Adoremus, Society for the Renewal of the Sacred Liturgy Online
Edition - June 2004 Vol. X No. 4 What you really must know about
Gregorian Chant "The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as
specially suited to the Roman Liturgy: therefore, other things
being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical
services". - Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium §116
(1963) Forty years after these words were written, few Catholics
had ever heard a Gregorian chant at Mass in their parish Church,
and even fewer had participated in chanting the Mass. Yet the
active participation of the people in this form of worship was,
obviously, the vision of the fathers of the Second Vatican
Council. Alas, all things were not equal, in the turbulent years
of change and innovation following the Council. Not only was
Gregorian chant not accorded "pride of place"; like a
rainforest, it was nearly destroyed by decades of reckless
liturgical bulldozing. But Catholics alive today may yet see the
Council's intended revival o