having begun in your columns, I wonder fuel to the flames? The issue at present if I may be permitted to add a little
appears to be whether vernacular hymns should be sung during Mass. On this, Fr. McElligott has spoken convincingly and authoritatively. So long as Latin remains the language of the Liturgy, vernacular hymns must be excluded.
But I would like to widen the issue by asking the following questions, in the hope that someone will answer them: (1) Is there anything against the singing of Latin hymns by the congregation during, let us say, the Offertory? The special sequences usually recited by the priest are, in fact, hymns, and their traditional tunes are not hard to learn.
(2) Is there any reason why a vernacular hymn should not be sung immediately after Mass? I have heard "Come Holy Ghost " thus sung, to Tallis' tune, and very dignified it was, too—anything but sloppy and sentimental.
(3) Finally—and here comes plenty of fuel for the controversial flames—if hymn-singing and other Protestant forms of worship are, to quote one of your correspondents, " not to be compared with ours " and not "objective" (whatever that may mean in this context) then why do we imitate some of the worst types of hymn-singing at our Benedictions? If it is a question of being Catholic or Protestant, isn't it time we realised that the Anglican hymnals contain translations of about 400 Catholic hymns, of which scarcely half a dozen are heard, either in English or Latin, in Catholic churches? I have heard, on very good authority, that the new Westminster hymnal will contain a large proportion of these hymns, and we don't even use a quarter of the hymns In the old one. What are we going to do about it? Are we inferior to nonCatholics in lung-power or intelligence? We can all read--a few of us can read music. Suppose our evacuated children start learning a new hymn on rainy
days. I. V. HUGHES.
2, Westbourne Crescent, Hyde Park, W.2.