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Interview with Dr. Kwasniewski on Music: The Good, the Bad, and the Holy

Tradition and Sanity

It would be utterly backwards to let the tastes of popular culture in its deviation into mass-marketed pseudo-art dictate what Catholics ought to esteem and rely upon. Since the Church’s liturgy is the Passover Feast, it has to bring us out of the world, out of Egypt. For this reason, it ought to have a certain “strangeness”; it should be a challenge to the comfortable categories by which we live in the secular world, surrounded by familiar idols. In the liturgy, we are trained to leave behind the mind of the world and put on the mind of Christ. This means that what is “unclean” to worldlings must be embraced by us—for example, silence and religious chant—and that what is “clean” for worldlings must be held by us as unworthy and profane, such as pop music and amplified blather. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.traditionsanity.com/subscribe