Art & Creativity Quote by Richard Morris

Scarcity is doing the argumentative heavy lifting here: “count on one hand” isn’t a statistic so much as a shaming device, a way to make the problem feel both obvious and indictable. Morris aims his critique at the Novus Ordo parish not primarily for theology but for aesthetics as theology’s public face. The target is “a fully Catholic music program,” a phrase that quietly polices boundaries: not just music at Mass, not even good music, but music that can be certified as Catholic in form, lineage, and ritual function.

The subtext is a struggle over authority and continuity. “Consistent with the Roman rite tradition” frames tradition as a measurable standard rather than a living, adaptive practice. It implies that most parishes have drifted into something adjacent to Catholicism: musically competent, perhaps emotionally sincere, yet liturgically illegitimate. That distinction matters because music is one of the few parts of Mass the congregation experiences as collective performance. If the sound shifts, the faith can feel like it has shifted with it.

Context complicates the attribution. Morris (1833-1894) predates the Novus Ordo by decades; the line reads like a later traditionalist complaint retrofitted with an older clerical name. That anachronism is revealing in itself: it signals how persistent (and portable) the anxiety is. When liturgical music becomes the battlefield, it’s rarely just about taste. It’s about who gets to decide what Catholicism should sound like when it speaks to modern ears.