www.byzcath.org Forums News & Events Church News Papal Mass @ Nationals Ballpark

I was one of the lucky folks who got to see the Pope today at the new ballpark in DC. I actually got a good seat. I took the day off. It was a very moving experience to be among so many thousands of people praying. The Pope received a warm greeting -several warm greetings - Archbishop Wuerl had to stop a couple times for the applause. It was a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky, the Pope gave a great homily. The music was eclectic, but I enjoyed it all. Placido Domingo sang like an angel. Everything was amazingly well organized, too.

Annie,

Good for you. Most people who've put in their opinion and most blogs are absolutely appalled and terribly hurt at the musical selection for this Mass (I confess to being one of them). Anyway, I'm glad you thought it a prayerful experience.

Alexis

May God bless the Pope--his countenance is both holy and angelic, yet at the same time charismatic too!

I believe that his visit here, because he is a very holy man and Bishop, will purify the American RC church of all the pain and scandal, and that it will bless it.

Katie: I hope that Placido Domingo sang the 'Ave Maria'....my favorite hymn. I wanted to give thanks to the Blessed Virgin Mary the other day in my car, so I popped in my Andrea Boccelli CD of the 'Ave Maria'.

Alice

Really, I think they shouldn't be appalled. In the DC metro area, we have an eclectic collection of Catholics and they were giving the Pope a sampling of the hospitality of the Archdiocese of Washington, which was hosting his visit, after all. The ADW is like no place I've lived as far as its variety of ethnic parishes(and I'm originally from NYC).

When I first came to DC I was put off by some of the music and some of the traditions from immigrant communities I had no prior connection to at all. Where I grew up, most Catholics were lily white like me and the pipe organ played by the old lady + the choir who sang slightly off key = church music. That was it. It was comfortable and it was familiar. In DC, my first experience of walking into a church was very, very different. But before I lived in the DC area, I never had any deep desire to go to church on a day other than Sunday.

In the ADW, you will find Masses in Mandarine Chinese, Vietnamese, Tagalog, Igbo, Korean, Hatian Creole, Spanish, Zulu, etc. Tridentine Latin has also been offered by ADW for years, btw. The music matches cultures where pipe organs are just not that common. You will find churches with African American Catholics who are every bit as "into" the Mass as their Protestant evangelical brothers and sisters are into their services. Honestly, it is energizing to be with people who are "into" the Mass. I remember when we had the national day of prayer after 9/11. Churches were full. I went to a church next to my office (an Italian church, the only remnant of DC's now defunct little Italy). After the dismissal, a young black woman with a beautiful voice broke into a hymn as everyone was leaving. We all turned around and came back to the pews and pulled out the books and started to sing. The priest came back out and sang with us. Everyone stayed and sang and they were hugging each other and crying and it was not what I was used to, but it was what people really needed. Across town, same day, my husband tried to get into the cathedral, but it was over full and there was no way to cram another person in. They weren't letting people in. So a crowd was standing around on the steps and the sidewalk wondering what to do. Same thing happened there, a couple black women improvised and just broke into hymns, just out in the street. So that's what the people outside did - they hung out and they sang together. And we realized that in one of the most cynical cities in the world, we have a really healthy Catholic community going on.

Anyway, I think the Pope would have missed out on a visit to Washington if he hadn't been introduced to all our Catholics. You can definitely feel the "catholicism" of Catholicism here in DC. I think Cardinals McCarrick and Wuehrl have done a great job nurturing a flock that comes here from all over the country and all over the world. Many Catholics I know in DC actually plan to visit different parishes on their lunch hours. It is just so cool to be Catholic here.

The Pope reached out to so many people with his homily yesterday. His visit went beyond what many expected. People were actually crying during his homily. At times, you could hear a pin drop when he was speaking.

He sang Panis Angelicus after Communion. It was sp beautiful. The Pope actually got up from his throne when Placido finished. Placido greeted him and genuflected and kissed the Pope's ring. The Ave Maria was sung by the choir prior to the Mass. I don't know who the gentleman was who was leading on the Ave was, but he had a beautiful voice. Denyce Graves, who is one of my faves, led the choir in a selection or two prior to the Mass. There was actually a prelude, I don't know if that got televised. People were asked to be seated early, so there were some musical selections while the Popemobile arrived and the procession ready itself.

I was also at the Papal Mass, and I'm in complete agreement with Annie about the atmosphere. It was incredibly uplifting and reverent. I personally can't believe all the criticism on the blogs (almost exclusively by people who were not there). I am a pretty traditional Catholic when it comes to the Liturgy, and although I could also criticize some (but not all) of the music, I thought the Mass was overall appropriate and reverent.

Regarding the criticisms from many quarters, I personally think TV is the problem. The Liturgy is not something to "watch", it is something to participate in. TV, however, is a passive medium, and so those who watched it on TV were passively watching it, and thus were able to critique anything they thought was inappropriate. However, if you were there, you were participating in the worship of the Trinity with the bishop of Rome, and the minor problems were quickly forgotten as you participated in the solemnity of the Mass with the Holy Father.

Their "Graces" who were providing commentary on EWTN were unusually condescending and I felt, unkind, in some of their comments, especially during the Intercessions.

Was everything done the way I would have chosen? No. Was it a good indicator of parochial life in the DC Archdiocese and the American Church in general? Probably. There was NOTHING irreverent or sloppy about anything I saw during the Mass, so was there a call to be snide? Especially from a priest.

I don't think that they'd like to hear me provide commentary on an EWTN Mass.

It was a beautiful mass. I would have liked to have been in prayerful attendance.

I didn't catch EWTN's commentary, is there a source where I can see what those comments were?

Terry

I recorded the Mass and watched it last night. It was very prayerful and one could discern the Divine Presence upon the gathering.

I understand that many objected to the selection of music, and I certainly agree it was eclectic (though not unacceptable). My only complaint was that in all that ethnic diversity there was not a choir singing "Christos Voskerese" / "Christ is Risen". I can easily imagine an extended version of the version we often call the "march" (often sung instead of "May our lips be filled") with the paschal verses and different languages intermixed. It would have been very appropriate.

As to the commentary by the EWTN commentators, I can agree that some of it was a bit much. I understand it to an extent as there were a few elements in the Mass that Pope Benedict XVI (when he was Cardinal Ratzinger and now as pope) has commented upon very negatively. Anyone who has really read what Ratzinger/Benedict XVI has written would instantly understand. But it was not really the time or the place to bring it up. Anyone who wishes to get the idea of what Father Richard John Neuhaus said can visit his blog [firstthings.com] for that day.

Something I observed was that when the Lord's Prayer was sung, a controversy in the English translation was resolved by using both debts and transgressors rather than deciding on one translation or the other, with debts and debtors or transgressions and transgressors.

Is that standard, or was it a compromise to include both?

I enjoyed listening to the Lord's Prayer.

I was at the Holy Mass yesterday at Nationals Ballpark.

AMAZING!

With our early departure, we got into the stadium around 6:30a.m. Already there were many priests there, along with those in consecrated life, like the Little Sisters of the Poor, Sisters of Life, Carmelite Nuns from Port Tobacco.

The sanctuary setup was very dignified - the CUA student-designed altar, ambo, and chair were dignified. The pre-Mass music was, while eclectic, nevertheless well done. The intent was to show the universality of the Church in America.
There Latin Catholic Priests, I recognized priests from the Philadelphia Ukrainian Archeparchy, from the Passaic Byzantine Eparchy, Maronite priests and seminarians, the seminarians from St. Josaphat Seminary in Washington.

I did think to myself that they could have included some music from the Eastern Churches... Next time!

I am a tad dismayed by some comments in "blogdom" which I feel tainted the viewing eye and listening ear of the telecast of the Papal Mass. They were not helpful in the least.

I dare say that if you would have asked any of the almost 50,000 people who were there in person , they would have probably and universally complained about the Responsorial Psalm, but little else. They, the average Catholic in America, would have probably seen these things as an expression of the universality of the Church in America. I do not think it fair to attribute maliciousness or idiocy to the part of the planners of the Mass, as many of these complainers are doing.

Undoubtedly some will argue on liturgical principles that more should have been employed which came from the Church's patrimony of sacred music. Whatever.

News commentators said regarding Pope John Paul II that the people "listened to the singer, not the song." Perhaps these bloggers and combox complainers are listening neither to the singer or the song, but rather the accompaniement or background music.

I got within 10 feet of the Pope when he was descending the sanctuary after Mass! We must have been a security nightmare! There's a picture of us doing that in today's Washington Post...

There are some wonderful pictures including one of our very own Bishop Basil!

http://www.washingtonpost.com/

Under the picture of the Pope, click on Views From: The Crowd

Clearly, there were crowns in with the mitres among the bishops parading in. (I love watching those processions.) An "Eastern" choral piece could have been very, very beautiful during or before the "Roman" Mass. There was a fair bit of musical prelude going on while the Pope arrived and drove around and while the procession gathered and came in, so there were opportunities to include something Eastern. That's definitely a fair "only complaint" to have!

To All,

I did not have the opportunity to see the "Mass in the ballpark" but what I've read here so far (aside from the fact the Eastern Churches were not liturgically represented) is extremely uplifting. I think the Pope was treated to the the American Church in all its splendor. Like Joseph, son of Jacob, the American as well as the univeral Catholic Church is a "church of many colors". Pope Benedict certainly realizes and recognizes this, and is not going to subvert the faith and goodwill of the flock he tends.

I am 51 years old and without leaving Pittsburgh I have been served by priests from all over the U.S. and from Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Belgium, Ireland, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Viet Nam...to name few. I have witnessed firsthand the diversity of the Catholic Church (including the Eastern Catholic Churches) without ever leaving home. I thank God 99% of these priests did not check their orthodoxy at the door. I've sung with them, prayed with them, laughed with them, and cried with them. They are my brothers in Christ and my brothers in the faith.
I thank God for this diversity in unity.

It is wonderful to be orthodox in communion with Rome.

In Christ,
Bill

Thanks for the link Anna.

I loved the picture - and of course so many of them - but especailly the one of the priest hearing confession at the bottom of the escalator. And then there is one that shows the contradiction of faith and the world - the priest giving Eucharsit, while the man walks behind him talking on the cell phone. The little girl on her dad's shoulders was precious.

Thanks for sharing!