Mount Calvary Music June 2, 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Easter VII

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Reception of First Communion by the Children of the parish

Breakfast following 10 A.M. Mass

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Common

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena

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Henry Purcell (1659-1695)

O God, the King of glory, who hast exalted thine only Son, Jesus Christ, with great triumph into heaven, we beseech thee leave us not comfortless, but send to us thine Holy Ghost to comfort us, and exalt us to the same place where our Savior Jesus Christ is gone before us, Amen.

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William Byrd (1540-1623)

Non vos relinquam orphanos. Alleluia. Vado, et venio ad vos. Alleluia. Et gaudebit, cor vestrum. Alleluia.

I will not leave you comfortless. Alleluia. I go, and I will come to you. Alleluia. And your heart shall rejoice. Alleluia.

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Hymns

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH). The original German text, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, was written by the German politician and poet Johann Franck (1618—1677) in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. It expresses an intimate relationship between the individual believer and his Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus, ascended into heaven, is still present as our food in this “wondrous banquet.” He is the fount, from whom our being flows as we receive Him and are filled with Him. He feeds us and transforms us into His likeness so that we become His joy and boast and glory before the heavenly court.

Bread of heaven! on Thee we feed is by Josiah Condor (1789-1855), the son of an engraver and bookseller, and was largely self-educated after leaving school at thirteen. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven . . . Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. … I am the true vine.”—John vi. 51-4, xv.

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG) is a translation by Robert Campbell (1814-1868) of the seventh century Latin hymn, Ad regias agni dapes, which was sung by the newly baptized at Easter when they were first admitted to communion. Our victorious King through His death and resurrection has caused the angel of death to pass over us. We are redeemed by His blood, which opens Paradise to us where we will live forever.  The LORD brought Israel out of Egypt through the sea into the promised land by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus through His death brings us through the wilderness of this life by feeding us with Himself, the true manna that comes down from heaven.

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Mount Calvary Ascension Thursday May 30, 2019

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Rabbula Gospels, 6th c. Syriac

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Ascension Thursday

May 30, 2019

7 P. M. Sung Mass

____________________________

Common

Missa super osculetur me, Orlando di Lasso (1532-1594)

Tonight’s service features music in the cori spezzati style pioneered in Venice in the late 16th century: two choirs in different locations pass music back and forth, with the resulting stereophonic effects creating all sorts of dramatic possibilities. Orlando di Lasso, one of the last of the line of Franco-Flemish composers that dominated music in the 16th century, traveled extensively to Italy and worked with the Gabrieli family in Venice who were proponents of the cori spezzati style at San Marco. di Lasso eventually settled in Munich and was one of the most prolific and outstanding composers of the late Renaissance, of the same caliber as Palestrina and Victoria, although his music is not as well known. His Missa super osculetur me is what scholars call a “parody mass” — it is based on his earlier polyphonic motet “Osculetur me” on a text from the Song of Solomon. What is most striking about this mass is the inexhaustible creativity with which Lassus treats the parody technique. Not content simply to quote or extrapolate on motifs from his motet, the composer engages the listener in an elaborate guessing game, sometimes presenting fragments complete (though out of order), as we hear in the Gloria and at other times developing material into longer sections of variation, seen in the Kyrie. The Benedictus departs from the original altogether, offering entirely new material to the listener. Textual interest is sustained through the use of long phrases (with their contrapuntal possibilities) and the different characters offered by single and double choirs.

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Anthems

William Walton (1902-1983)

O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song. Be ye sure that the Lord he is God; it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture. O go your way into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise; be thankful unto him, and speak good of his Name. For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth from generation to generation. Glory be to the Father and to the Son and to the Holy Ghost, as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end, Amen.

William Walton’s anthem “Jubilate Deo” written in 1976 is scored for double choir and organ. It is taken from the composer’s Chichester Service where it forms part of the music for morning prayer in the Anglican liturgy. Listen for the contrasts between the boisterous dotted opening section where the two choirs pass the melody back and forth and the quiet, legato middle section. Listen for how natural and supple Walton’s setting of the English text is. The tenors and basses break the quiet spell with the resolute march “into his gates with thanksgiving” followed by another quiet section that includes the a lovely rising arpeggio by a solo soprano singing “his mercy is everlasting.” The piece then concludes with a rousing doxology and amen with full organ
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Peter Philips (1560-1628)
Ascendit Deus in jubilatione, et Dominus in voce tubae. Dedit dona hominibus. Alleluia. Dominus in caelo paravit sedem suam. Alleluia.
God is gone up with a merry noise, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. He gave gifts to men. Alleluia. The Lord hath prepared his seat in heaven. Alleluia.
The communion anthem, Ascendit Deus, was published by the English composer Peter Philips (1560-1628) in a collection entitled Cantiones Sacrae in 1612. As a boy, Philips was a chorister at St Paul’s cathedral in London, studying with the same Catholic choirmaster that had trained William Byrd. Like Byrd a devout Catholic, Philips left England for good in 1582, spending the rest of his life in Antwerp and Brussels. After the death of his wife and child, he was ordained a priest in 1601. A prolific composer, he wrote for the harpsichord, organ, and choir. His motet Ascendit Deus is full of vitality and energy as befits this text from Psalm 47, “God is gone up with a triumphant shout.” Listen for the brass fanfares at “in voce tubae” and the rapid-fire alleluias characteristic of Sweelinck, an organist and composer in Amsterdam. The piece ends in a joyful triple meter on shouts of alleluia.
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Hymns

Hail the day that sees Him rise (LLANFAIR) by Charles Wesley (1707-1788) was published in 1739 in Hymns and Sacred Poems under the title “Hymn for Ascension-Day.”

The first and second stanzas employ apostrophe, a rhetorical device in which the poet addresses an absent or inanimate object. The first addresses the day of Jesus’ ascension, the second the gates of heaven which accept Christ in glory. The third emphasizes the true humanity of Jesus and his continued investment in the lives of those on earth, in comparison to his heavenly inheritance described in the previous lines. He is the continuous intercessor for mankind, imploring his assistance in the efforts of all to follow him in the ascent to the presence of God, leading finally to the beatific vision and eternal union with God.

Bread of heaven! on Thee we feed is by Josiah Condor (1789-1855), the son of an engraver and bookseller, and was largely self-educated after leaving school at thirteen. “I am the living bread which came down from heaven . . . Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life. … I am the true vine.”—John vi. 51-4, xv.

See the conqueror mounts in triumph (IN BABILONE) was written Christopher Wordsworth (1807-1885), the nephew of the poet William Wordsworth. Christopher Wordsworth was an athlete, classicist, poet, and Anglican bishop of Lincoln.

The text views the ascending Lord being sung to by angels at heaven’s gates, recalls Christ’s suffering, death, resurrection, and ascension, and looks forward to our reign with Christ in glory. The text emphasizes not only the event of the Ascension but also its meaning for us: in Christ’s ascension, “we by faith can see” our own. Our shared destiny is to be raised with Jesus: “Since we have the same spirit of faith according to what has been written, ‘I believed, and so I spoke,’ we also believe, and so we also speak, knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.”(2 Cor 4:13-14)

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Mount Calvary Music May 26, 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

May 26, 2019

Easter VI

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Breakfast following 10 A.M. Mass

____________________

Common

Missa de S.Maria Magdalena, Willan

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Anthems

Knut Nystedt (1915-2014)

My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

The offertory anthem, “Peace I leave with you,” is a setting of the gospel text written by the Norwegian composer Knut Nystedt (1915-2014). Nystedt was the organist at Torshov Church in Oslo and most of his major works are sacred music for voices or choir. Renaissance polyphony and plainchant were major influences on his style. This short piece opens with a meditative and quiet series of chords in conventional harmony, conveying the peace that Christ gives us. But it moves into challenging 20th-century harmony on the text “give I unto you” where the tonal center becomes uncertain. No sooner does the tonal center settle down than it switches to a minor key at “neither let it be afraid” only resolving to a major key only at the final chord of the piece. The effect is to depict movement from an idyllic beginning through discord and sorrow back to a place of rest.
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Thomas Tallis (1510-1585)

O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur; recolitur memoria passionis ejus; mens impletur gratia; et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur. O sacred banquet, wherein Christ is received; the memorial of his passion is renewed; the soul is filled with grace; and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

In 1575, Tallis and Byrd were granted a monopoly on printing music by Elizabeth I. The first publication, Cantiones Sacrae, was a collection of Latin hymns and motets in that same year, including today’s communion anthem O sacrum convivium. It is likely that some of these anthems date from Tallis’ earlier career as the organist at the Abbey of Waltham Holy Cross in Essex. When the monastery was dissolved by the crown in 1540, Tallis reworked some of his anthems in English. This anthem is also found in early sources with the text “I call and cry to thee.” The Latin text is the Magnificat antiphon for the feast of Corpus Christi, meaning that this anthem had no official liturgical use in England at the time of its publication. The musical style is typical of early 16th century English music—florid, with thick textures, points of imitation, modal harmonies with striking cross-relations (for example, at “in quo Christus sumitur”).

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Hymns

Love’s redeeming work is done  (SAVANNAH) by Charles Wesley is a cento composed of stanxzs ii.-v.,x., of his hymn “Christ the Lord is risen to-day.” Books originating in the Church of England tradition use the tune SAVANNAH, first found in England in John Wesley’s A Collection of Tunes, Set to Music, as they are commonly sung at the Foundery (1742), with the name HERNHUTH, which indicates its origins in 18th-century Moravian books. The name SAVANNAH comes from the Moravian settlement at Savannah, Georgia. Wesley accompanied the Moravians on their voyage from England to Savannah and was deeply impressed by their calm and faith during a storm that panicked the sailors.

How blest are they that love the Lord (TALLIS’ ORDINAL) 

Alleluia! sing to Jesus was written by William Chatterton Dix (1837—1898). Revelation 5:9 describes this eschatological scene of joy and glory: “And they sang a new song, saying: ‘You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because You were slain, and with Your blood You purchased for God members of every tribe and language and nation.’”  Dix invites us to sing that new song of praise to our ascended Savior. This hymn is a declaration of Jesus’ victory over death and His continued presence among His people. By complex and interlocking allusions to Scripture, it presents a very high view of the Eucharist presence: Jesus is both “Priest and Victim” in this feast. Jesus, having triumphed over sin and death, “robed in flesh” has ascended above all the heavens, entering “within the veil” to the very throne of God. Dix sees in the Eucharist the fulfillment of Jesus’ promise to be with us evermore.

 

 

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Papal Foot in Mouth Disease

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Pope Francis discarded his prepared remarks and spoke off the cuff to women religious. We can therefore better see what is going through his mind.

About sexual abuse he said:

The Church’s solutions to the problem of abuse aren’t resolved from one day to another. A process has begun. Yesterday another document came out, and so slowly we are carrying out a process. Because twenty years ago until now we weren’t aware. Now we are becoming aware, with great shame — but blessed shame — shame is a grace of God. But it’s a process. And we have to go forward, forward, in a process step by step by step to resolve this problem. Some of the anti-abuse organizations weren’t happy with the meeting in February. “But, they didn’t do anything,” they say. I understand, there is interior suffering. If we had hanged 100 abuser priests in St. Peter’s Square, they would have been happy, but the problem would not have been resolved. Problems in life are resolved with processes, not occupying spaces.

How best to characterize these remarks: Unfeeling? Inhumane? Arrogant? Insensitive? Stupid?

Pope Francis has repeatedly failed to follow through on initiatives to hold abusers and bishops accountable. He has rescinded the punishments that Pope Benedict had imposed on abusers. His new document still fails to specify what happens to bishops who are found to have enabled abuse.

Francis and his advisors clearly do not realize the trauma that abuse victims have suffered. My suspicion is that abuse and pederasty have been so prevalent in the church that the hierarchy cannot understand what all the bother is about. Why do the victims keep complaining? It has always gone on, and trying to extirpate it would be like trying to extirpate original sin.

Francis’ last, puzzling remark about processes and spaces is apparently based on the theories of an Argentine political philosopher. Argentina is noted for its political stability; Francis wants the Church to follow its example.

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Mount Calvary Music May 12 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Easter IV

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Breakfast following 10 A.M. Mass

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Common

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena

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Anthems

Herbert Howells (1892-1983)

The Lord is my shepherd; therefore can I lack nothing. He shall feed me in a green pasture and lead me forth beside the waters of comfort. He shall convert my soul and bring me forth in the paths of righteousness, for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk in the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, thy rod and thy staff comfort me. Thou shalt prepare a table before me against them that trouble me; thou hast anointed my head with oil, and my cup shall be full. But thy lovingkindness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord for ever.

Here are the Dale Warland Singers.

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William Byrd (1540-1623)

Alleluia. Cognoverunt discipuli Dominum Jesum in fractione panis. Alleluia. Caro mea vere est cibus, et sanguis meus vere est potus: qui manducat carnem, et bibit meum sanguinem, in me manet, et ego in eo. Alleluia.

Alleluia. The disciples knew the Lord Jesus in the breaking of bread. Alleluia. My flesh is meat indeed: and my blood is drink indeed. He that eateth my flesh and drinketh my blood abideth in me: and I in him. Alleluia.

Here is the Ensemble Plus Ultra.

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Hymns

#345 The King of love my shepherd is (ST COLUMBA) was written by Sir Henry Williams Baker (1821–1877). It is notable for its skillful meter, and its well-managed rhyme scheme of single and double rhymes, which control and shape the emotion very beautifully. Baker gave an Anglican slant to Psalm 23, interpreting it as a psalm of love and care, but stressing these qualities as evidenced in the Eucharist. The spread table of verse 5 becomes the altar on which the elements are displayed, and the delight comes as the believer takes the ‘pure chalice’; the unction, or anointing (from 1 John 2: 27), while bestowing grace in a spiritual sense, also has suggestions of a rite. This verse spreads its meaning through the whole hymn, allowing the words of Psalm 23 to acquire an extra significance: so that the last verse suggests that the length of days of a person’s life can be spent, figuratively, ‘within thy house for ever’, in the service and under the influence of the church, and then later in heaven. The singer can reflect back, and conclude that the first verses suggest the ransomed soul, sought out in love and rescued from sin (Baker’s version of ‘he restoreth my soul’). The beautiful use of the shepherd metaphor in verse 3, as the shepherd carries the lamb gently on his shoulder, is an illustration of the tenderness of Baker’s work: these lines were the last words spoken by Baker on his deathbed.

Be joyful Mary, heavenly Queen (REGINA COELI IUBILA) is a translation of Regina coeli, iubila, an anonymous 17th century hymn. The tune was written by Johann Leisentritt (1527-1586), and published in his Catholicum Hymnologium Germanicum in 1584.

 I know that my redeemer lives (DUKE ST) is by the English Baptist Samuel Medley (1738-1799). The hymn uses a simple repetition of “He lives” to celebrate the resurrected Jesus who rules our lives and gives us eternal life. Christ is risen! Truly He is risen!

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Sister Faustina and Encountering Christ in Disguise

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On Divine Mercy Sunday I began reading Sister Faustina’s Journal. It is an extraordinary document.

I (and her confessor) wondered about the stream of visions she was having.

She also rejoiced in the baptism in a hospital of an unconscious Jewish woman, which the sisters accomplished when the woman’s relatives were away from her deathbed for a while. I doubt that it was valid, and it was definitely not licit.

Faustina’s emphasis on the Divine Mercy is Mere Christianity  — Amazing Grace  –— we always need to hear it. But today the chief spiritual problem in the world (and the Church) is not sinners who despair of God’s mercy, but sinners who do not think what they are doing is sin, even if it involves tearing limb from limb an unborn child.

However, the Church should always be redolent of mercy, and Faustina’s intercessory prayers for the living and the dead (with whom she seemed to be on terms of great intimacy) are a good example to all of us. Suffering is easier to bear if we know that we are in Christ and in Him our suffering can help bring about the redemption of the world.

One incident she recounts struck me, for reasons I will explain. Faustina was in charge of the gate of the convent and there met beggars.

1312 + Jesus came to the main entrance today, under the guise of a poor young man. This young man, emaciated, barefoot and bareheaded, and with his clothes in tatters, was frozen because the day was cold and rainy. He asked for something hot to eat. So I went to the kitchen, but found nothing there for the poor. But, after searching around for some time, I succeeded in finding some soup, which I reheated and into which I crumbled some bread, and I gave it to the poor young man, who ate it. As I was taking the bowl from him, he gave me to know that He was the Lord of heaven and earth. When I saw Him as He was, He vanished from my sight. (55) When I went back in and reflected on what had happened at the gate, I heard these words in my soul: My daughter, the blessings of the poor who bless Me as they leave this gate have reached My ears. And your compassion, within the bounds of obedience, has pleased Me, and this is why I came down from My throne – to taste the fruits of your mercy.

Many decades ago I was visiting my friend Ed Damich in his very modest apartment in Turkey Thicket near Catholic University. The doorbell rang. He answered it, talked briefly, came to get his wallet, went back to the door, and returned with a potholder. I asked what had happened.

Ed was from a Croatian family. He told me that his grandmother and mother had instructed him always to be kind and polite to the poor, because Jesus and Mary wander the earth in the guise of poor persons to test how merciful we are.

When I was working and supporting a family of nine on 35,000 a year, I had to go from my office in the Federal Building in Baltimore to the State Office Buildings. I decided to walk up Howard Street (then largely abandoned) to save bus fare.

I walked past a deserted storefront. In the alcove an older woman and her dog were sitting. She was not begging, but merely petting her dog. I gave her a dollar. I walked away and I swear I felt a hand on my shoulder turning me around  and a voice whispering not enough. I returned to her and gave her a twenty (which hurt). At that very moment a young man walked past and saw what I was doing and said God bless you. What was going on? I still wonder.

Years later, when I was more prosperous, I was in Santa Fe. I got up at dawn and decided to go for a walk. I usually took nothing with me, but that day I briefly left the house and then returned because I thought I thought I should take a twenty. Why? I don’t know. I went for a long walk and as I began crossing the bridge over the Santa Fe River (which actually had a little water in it); a desert rat, a man about 50, came out sopping wet. Obviously, he had just performed his morning ablutions. I walked a few more feet and felt the hand on my shoulder again. OK, I said. I returned and gave him the twenty and told him to get a good breakfast.

I think that without knowing it we encounter angels, and perhaps more than angels. It is a salutary thought and a reminder to be merciful to all whom we encounter.

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Mount Calvary Music May 5 2019

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Herri met de Bles, Final Apparition of Christ to His Disciples Flemish, c. 1530-1550.

Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Easter III

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

Breakfast following 10 A.M. Mass

____________________

Common

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena

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Anthems

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Alleluia. Worthy art thou, O Lord our God, to receive glory and honor and power; for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are, and were created. Salvation to our God, that sitteth upon the throne, and to the Lamb for ever. Alleluia, Amen.

The offertory motet, “Worthy art Thou, O Lord” is the setting of the antiphon for the Magnificat for Easter II in the Sarum rite, a text taken from Revelation 5 and read today in the second lesson. The music conveys the sense of grandeur and majesty of the text, which it declaims clearly in a homophonic, choral texture. Listen for the chromatic alterations that provide color and contrast: for example the radiant C major chord on “power” that shines out from amid the predominantly E-flat major harmony, or the quick trip to E-flat minor adding mystery to “Thou hast created all things.” Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in England and attended a choir school where he studied harmony, counterpoint, and organ. From an Anglo-Catholic background, Willan was organist and choirmaster at St Mary Magdalene in Toronto, Canada from 1921 until his death. This parish, with its choir singing unaccompanied motets at a very high level, became a source of liturgical and musical inspiration for other Anglican choirs in North America.

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Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

Surrexit pastor bonus qui animam suam posuit pro ovibus suis, et pro grege suo mori dignatus est, alleluia.

The good shepherd has arisen, who laid down his life for his sheep, and for his flock deigned to die, alleluia.

Here is Queen’s College, Oxford.

In the communion motet, Surrexit Pastor Bonus, Victoria plays the six voices off each other in creative ways, often in duets or trios. At the outset, the highest three voices sing a phrase and are answered by an echo of similar material in the lower three voices (the antiphonal style). Victoria is a master of subtle drama and text painting: listen for the rising intervals of an octave or a fifth as each voice enters on “surrexit.” Listen also for the contrast between the prevailing sunshine and the cloud that passes overhead on “mori dignatus est,” that is, “worthy to die.” Victoria highlights the word “mori” with longer note values, repetition, and chromatic alterations (E-flat major, D major, and G major triads in the key of F major). The piece closes as the sun returns and we hear a final, rousing chorus of alleluias.

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Hymns

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH). The original German text, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, was written by the German politician and poet Johann Franck (1618—1677) in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. It expresses an intimate relationship between the individual believer and his Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus, ascended into heaven, is still present as our food in this “wondrous banquet.” He is the fount, from whom our being flows as we receive Him and are filled with Him. He feeds us and transforms us into His likeness so that we become His joy and boast and glory before the heavenly court.

Christ the lord is risen today (VICTIMAE PASCHALI) is a translation by Jane Elizabeth Leeson (1807-1881) of the Easter sequence, Victimae paschali laudes, attributed to St. Wipo of Burgundy (c. 1000). The Council of Trent eliminated scores of sequences in the Roman liturgy. This was one of the four that survived. Leeson first joined the charismatic Catholic Apostolic Church (Irvingites) and later became a Roman Catholic.

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG) is a translation by Robert Campbell (1814-1868) of the seventh century Latin hymn, Ad regias agni dapes, which was sung by the newly baptized at Easter when they were first admitted to communion. Our victorious King through His death and resurrection has caused the angel of death to pass over us. We are redeemed by His blood, which opens Paradise to us where we will live forever.  The LORD brought Israel out of Egypt through the sea into the promised land by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus through His death brings us through the wilderness of this life by feeding us with Himself, the true manna that comes down from heaven.

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Mount Calvary Music April 28, 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Thomas Sunday

April 28, 2019

8:00 A.M. Said Mass

10:00 A.M. Sung Mass

____________________

Common

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena

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Anthems

Luca Marenzio (1556-1599)

Quia vidisti me, Thoma, credidisti: beati qui non viderunt, et crediderunt. Alleluia.

Because thou hast seen me, Thomas, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed. Alleluia.

Italian composer and singer Luca Marenzio (ca. 1553-1599) was considered by many Renaissance musicians to be the chief archetype of the expressive 16th-century Italian madrigal style. The text of this motet is from John 20: 29 – the Antiphon for the Feast of St Thomas, the great doubter. Marenzio’s madrigalian style of text painting is well served here. Note the homophonic emphasis given to the text “beati qui non viderunt” (blessed are they that have not seen).  The motet concludes with an imitative and joyful  “Alleluia.”

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Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina (1525-1594)

Haec dies quam fecit Dominus: exultemus et laetemur in ea, alleluia.

This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us be glad and rejoice therein. Alleluia.

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Hymns

 O sons and daughters (FILII ET FILIAE) is a translation by John Mason Neale (1818-1866) of the hymn O filii et filiae by the Franciscan Jean Tisserand (died 1494). It recounts the appearance of the Risen Christ to both the women on Easter and to the disciples in the upper room. We are addressed in the stanza How blest are they who have not seen / And yet whose faith has constant been, / For they eternal life shall win. Although we have not seen the Risen Lord with our bodily eyes, we see Him with the eyes of faith, especially in the Eucharist, and are loyal to Him.

Thou hallowed chosen morn of praise (EISENACH) is a poem by John of Damascus, translated by John Mason Neale.

That Easter day with joy was bright (PUER NOBIS) is a translation also by John Mason Neale of the Latin hymn Aurora lucis rutilat, probably by St. Ambrose (330-397). Augustine said that Ambrose set popular hymns to the meter of Roman marching songs to propagate orthodox Catholic theology, because the Arians were using hymns to propagate error.

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Mount Calvary Easter Day 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

EASTER SUNDAY

April 21, 2019

9:00 A.M Sung Mass with Festal Procession

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Organ Prelude

XVIII Elevation. Tierce en Taille, Mass for the Convents, F. Couperin

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Organ Postlude

Fanfare, Jacques-Nicholas Lemmens.

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Common

Messe pour le Samedy de Pasques, Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Marc-Antoine Charpentier (1643-1704) was born in Paris and traveled to Italy to study with Giacomo Carissimi. Upon his return to France, he became the maître de musique to the Duchess of Guise and eventually Sainte-Chapelle, one of the most important church musician positions in the country. Unlike Lully and other composers that focused on opera and the court, Charpentier wrote a great deal of very good church music; sadly, most of is unknown and unrecorded, although you can certainly find excellent recordings of his popular Messe de minuit pour Noel, Te Deum, and Litanies de la Vierge. The Messe pour le Samedi de Pâques was composed in about 1690 and is one of the few that is short and doesn’t require additional instruments. Even so, with its ornaments, uneven eighth notes (a kind of swing) and upbeat rhythms characteristic of the French Baroque, it’s just a lot of fun.

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Anthems

Healey Willan (1880-1968)

Rise up, my love, my fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; the flowers appear upon the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come. Arise my love, my fair one, and come away.

Here is the Stanford Chamber Chorale.

The text for today’s offertory anthem “Rise up my love, my fair one” is taken from that strange and beautiful book dwelling almost exclusively on romantic love, the Song of Solomon. Although the origin of this book is obscure, perhaps coming from the ancient Israelite marriage liturgy, it was read very early on as an allegory of God’s love for Israel and in the Christian era as Christ’s love for the church. “Rise up my love, my fair one,” can be heard equally plausibly as Christ offering redemption to the sinner or as the blossoming of new hope through forgiveness at a turning point in a romantic relationship. Healey Willan (1880-1968) was born in England and attended a choir school where he studied harmony, counterpoint, and organ. From an Anglo-Catholic background, he became an authority on plainchant in English translation and many of his compositions have chant-like melodies with free meter.

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John Taverner (1490-1545)

Dum transisset Sabbatum, Maria Magdalene et Maria Jacobi et Salome emerunt aromata ut venientes ungerent Jesum. Alleluia. Et valde mane una sabbatorum veniunt ad monumentum orto iam sole.

And when the sabbath was past, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, had bought sweet spices, that they might come and anoint him. Alleluia. And very early in the morning the first day of the week, they came unto the sepulchre at the rising of the sun.

Here is Alamire.

“Dum transisset Sabbatum” is a setting of a matins responsory for Easter. It is the best-known motet by the great John Taverner (1490-1545), one of the most important English composers of his era. Taverner was the first organist and master of the choristers at Christ Church, Oxford (founded in 1525 as Cardinal College by Wolsey). Taverner’s music has several characteristics we typically associate with late medieval music on the continent. There are flowing lines with very long melismas that can obscure the text. There is little sense of harmonic movement or direction. The music is constructed on plainchant, with the cantus firmus in the tenor. There is little imitation that is so pervasive in the music of the high Renaissance on the continent (and in the later music of Tallis and Byrd). Listen for the particularly English texture with soaring high treble lines in the top voice and very low notes in the bass. This is what the best church music sounded like in pre-Reformation England. It captures a sense of sacred space and repose from the noisy and insistent world we live in.

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Hymns

#91 The strife is o’er, the battle done (VICTORY) is from a 17th-century Latin hymn, translated by Francis Pott (1832-1909). The Latin text begins‘Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia./ Finita iam sunt proelia.’ It is found in a Jesuit book, Symphonia Sirenum Selectarum, published in Cologne in 1695. VICTORY is a free adaptation by William Henry Monk for the first edition of Hymns Ancient & Modern of the ‘Gloria’ in Palestrina’s Magnificat Tertii Toni .

#86 Hail thee, festival day (SALVA FESTA DIES) The refrain comes from the 20th couplet of Venantius Fortunatus’ (c. 540—c. 600) long Latin poem (110 lines!) celebrating the conversion of the Saxons by Felix, Bishop of Nantes (c. 582): Salve feste dies toto venerabilis aevo. Venantius, who traveled around the Germanic kingdoms of Europe as a wandering minstrel, devoted his life to the cause of Christian literary elegance.  As poet to the Merovingian court, he became a friend of the mystic Queen Radegund, and he later became Bishop of Poitiers. The poem was translated by George Gabriel Scott Gillett (1873-1948).

#96 The day of resurrection (ELLACOMBE) is from a Greek hymn by St John Damascene (ca. 655 – ca. 745). It was translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866).

#85 Jesus Christ is risen today (EASTER HYMN) is from Lyra Davidica (1708). It is a translation of part of an anonymous Latin hymn, ‘Surrexit Christus hodie.’

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Mount Calvary Easter Vigil 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of teh Chair of St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

The Solemn Vigil of Easter

Saturday

April 20, 2019

9:00 PM

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Common

Missa de S. Maria Magdalena, Healey Willan

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Anthems

 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736)

Surrexit Christus vere de sepulchro, alleluia.

Christ is truly risen from the grave, alleluia.

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Peter Philips (1561-1628)

Surgens Jesus, Dominus noster stans in medio discipulorum suorum dixit: pax vobis. Alleluia. Gavisi sunt discipuli viso Domino, Alleluia.

The risen Jesus, our Lord, standing in the midst of his disciples, said: Peace be with you. Alleluia. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Alleluia.

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Hymns

At the Lamb’s high feast we sing (SALZBURG) is a translation by Robert Campbell (1814-1868) of the seventh century Latin hymn, Ad regias agni dapes, which was sung by the newly baptized at Easter when they were first admitted to communion. Our victorious King through His death and resurrection has caused the angel of death to pass over us. We are redeemed by His blood, which opens Paradise to us where we will live forever.  The LORD brought Israel out of Egypt through the sea into the promised land by the blood of the Lamb. Jesus through His death brings us through the wilderness of this life by feeding us with Himself, the true manna that comes down from heaven.

Come, ye faithful, raise the strain (GAUDEAMUS PARITER) is from a  Greek hymn attributed to St John Damascene (ca. 655- ca. 745), and was translated by John Mason Neale (1818-1866).  The hymn is notable for its beautiful linking of spring with the resurrection, and for its use of the crossing of the Red Sea as a type of the liberating work of Jesus Christ. It is based on the Song of Moses in Exodus 15.

 

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Mount Calvary Good Friday 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of  St. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor

Rt. Rev. Stephen Lopes, Preacher

Good Friday

April 19, 2019

Noon Mass of the Pre-Sanctified

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The Reproaches, Tomás Luis de Victoria

In the Catholic liturgy of Good Friday, the day of Christ’s suffering and crucifixion, the Eucharist is not celebrated. Instead, the service includes a quasi-dramatic recitation of the Passion according to St. John, and a solemn act of veneration of the Cross. The priest unveils the image of the cross, and people may come forth and adore the symbol of the atoning death, while hymns, motets, and “reproaches” are sung by the choir. The music for the “reproaches” is entitled Popule meus, from the text of the first refrain, “My people, what have I done to you, and how have I grieved you? Answer me.” Among the thirty-seven various pieces of Holy Week music published by Tomas Luis de Victoria in 1585 is a simple, but quite effective, setting of these reproaches, or improperia. The liturgical form calls for an alternation between two refrains and a series of versets. The latter, left to be sung in Gregorian plainchant, all follow a poignant parallel structure, calling to mind (in the first person of the Deity) first an act of God’s mercy and providence from the past, and then a present element of the Passion, such as

“Because I led you from the land of Egypt, you have prepared a Cross for your savior.”

and

“I have scourged Egypt with its firstborn for love of you, and you have delivered me to be scourged.”

Interspersed with these versets are two refrains, both of which Victoria sets to fairly simple homophony. The first is the “Popule meus,” again in the first person, as if God Himself is reproaching His people for their acts which led to the Cross. The second, fascinatingly, presents the only survival in the Western liturgy (besides the common Mass text “Kyrie eleison”) of a text in Greek. This ancient relic, the “Trisagion,” a threefold acclamation of the holiness of God, is intended to be sung first in Greek, and then in Latin.

Here it is sung in English at the Church of the Advent in Boston.

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Crucifixus, Claudio Monteverdi

Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pilato, passus et sepultus est

Here is the Capella Mariana.

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Hymn

#83 O sorrow deep! (O TRAURIGKEIT)  This Good Friday and Holy Saturday lament was printed in eight 5-line verses in Johannes Risten himlischer Lieder. It was entitled ‘Klägliches Grab-Lied/ Uber die trawrige Begräbnisse unseres Seylandes Jesu Christi/ am stillen freytage zu singen’ (‘ A sorrowful funeral hymn on the mournful entombment of our Saviour Jesus Christ, to be sung on Good Friday’). A note was added at the end: ‘The first verse of this funeral hymn, along with its exceptional melody, came accidentally into my hands. As I was greatly pleased with it, I added the other seven as they stand here, because I could not be a party to the use of the other verses.’ This was presumably because of their Roman Catholic content. The first verse referred to was printed in the Roman Catholic Würzburg Gesang-Buch (1628).

O sorrow deep!
Who would not weep
With heartfelt pain and sighing?
God the Father’s only Son
In the tomb is lying.

O Jesus blest,
My help and rest,
With tears I pray thee, hear me:
Now, and even unto death,
Dearest Lord, be near me.

Here is the melody.

Here is the German:
1 O Traurigkeit,
o Herzeleid!
Ist das nicht zu beklagen?
Gott des Vaters einig Kind,
wird ins Grab getragen.
2 O große Noth!
Gott selbst liegt tot,
am Kreuz ist er gestorben,
hat dadurch das Himmelreich
uns aus Lieb’ erworben.
3 O Menschenkind,
nur deine Sünd’
hat dieses angerichtet,
da du durch die Missetat
warest ganz vernichtet.
4 Dein Bräutigam,
das Gotteslamm,
liegt hier mit Blut beflossen,
welches er ganz mildiglich
hat für dich vergossen.
5 O süßer Mund.
o Glaubensgrund,
wie bist du doch zerschlagen!
Alles, was auf Erden lebt,
muß dich ja beklagen.
6 O lieblich Bild,
schön, zart und mild.
du Söhnlein der Jungfrauen,
niemand kann dein heißes Blut
sonder Reu’ anschauen!
7 O selig ist,
zu jeder Frist,
der dieses recht bedenket,
wie der Herr der Herrlichkeit
wird ins Grab gesenket!
8 O Jesu, du,
mein’ Hilf’ und Ruh’,
ich bitte dich mit Tränen:
Hilf, daß ich mich bis ins Grab
nach dir möge sehnen!
Here is the chorale from Bach’s Markus Passion.

Johann Rist (1608-1667) was born at Ottensen in Holstein-Pinneberg (today Hamburg), the son of the Lutheran pastor of that place, Caspar Rist. He received his early training at the Gelehrtenschule des Johanneums in Hamburg and the Gymnasium Illustre in Bremen; he then studied theology at the University of Rinteln. Under the influence of Josua Stegman there, his interest in hymn writing began. On leaving Rinteln, he tutored the sons of a Hamburg merchant, accompanying them to the University of Rostock, where he himself studied Hebrew, mathematics, and medicine. During his time at Rostock, the Thirty Years War almost emptied the University, and Rist himself lay there for several weeks, suffering from pestilence. In 1650, he became tutor in the house of Landschreiber Heinrich Sager at Heide, in Holstein. Two years later (1635) he was appointed pastor of the village of Wedel on the Elbe. He died in Wedel on 31 August 1667.

The translation in the 1940 Hymnal was done by C.Winifred Douglas (1867-1944), a prodigious translator and a renowned collector of Native American pottery.

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Mount Calvary Maundy Thursday 2019

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Mount Calvary Church

Eutaw Street and Madison Avenue

Baltimore, Maryland

A Roman Catholic Parish

The Personal Ordinariate of the Chair of S. Peter

Anglican Use

Rev. Albert Scharbach, Pastor and Celebrant

Dr. Allen Buskirk, Choirmaster

Maundy Thursday

April 18, 2019

7:00 P. M.

Mass of the Lord’s Supper

The Maundy

Procession to the Altar of Repose

Stripping of the Altars

Prayer Vigil until Midnight

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Common

Missa Dixit Maria, Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612)

Here is the Kyrie, sung by the Ensemble Vocal Européen, Philippe Herreweghe conducting.

“Missa Dixit Maria” is based on a popular motet by the German composer Hans Leo Hassler (1564-1612). Hassler studied with Giovanni and Andrea Gabrieli in Venice, two composers who were pushing the boundaries of the Late Renaissance style and developing sonorities and textures that we associate with the early Baroque. Hassler brought this Venetian style to Germany, though to some extent his influence was lessened by the fact that he was a Lutheran in a heavily Catholic area. Listen for how Hassler uses the material from this motet in different ways to create music appropriate for each section of the mass ordinary.

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Anthems

Ubi caritas et amor, Ola Gjeilo (1978-  )

Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est. Congregavit nos in unum Christi amor. Exultemus, et in ipso iucundemur. Timeamus, et amemus Deum vivum. Et ex corde diligamus nos sincero.

Where charity and love are, God is there. Christ’s love has gathered us into one. Let us rejoice and be pleased in Him. Let us fear, and let us love the living God. And may we love each other with a sincere heart.

Here is the Central Washington University Chamber Choir.

“Ubi caritas” is a setting for women’s voices of an ancient hymn used as an antiphon to accompanies the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday. Ola Gjeilo (b. 1978) moved from his native Norway in 2001 to the United States to study composition at Julliard; he still makes his home in New York City. He is one of the most frequently performed living composers in the choral world. “Ubi caritas” was one of Gjeilo’s first choral pieces, influenced by the famous Duruflé motet, though unlike Duruflé, who incorporated the ancient plainchant into his polyphonic setting, Gjeilo’s motet is not based on any pre-existing musical material.

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Tomás Luis de Victoria (1548-1611)

O sacrum convivium, in quo Christus sumitur; recolitur memoria passionis ejus; mens impletur gratia; et futurae gloriae nobis pignus datur.

O sacred banquet, wherein Christ is received; the memorial of his passion is renewed; the soul is filled with grace; and a pledge of future glory is given to us.

Here is Chanticleer.

“O Sacrum Convivium” is a eucharistic prayer that liturgically functions as an antiphon for the Magnificat for vespers on the feast of Corpus Christi. The word ‘convivium’ translated as ‘banquet’ also has the sense of ‘shared living’ that we find in the English word ‘communion.’ Along with the gifts of grace to the soul and a foretaste of heaven, one of the blessings of the eucharist is a renewal of the community as the Body of Christ. This motet by Victoria for four equal voices conveys this sense of unity. Perhaps this is because the higher three voices occupy the same space musically–the same pitch range–moving in close harmony, each with its own role and yet inseparably connected.

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Hymns

Deck thyself, my soul, with gladness (SCHMÜCKE DICH). The original German text, Schmücke dich, o liebe Seele, was written by the German politician and poet Johann Franck (1618—1677) in the aftermath of the Thirty Years’ War. It expresses an intimate relationship between the individual believer and his Savior, Jesus Christ. Jesus, ascended into heaven, is still present as our food in this “wondrous banquet.” He is the fount, from whom our being flows as we receive Him and are filled with Him. He feeds us and transforms us into His likeness so that we become His joy and boast and glory before the heavenly court.

And now, O Father, mindful of Thy love (UNDE ET MEMORES) was composed by Anglican High Churchman William Bright (1824—1901), He was Regius Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Oxford, and then worked in Scotland, where his views on the Reformation caused him to be ejected by the Bishop of Glasgow. He then returned to Oxford.  It is based on the Roman Canon. The hymn remembers the love of Christ in dying for us (verse 1); relates it to our confession of sin (verse 2); prays for others (verse 3); and culminates in the moment of receiving the bread and wine (verse 4).

Now, my tongue, the mystery telling (PANGE LINGUA)  is a translation of the Pange lingua, which was written by Thomas Aquinas (1224-1274) as the hymn for Vespers of the newly established Feast of Corpus Christi. Aquinas had been invited in 1264 by Pope Urban IV to produce a liturgy for this festival, and this hymn belongs to that provision.  It is patterned on the processional hymn Pange lingua, written by Venantius Fortunatus (530-600).

 

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Pope Benedict on the Causes of the Sexual Abuse Crisis

in clergy sex abuse scandal, Pope Benedict, sexual abuse 15 Comments

 

In retirement Pope Benedict has written an article for a Bavarian journal for priests on the causes of the sexual abuse crisis. I largely agree, and the article is not an exhaustive catalogue, but there are still some serious omissions.

The causes that Benedict identifies are

  • A loss of a lively as opposed to an abstract belief in God.
  • The denial of the teaching authority of the Church in matters of morality
  • The sexual revolution in the 1960s
  • The sole focus on protecting rights of accused priests.

It should be noted that Benedict uses the term pedophilia. This is inaccurate, but is a widespread shorthand for the abuse of young people and I think it is clear that this is what Benedict means. True pedophilia, sexual activity with pre-pubertal children, is rare and in fact declined among Catholic priest in the United States over the past two generations.

To begin with the last cause.

Benedict writes that the Congregation for the Clergy was almost exclusively focused on protecting rights of accused priests to the point that it was almost impossible to get a conviction and a removal from the priesthood.

This is correct and is a result of the clericalism that enabled the coverup. The laity in the church were seen as existing for the sake of priests. The priest’s administration of the sacraments was seen, implicitly or explicitly, as the most important activity that pleased God. If a corrupt priest destroyed the faith of the laity, the priest was still pleasing God by offering the eucharist. I am not sure how explicitly this was articulated, but this attitude encouraged the Congregation for the Clergy to do everything possible to keep priests active in the priesthood. Bishops got the message, and rarely fought the Congregation. Cardinal Wright, despite his checkered career, was one of the few who fought the Congregation to remove an abusive priest.

Benedict says this problem was why sexual abuse cases were removed from the Congregation for the Clergy, where they logically belong, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Abusers were destroying faith of their  victims. Benedict cites a peculiarly horrible example. One abuser before he would abuse a girl, said: “This is my body given for you.”

Clericalism definite enabled and encouraged the cover-up of abuse. Benedict does not say that it also enables the abuse by placing priests above criticism in the eyes of the laity, but I think he would probably agree to that.

Benedict also identifies as a cause the lack of a lively faith in God. God had become an abstraction in theological system and clerics lacked what John Henry Newman called a realization of faith: they did not feel that the realities of faith were in fact true, and that God was a transcendent yet present and almost unendurable reality.

The widespread questioning of moral teachings by Catholic theologians also contributed to undermining the authority of the Church’s teaching on sexual morality. I think this is true. Whatever the intentions of the theologians, what many people heard was that all absolutes were gone and that they should engage in their own sexual projects, as their consciences, which they interpreted as their feelings, led them.

As a consequence, many people in the church surrendered to the sexual revolution; nothing was absolutely forbidden, including adult-child sex. The radicals of the 1960s in Germany and elsewhere propagandized for and practiced adult-child sex. Homosexual clubs formed in seminaries. A bishop when he was a seminary rector showed seminarians pornographic films. The first seminary visitation was a farce. All of this is true, and fueled sexual abuse.

But there are two omissions in Benedict’s catalog, one he will never address and one he may or may not have considered, because it concerns a deeper problem.

First: Pope John Paul II refused to deal with sexual abuse beyond a few anodyne remarks. John Paul protected abusers like Maciel and refused to listen to pleas, including from Cardinal Schoenborn, to act. Why?

Second: Sexual abuse did not begin in the sixties. The Holy Office had extensive files from the Counter-Reformation on solicitation in the confessional. St. John Calasanctius founded the Piarists and covered up a bad case of abuse in one of his schools to avoid alienating the Cherubini family which was influential at the Vatican. When the Jesuit archives were uncovered after the French revolution there were many cases of abuse in them.

In many cultures, pederasty is a widespread and accepted practice.  By pederasty I mean a sexual liaison between an older man and an adolescent or young man, the type of liaisons that Cardinal McCarrick engaged in. The classical world was full of such relationships. American soldiers who have served in the Middle East have been horrified and disgusted by the practice of man-boy relationships among Muslims, who condemn homosexuality, but do not consider themselves homosexuals when they engage in sex with boys.

The Jews condemned same-sex relationships, and one of the main Jewish objections to Hellenizing was based on the practice of youths exercising in the nude in the gymnasia. The LORD was beyond sex; He had no consort but created by His word. But human procreation participated in the divine creativity and human beings were created in the image of God. Procreation therefore was under a special divine government, and crimes against procreation, such as the sterility of Sodom, were punished by fire. Those who looked back at Sodom were turned into sterile pillar of salt, and those who had been contaminated by it, like Lot, fell into incest.

The abiding male tendency to pederasty is perhaps based upon a narcissism which sees in the young male lost vigor and wishes to identify with it. It is certainly a widespread tendency that crops up in the Church (and elsewhere) – Peter Damian wrote an extensive denunciation of such sins. Societies must cultivate a strong taboo, as strong as the incest taboo, to make this practice almost nonexistent, and clearly the Church has failed to do this. The abuse will continue, and the corruption will encourage silence about true pedophilia (the abuse of pre-pubertal children) and abuse of women and girls. Pope Francis denounces the abuse of children, but he considers sex between adults (and the age of consent has been sometimes very, very young, as low as 7) as a minor peccadillo, so I do not expect any significant reforms during his pontificate.

 

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