October 17, 2010

  • What a Strange Thing to Rebel On

    Last week, I was cantoring for Our Lady of Perpetual Help in Maple Shade and one of the songs was "Sing a New Song", an old standard for me. But there was something different. The line which had always been "Yahweh's people dance for joy" had been turned into "Shout with gladness. Dance for joy." Agog, I mentioned it to the accompanist and he stated that we weren't allowed to use Yahweh in the hymns anymore. I thought it was just that accompanist, that music ministry, that church, or that diocese, but that's not the case. It was decided in June of 2008 by the Vatican that names stemming from the Tetragrammaton such as "Yahweh" and "Jehovah" must not “be used or pronounced” in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses. Because the hymnals for 2009 were already printed at the time of the announcement, we're only just now finding out in 2010, and because so many of the classic hymns have been displaced, it's taken even longer for me to realize that this had happened. The biggest casualty in my opinon? Dan Schutte's "You Are Near," a hymn that's near and dear to my heart, which I know by heart. OCP has proposed a replacement set of lyrics, but it's just not the same.

    To give more background on the decision by the Vatican, it basically has to do with the status of the Tetragrammaton as a sacred name. The Israelites would not speak it or write it out in full and the early Christians did the same (well, as best we can tell... the earliest manuscripts of the New Testament dated from about 200-300 AD and some spelled out Yahweh and some did not). In respect to this, the Vatican made this decision. I disagree with them. I will bow to them while in the confines of mass, those times that I don't automatically sing the correct lyrics from memory, but I will continue to sing the name of Yahweh in my daily life. *shakes head* It's just... it feels like a punch to the gut, you know? And, relatively speaking, it's such a small thing.