The music chosen as the Mass setting in the Diocese of Knoxville is okay but it’s not my favorite. As I wrote at the start of Advent, I was looking forward to hearing different settings when I traveled.
I was in St. Louis a week ago, at a church that uses the Mass of St. Ann by composer Ed Bolduc. It has a much more joyful sound and is ideal for youth choirs. In the old days, we might have heard that sound at a “folk mass.” You can hear a demo version of it by clicking on the play button to the left.
In conversations with Fr. Gary Braun in St. Louis and Fr. Michael Woods in Knoxville, both priests mentioned the misguided video entitled “Why I Hate Religion but Love Jesus.” In it, Jefferson Bethke begins with the erroneous claim that Jesus came to eliminate organized religion. Jesus actually said, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have come not to abolish but to fulfill.” He said to Peter, “upon this rock I will build my church.” He instructed the disciples to carry on without him, forgiving sins (the sacrament of penance) and commemorating the Last Supper (the sacrament of the Eucharist).
This morning, Fr. Michael Woods suggested I read a column by fellow parishioner Bob Hunt in yesterday’s Knoxville News Sentinel. A week earlier, I had told Fr. Gary that Catholic blogger Frank Weathers (another All Saints parishioner) said organized religion is like the military. It may not be perfect, but you need it to fight evil.
A blog called “Bad Catholic” posted a great repudiation of Bethke’s video. Perhaps even better, they shared a link to the following response video by a priest in Evansville, Indiana, named Fr. Claude (Dusty) Burns aka Fr. Pontifex.
