrae disciplina (1955) and encyclical Mediator Dei (1947); St Augustine, Sermon 336, on the singing of one who loves; St Ignatius of Antioch, Epistle to the Ephesians, IV.