2 . 15 . 21
One way the Catholic Church has always fulfilled the mission entrusted to her by Christ is by confidently consecrating this world’s customs and institutions to eternal purposes.
America has proven to be unusually challenging terrain for this work. Too often, attempts to make these new shores feel like home for the Church of the Old World have resulted in fashioning the Church in America’s image, rather than vice versa. This has sometimes created difficulties for American Catholics, leaving them torn between embracing a notably Americanized Catholicism and flirting with an impious anti-American traditionalism.
Consider music. The most prominent merging of distinctly American music with the Catholic tradition is the collection of ditties foisted upon the English-speaking world by the St. Louis Jesuits. Less well-known is the attempt of convert Mary Lou Williams to craft sacred music in the jazz idiom: While