Gregorian Chant in Pastoral Ministry and Religious Education

If you haven’t heard about it or signed up already, I wanted to make sure you knew about the conference coming up in March at the Dunwoodie Seminary (Yonkers) - “Gregorian Chant in Pastoral Ministry and Religious Education.” 

We’d love to have you join us for what promises to be an excellent conference, with nearly forty excellent presentations, beautiful liturgies, and plenty of time for discussion and meeting colleagues. 

There are various tracks that focus on sacred music in Spanish-speaking communities, vernacular-language chant, sacred music programs for children, and Church teaching on sacred music. Especially if you’re looking for ideas on how to improve the music program in your current situation, this is the conference for you. 

See more information below. 
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http://dunwoodiemusic.org/conference
National Conference: “Gregorian Chant in Pastoral Ministry and Religious Education”
Friday, March 10 – Saturday, March 11, 2017
St. Joseph’s Seminary (Dunwoodie), Yonkers, New York

What role does the Church’s treasury of sacred music play in contemporary pastoral ministry and religious education? How does one build a sacred music program of excellence which serves as an integral part of the sacred liturgy and is also effective both in drawing souls to Christ and forming people in the Catholic faith? This national conference will bring together clergy, seminarians, scholars, musicians, teachers, and Catholic school administrators to consider the place of Gregorian chant and excellent choral music in the life of the Catholic Church in America today. The conference seeks to inspire attendees with ideas for starting or continuing to develop sacred music programs of excellence in Catholic parishes and schools. The conference organizers also hope to encourage discussion about the vitality and necessity of beauty and sacred music in the catechesis and formation of Catholics, as well as in the evangelization of non-Catholics and non-practicing Catholics.

This two-day conference will feature plenary addresses by Msgr. Robert Skeris on “The Theology of Worship and Its Music.” Msgr. Skeris has for years directed the Centre for Ward Method Studies at the Catholic University of America. Developed in the 1920s by Catholic convert Justine Ward, the method has as its goal the cultivation of active participation of children in the sacred liturgy through the singing of the Church’s sacred music.

Another keynote by Fr. Christopher Smith will address liturgical formation in Catholic schools; Fr. Smith is the pastor of a booming parish with parochial school that has liturgical and musical formation at its center.

The final keynote is by Mark Langley, founding headmaster of the Lyceum, a classical Catholic school in Ohio; he will discuss the central role that a choir has in the intellectual and spiritual formation of students in a Catholic school.

In addition to the plenary addresses, nearly forty presenters will give workshops, papers, and recitals featuring topics such as:

Sacred Music in Spanish-Speaking Communities
Sacred Music in the Secular Sphere
Chant Camp for Parishes
Pastoral Care of Musicians
Pastoral Implications of Vernacular Chant
Parish Youth Orchestra and Conservatory for a Diverse Neighborhood
Mystagogical Catechesis and Sacred Music
The Schola Cantorum as an Integral Part of the Catholic School
A Practical Perspective in Starting an After-school Children’s Choir Program
Gregorian Chant as a Unifying Force in Multiethnic Parishes
Liturgical Formation in Catholic Schools
Forthcoming English Translations of Hymnody of the Liturgy of the Hours
Musical Literacy and Liturgy
The Role of Beauty and Chant in Spiritual Formation
The Dollars and “Sense” of Catholic Education
Training Choristers according to the English Cathedral Tradition and Royal School of Church Music
Liturgical Formation in Catholic Schools
Gregorian Chant in a Small Rural Parish
The Ward Method of Music Instruction

Presenters include: Dr. Mary Jane Ballou, Dr. Francis Brancaleone, Mary Ann Carr Wilson, Heitor Caballero, Colleen Crafton, Fr. Richard Cipolla, Dr. Jennifer Donelson, Fr. David M. Friel, Raymond Henderson, Dr. Aaron James, Fr. Robert Johansen, Lisa Knutson, Nathan Knutson, Alexis Kutarna, Frs. Robin Kwan and Kevin Mann, SJC, Dr. Ann Labounsky, Nicholas Lemme, Mary Catherine Levri, Dr. Crista Miller, Joel Morehouse, James Monti, Dr. Jared Ostermann, Kurt Poterack, Dr. Ronald Prowse, Laurence Rosania, Jonathan Ryan, Dr. Samuel A. Schmitt, Fr. Innocent Smith, OP, Students of the Atonement Academy, Dr. Jay Swain, Fr. Jon Tveit, Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, The Ward Centre of Richmond, Virginia, Nicholas Will, and Amy Zuberbuler.


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Paul A. Zalonski
Catholic Connecticut
255 Foxon Hill Road
East Haven, CT 06513-1216 USA
Email Paul: CatholicCT@gmail.com
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***Paul Zalonski is the Catholic Events contributor for Connecticut Catholic Corner***

Children learning about abortion for the first time

A shout out to Creative Minority Report for sharing the following video...

This video really struck a cord in me, because for years I taught 7th grade CCD in my parish.  One of the topics I had to cover each year with these 12-13 year old children was the Church's position on abortion.

What always struck me was that not a single child in my 7th grade CCD classes had EVER heard of abortion.  A few of them asked me a few times "what do you call it again?" the very word was foreign to them.  As clear as if it was yesterday I can see the stunned and disbelieving looks on their faces.  As if they were waiting for me to say "Gotcha!  Just kidding!".

Abortion.  Murdering children in the womb.  Pregnant mothers paying someone to kill their baby before its born.

They were rightly horrified.

They had no idea what it was.  I always struggled with terrible guilt at being the one to take away that innocence.  They walked into my classroom completely unaware that people murdered children in the womb and they walked out knowing mothers kill their babies if they don't want them.

I think the boys were more horrified than the girls- at least they were more vocal about it and voiced their absolute disgust at such a thing.

No parent ever asked me about it.  I don't know if they even paid attention to what the weekly topics were- its all there in the CCD books what topics would be discussed each week.  I didn't get to pick the topics, I just had to teach what the Church taught on them.

I often wondered if any of the children mentioned it to their parents and what response they received.  Did their parents contradict what I had just taught about abortion being mortal sin?  Being from a rather liberal leaning New England parish, I can imagine some of the parents probably support the "right" to abortion- I know they support birth control- they've told me as much.

As disturbed as I always was at having to tell these innocent kids people kill children in the womb, I found small comfort in knowing that at least I was teaching them what the Church taught and why.  That their first introduction wasn't "its just a blob of tissue, its not really a baby", but rather it IS a baby, who started out just like them, that the baby had a right to grow up and have a life and that its a terrible mortal sin to kill a child in or out of the womb.

How I hated being the one to take that innocence from them.  Still haunts me today and don't currently teach CCD.

I wonder if any of them thought of that class when they got older...if any of them were faced with an unwanted pregnancy and if that class made a difference in the choice they might have faced?

I hope and pray so.



In Christ,


Julie @ Connecticut Catholic Corner