[Magdalen] Clergy-musician dispute redux.

[Grace Cangialosi]

I once had a parishioner walk out just before an Advent service; he checked all the hymn numbers and saw there were no Christmas carol!
I learned later that that was just the last straw--he and his wife had gone to her Lutheran church earlier that morning, as they always did, and they didn't have any Christmas carols, either!  He said he wasn't coming back--and he never did!

> On Jun 12, 2017, at 10:15 AM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> Good heavens! And that's why "Catholics can't sing", I guess. ~smdh~ Music
> has caused me to leave, or at least decide not to attend, more than one
> church. I guess RCs don't have that choice, though. They're "assigned" to
> the parish they live in, more or less. Although my aunt, who was a convert,
> absolutely refused to attend the church behind their building in NYC, which
> was supposedly their parish church, because she could not stand the priest,
> and she and my uncle went farther downtown to another parish.
> 
> On Sun, Jun 11, 2017 at 11:41 PM, Cantor03--- via Magdalen <
> magdalen at herberthouse.org> wrote:
> 
>> 
>> I usually associate clergy-musician disputes with
>> Anglicans and Protestants, but there's been a sad
>> dispute chapter played out locally at one of the large
>> Roman Catholic churches.
>> 
>> The organist of this parish and his wife, who were organist
>> and choir directors respectively, are leaving their positions
>> which they have held for 31+ years.  It's the old situation
>> where a new pastor arrived, and he "disliked music," and
>> in particular "hated" the pipe organ which the church had just
>> rebuilt for $250,000.
>> 
>> The pastor first stuck the organist with being the church
>> janitor in addition to his musical duties, and a not so veiled
>> attempt to get the organist out.  The constant bickering has
>> taken it's toll.
>> 
>> There "will be no music at all" this summer, followed by
>> whomever he can come up with in rhe autumn.  This is not
>> only un-Christian, but non-canonical.   Most
>> Episcopal priests I know of are angels compared to this
>> pastor.
>>