Latin Mass is back? How about good music?

Captain Ed posts that The Latin Mass Returns, as the Times of London reports that Pope set to bring back Latin Mass that divided the Church

THE Pope is taking steps to revive the ancient tradition of the Latin Tridentine Mass in Catholic churches worldwide, according to sources in Rome.

That's fine with me, since the Mass in English or Spanish is very much a Protestant Mass, while the Latin Mass is not. If you're Catholic, be Catholic.

However, what I'd really like to hear is that the music performed during Catholic Mass will be classic religious music. Christianity has produced the most outstanding masterpieces of religous music in the history of mankind, and the Catholic Church, instead of using that, rejected it for lame and awful "folksy" songs strummed to cheap guitars by people with voices at least as bad as mine (and I sing like a frog). The stuff they play at the local Catholic church on Sunday is awful enough I've stopped going on Sundays and go to weekday Mass instead, which is without "music".

So please, let's hear some Bach, Handel, Mozart. And there's plenty of good music in the traditional hymnal, too.

And don't tell me playing awful tunes with a cheap guitar noise in the background is more practical than playing good music because you don't need expensive instruments. Gregorian chant developed exactly because of that. Before you ask, yes, I'd prefer to hear chant than some of the stuff they now sing on Sunday Mass.

A good classical song can be sung a capella by even the most inept singer like myself. All it takes is a little research.

Update The Anchoress ponders the issues.

(technorati tags Catholic Church, Pope Benedict, Mass, faith and liturgy)