This is addressed by the cited document. It directly addresses the issue that sometimes churches are chosen because they have an organ. It goes further by stipulating the conditions under which concerts, etc. may be permitted.
It is the local Ordinary who decides.
When you put it like that, it does all sound rather inappropriate. One of the considerations for allowing Spiritual concerts is that people come properly dressed and a last minute decision does not sound like people would know to dress properly for the concert to be moved to the church. Does you parish not have a hall? I’m also surprised at the ease with which your church altar and ambo can be moved.
You may be right. There are a lot of things to consider and I don’t have all of the answers.
However, to offer the sanctuary is quite different than a parish hall. Sacred space is sacred space. As far as the heat is concerned, I come from deep South Texas where this is a routine issue. If the organizers knew that it was going to be this hot, they should have made contingency plans.
Not all parishes have a parish hall. We didn’t when I was growing up. It looks the this parish did and I am not sure why the visiting priest didn’t offer that room.
I understand what you are talking about. We occassionally attended Mass on military bases, too, and even attended Mass in a movie theatre. It was not like the Catholic community had any control over what was being held in their worship space that was shared by other religions. And sometimes the space was used for other events such as retirement ceremonies. Most of the time we preferred to join a local Catholic parish. In response to the “concern” that some of us do not seem to understand what a Sacred Space is etc. , it is not that we are willing to let our Catholic Churches be used for just anything. The fact is that concerts are being allowed under certain conditions. We did not know for certain from post #1 that the decision to move to the church was a last minute decision granted by the visiting priest. We didn’t know until post #28 that the parish had a fellowship hall that could have been used. Also many of us are not all that familiar with Blue Grass Music, but a quick Google search shows that much of Blue Grass music is Spiritual or Gospel and it would seem to me that it may be possible for this music to be acceptable to be played in a concert in church. It is not that some of us are willing to defend any kind of concert being held in our Catholic church. It just that some of us do not want to be so quick to judge something when we do not have all of the facts that we need to make a better judgement.Not all parishes have a parish hall. We didn’t when I was growing up. It looks the this parish did and I am not sure why the visiting priest didn’t offer that room.
I also don’t know where the the parish is located. Deep South Texas, Alabama or other southern states would know not to schedule activities in July or August. Northern states, maybe not so much. Go far enough north and you will find most houses don’t have air conditioning. People wouldn’t think about the heat when planning activities. Upstate New York had temps in the 90’s in July, I don’t know what the heat index was.
And I defend the practice because growing up, we showed movies, had concerts and everyone celebrated their services, in the same room. Sometimes there isn’t enough room for different buildings for everyone.
All I can picture is a group of people, outside, sweating, dreaming of a place where they wouldn’t be so hot. Depending on where this parish is, it could have felt like it was 105 degrees. They were just looking for a place to be, inside.
You have a right to be concerned. And it makes sense that if you have a very nice fellowship hall, that you would wonder why they chose not to have the concert there. Some people have provided quotes from documents that show that there are times when the church may be used for something other than worship. That may ease your mind a bit , I don’t know. If the band did not stick to spiritual and gospel songs, if the people in attendance did not behave properly like they were in a church, and so on, that would be a different story. You may still want to tell the pastor of your concerns when he returns and ask if the people in charge should have done things differently.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but that means either the bishop, or someone appointed by the bishop, correct?
Yes, the local Ordinary is the bishop. It seems that the Blue Grass concert violated several of the directives issued in 1987 by the Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, namely
Yes, the bishop or vicar general(s) and others the bishop appoints with executive authority in the diocese, usually episcopal vicars. It also means those who are equivalent to bishops, e.g. a prefect apostolic. As the document we’ve been talking about doesn’t qualify the word ordinary with ‘local’ it would also mean major superiors in religious orders.
I like bluegrass too but NO WAY, churches are consecrated for sacred use and are not supposed to be used for secular functions. Maybe using the church hall but to remove the tabernacle sounds like “kicking Jesus out” I am against that.