Religion: Are Spirituals Spiritual?

The celebration of the Mass, derived from the words of Christ at the Last Supper and given its present strict form in the 7th Century, has inspired some of the world's finest music. But many of the greatest musical Masses, for one reason or another, have been deemed by the Church unfit for liturgical use. The unapproved list includes Bach's famous B Minor Mass, the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven, Masses by Haydn, Mozart and many other great composers.

In the current issue of the Jesuit magazine The Queen's Work, Father Daniel Lord, noted Catholic...

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