Polka Mass

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There is much being debated reference the Polka Mass. I believe the controversy may be laid to rest if we can receive verification as to whether Fr. Perk did, (or did not) in fact, provide a Polka Mass on the High Altar at St. Peter’s in 1983, as his site insists. If this was part of that apex of liturgies, then it has been approved, by default.

Who knows the real deal?
 
I’m not veyr informed on this issue, but even if he did, that wouldn’t make it right, I don’t think.
 
It must be an approved liturgy. Several parishes around here have a polka Mass when they have their festivals. When my parish has it, I always visit a new parish. 😃
 
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dbradio:
There is much being debated reference the Polka Mass. I believe the controversy may be laid to rest if we can receive verification as to whether Fr. Perk did, (or did not) in fact, provide a Polka Mass on the High Altar at St. Peter’s in 1983, as his site insists. If this was part of that apex of liturgies, then it has been approved, by default.

Who knows the real deal?
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Not true.
 
Polka Mass
Question from david burns on 12-06-2004: What’s the real deal on the so-called Polka Mass? Is it licit, profane, reprobate, advised, ill-advised, never proper, accepted, etc, and why, please. Thank you

Answer by Colin B. Donovan, STL on 12-16-2004: It is entirely profane and therefore illicit, as are Jazz Masses, Clown Masses, and everything of like stupidity. GIRM 41. All other things being equal, Gregorian chant holds pride of place because it is proper to the Roman Liturgy. Other types of sacred music, in particular polyphony, are in no way excluded, provided that they correspond to the spirit of the liturgical action and that they foster the participation of all the faithful.

Polka Mass
Question from dave burns on 12-16-2004: I forgot to mention that the Holy Father blessed Father ____ and his musicians and thoroughly enjoyed a Polka Mass from the High Altar at St. Peter’s. How does this square with current thinking? JP II told them VERRRY GOOOOD!

Answer by Colin B. Donovan, STL on 12-23-2004: Sorry, I can’t take your “facts” at face value. Something is wrong with your tale. I lived in Rome for 4 years. Not once did a group other than the choir and musicians of the Basilica support a papal Mass. On the other hand, artistic displays of visiting groups occur in the audiences, and sometimes outdoors after a Mass in the square. I would not be surprised if Polish music and dance occured in those extra-liturgical circumstances and that the Pope appreciated the music of his homeland. THAT would not create a dogmatic fact or liturgical norm (its not even IN the liturgy at that point) that overturns the complete imappropriateness of non-sacred music (polka, jazz, rock, blues etc.) in the Mass.
 
I need to chime in on this as well. While I have no official documentation, I have been a member of two different Polish parishes who have regularily performed Polka Masses on certain occassions. Additionally, I have relatives in Poland who tell me that this is a pretty regular thing.

I find it hard to believe that all of them are doing something illicit. And if they were, wouldn’t the Pope be the first one to say so instead of saying “very good”?
 
A lot of people have been misled if Father Perk didn’t celebrate the Polka Mass at the Vatican as claimed. This should be cleared up, if its a controversy as it apparently is.

Fr. Perk has been enshrined in the National Cleveland Style Polka Hall of Fame for his development of the polka mass as well as bringing it to Rome.

Further, Fr. Perk was lauded on the floor of Congress in Washington by his congressman Rep. Obenstar July 7,2004 on the occasion of his retirement for his development of the Polka Mass.
 
Answer by Colin B. Donovan, STL on 12-16-2004: It is entirely profane and therefore illicit, as are Jazz Masses, Clown Masses, and everything of like stupidity. GIRM 41. All other things being equal,
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what is so frustrating to me is that in average american parishes never sing gregorian chant/latin but allow terrible folk/sappy music written during the 60s-90s. what’s the difference if they set the sanctus to polka music vs. that garbage published in many disposable missals? it is all profane. how can the church allow folk music but not jazz? nothing in vatican II documents absolutely forbids it. the church is totally subjective when it comes to what is allowed in the liturgy. they make to absolutes but only recommendations. what’s the point? either it is wrong or right, not “pride of place” or whatever that means. they write things that allow a huge amount of freedom in interpretation.

This guy Colin B. Donovan is a stickler to the GIRM. he’s very uncritical of anything the vatican decides on the liturgy. but for some reason he doesn’t like “polka masses” even if the pope allows them in the vatican. he isn’t consistent.

here is his website that acknowledges that the pope encoraged him and his polka mass. so what is Colin B. Donovan talking about. he likes to bury his head in the sand. cuyana1.rangenet.com/~frperk/

here’s some more of his music: polka-store.com/FatherPerkovich/
In 1983 Fr. Perkovich and the Polka Massters had the experience of a lifetime, celebrating the Polka Mass on the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for Pope John Paul II. The Pope commended and encouraged Fr. Perkovich in his endeavors with the Polka Mass and was pleased to accept a recording of the Mass.
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Father Perk, as he is known, believed it did not matter how one worshiped as long as it raised one’s mind and heart to God. …Father Perk created a Mass set to the old ethnic melodies of polka music and celebrated the first Polka Mass in 1973. For the next 30 years, this unusual blend of folk music and holy worship has become internationally popular,
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In 1983, Father Perk traveled to Rome and celebrated the Polka Mass on the high altar of St. Peter’s Basilica in the Vatican for Pope John Paul II, who blessed the “Polka Priest’s” endeavor. It was the experience of a lifetime for a humble pastor from a small town in Minnesota who only wanted to create a liturgical service that would bring people together and closer to God.
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vote-smart.org/speech_detail.php?speech_id=53175
 
Gosh, the STL is one angry individual. Perhaps he doth protest too much. I would suspect approval of the Hula Mass has upset him, too.

You will never be in the presence of a holier man than Father Perk.

Why would the “polka” Mass be permitted on the high altar at St P’s if it were profane?

STL, your outbursts of “stupidity”, et al, does not become a panelist of EWTN.

If the event did happen, that seals it for me. If it did not, will someone please recite chapter and verse of the event that did not happen?

BTW, STL, you it is not licit on this site to cut and paste. You shared personal stuff!
 
OK - For this idiot from the UK where as far as I know we do not have such oddities = just what is a ** Polka ** Mass ?

Frankly - the mind boggles
 
Fr. Perkovich is a pioneer who took the Polka Mass to the high altar at St. Peter’s in 1983.

Fr Perk’s people are mostly Croat/Slovenian. Their basic music is in the Polka.

There are those who would take us back to the dark ages who have great looks down their noses at such. We have an approved Hula Mass, and the Folk Mass has been widely distributed and accepted for many years.

I’ve heard this Polka Mass and I respect the worship and praise it presents to the people of that “vernacular”. I found it loving and in love with our Trinity. Very sincere!

Try it on at (google) Fr Perk . That’ll take you to his home page.
 
Just what is a “polka Mass?” Is it nothing more than the Novus Ordo Mass with inappropriate music?

Something like that could easily slither through the cracks and technically be legal. Someone mentioned some of the rancid folksy songs of the 1960’s. If a Mass contained some of those songs, it would not be a “Kumbaya Mass” – it would just be the normative Mass with stultified music.

What I’m quite sure about is that there is no approved “polka Mass” or “hula Mass” in the same sense that there is an appoved Novus Ordo Mass, Tridentine Mass, Anglican-use Mass, etc., etc.
All it sounds like to me is inappropriate music.

What else do they do? I certainly hope they don’t polka in a circle around the altar, or try to consecrate pretzels and beer…

P.S. While I have no proof (except for Mr. Donovan’s comments), it’s hardly beliveable that an om-pah-pah (sp) band has ever provided the music for a Mass celebrated from the main altar of St. Pete’s…
 
According to the Church Militant website, someone there is very upset that a Hula Mass has been permitted. The Archbishop who oversees that part of Oceania is very pleased.

Now, on both of these, if anyone can cite facts and dates that either the Polka mass did not happen on the high altar at St P’s, or that the Hula Mass did not receive approval for that obvious part of the world, let him/her speak now, or simply slink away.
 
Remember that the mass is a ritual reenactment of the Last Supper and Cavalry and should be treated with as much solemnity and sacredness. Folk music can be solemn but is still profane and non-inspiring and should, in my opinion, be replaced with a choir whose members don’t sing as if they are trying to win American Idol. If that kind of singing is sincere form of praise music in the black community or if mariachi music is solemn in the Latin community, it is wise to keep it with them. I didn’t leave my home parish; it left me (and I was raised in the '80s).

Playing mind games with the congregation is, in my opinion, going to isolate the faithful or isolate them from the sacredness of the mass and the life they are to lead outside mass. It was bad enough for my parents’ generation to see speed masses but stripping the mass, church architecture and church music of its sacredness and forming them to more accentuate the horizontal of the Christian relationship amongst believers than the vertical, I believe, scandalized the faithful even more.

Why else do people leave after communion, don’t sing or respond despite the novus ordo being retooled for that purpose, talk before and after mass in the pews, and do worse things as I have heard of in stories by people like Fr. Corapi. We used to have to stand along the walls of the church for holiday masses; now not even holidays pack the pews. If there was a reform of attitudes and better education of children before Vatican 2 regarding what was significant about every symbol sensed at mass and what is so special about our Faith, would pre-Vatican 2 masses have been so hard to sit through?

At least it couldn’t get infected with innovations (at least not the liturgy); I found the silliness at my home parish’s Christmas Eve mass ( for example, a cantor sang, and terribly so, some parts of the liturgy using the melody of traditional Christmas hymns) hard to bear (and it could have been worse) and wondered what new innovations are on the horizons. If the mass and Faith doesn’t seem sacred anymore (and we can’t lie to ourselves and fool our subconscious about how we need to sense the sacred), who will, not being educated about what’s good in the intended novus ordo mass and Vatican 2 teachings, find any reason not to think they can just pray at home or substitute their own spiritual practice? No amount of cognitive esoteric shutting of the eyes and making the only source of spiritual enrichment as that which comes from one’s interior will change how we get a sense of the sacred. Of course, some churches can’t get gold stuff (what, there’s noone who can wittle or carve a statue of Mary that could be painted?) and some Catholics are stuck in war or a POW camp, but those are exceptions and God will provide them if they are faithful or if He wants to for His own purposes.

That’s my opinion, I could be wrong. All this is one big reason why I go to the FSSP Latin mass (the other being they tell you what you need to know during homilies). Maybe when the EWTN watching young priests start running more parishes, I will go back to the novus ordo masses I’ll see. I have heard good masses from this young priest and an old priest in KC. I’m not sure this is the “Springtime” yet, but it may be the thaw after the winter of liturgical abuses.
 
Please provide evidence that a Polka Mass did not occur in 1983 in St Peter’s on the high altar.
 
No one here seems to want to define what a “polka Mass” truly is…

Sounds like the normative Mass to me with crummy music. No law against that…
 
Franciscum: Although it was in concert setting, I found the recently composed “Creole Mass” which was performed in the St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans and appeared on our public broadcasting station to be reverent and wonderfully composed. It combined jazz, ragtime, spirituals and traditional classical music (a la Gottschalk). It was everything my little New Orleans soul reverberated to. I have heard Cajun masses and mariachi masses. As long as it is reverent, reflects the values of the cultures, and, most importantly, is performed well, I don’t have a problem with it. Catholics have been incorporating the music of the people for a long time.
 
Greetings Church

Ever notice how some folks can get hung up on the oddest stuff. They even decide what is appropriate music, if it should be sung or not and what instruments are “holy”. Once again, I am so grateful for Jesus becoming one of us. I am sure it went far in increasing His sense of humor.

Folks the Church is UNIVERSAL!!! How do you think Catholics celebrate Mass in Africa, for example"
Mass is not celebrated just for the likes of some of you.

Come on, loosen up, let Holy Mother Church decide what is OK and what is not and avoid those masses that offend you so much. Focus on Jesus and work on your tendency to be distracted.

I have never heard of a Polka Mass before I read this but I do remember the Folk Masses you mentioned and I loved them.

At our 10PM Midnight Christmas Mass we had a flute. For some of you organ only folks, let me tell you, this was purely beautiful.
 
If I want to hear polka, I’ll go to a polka concert. I think most others who don’t appreciate the Eucharist because their parish does silly things, don’t get taught about it at mass, don’t watch EWTN and puts the tabernacle to the side will think the same thing whether they enjoy rock, flutes, polka or what not else. This is not an issue of loosening up but an issue of many who think like you to learn something about mass psychology. Where have all the people gone in the pews? Most likely, most haven’t become traditionalists but instead don’t know why they should go.
 
The Polka Mass draws people for the right reason. In Fr Perk’s region, churches experience an average of up to 70% regular attendance.

Since most of us are fortunate to experience over 40% regular attendance, this sings volumes.

For those still curious, experience Fr Perk’s site…

cuyana1.rangenet.com/~frperk/

God Bless the traditionalists and may He soften their hearts while He hardens their faith and forms a desktop shortcut to a personal encounter with Him, the Christ.

Try Cursillo!

De Colores
 
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