Thursday, March 28, AD 2024 1:23pm

Te Deum

Something for the weekend.  Te Deum.  When in worry or in doubt over the contemporary Church, I take great comfort in viewing the great arc of her history over 2000 years.  When I do that, a Te Deum seems very appropriate, no matter the problems that Mother Church faces today.

0 0 votes
Article Rating
5 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
boafrom
boafrom
Saturday, October 5, AD 2013 5:49am

It has been mighty rough for Catholicism in the last few decades. Speaking of which, in terms of the many debates within Catholicism at the moment, I would like to pose a question and would love to hear your/other commentators take on it….

What do you think of the theological position that a few humans go straight to heaven, a few go to hell, but that most of humanity will spend at least some time in purgatory? And that the best way to try and lessen ones time there is to follow the Catholic way?

Paul D.
Paul D.
Saturday, October 5, AD 2013 12:44pm

Well my 2 year old daughter found it comforting enough during her afternoon nap. The Wikipedia entry has a convenient few minutes of the chant.

Botolph
Botolph
Sunday, October 6, AD 2013 4:15am

Donald, the Church’s way is the way of Christ, the Paschal Mystery-throughout her history. There never has been some idyllic Golden Age, just as the various announcements throughout history of her demise proved false. Just as what seemed to be great was crumbling to the ground a new Church (nonetheless the very same that was founded by Christ and filled with the Spirit) emerges. We are precisely in one of thos transitional eras, in the midst of the Paschal Mystery being lived out as we live. The Te Deum is an expression a nd confession of the whole Church rejoicing in this way of Christ

Fabio P.Barbieri
Fabio P.Barbieri
Sunday, October 6, AD 2013 1:35pm

For historical reasons, this is not my favourite hymn. It is played whenever a country has won a war or a major battle, and you can’t say that all those wars were just and all those battles honourable. In August 1849, as the last defenders of the last free outpost in Italy were slipping out of Venice after the surrender, Field-Marshal Radetzky took his troops to St.Mark’s Basilica and had the Te Deum sung. Now don’t get me wrong, the Field-Marshal was a good man and an honourable enemy, but his cause was bad, and to have the Te Deum sung in the church that had always stood for a free Venice was to pile insult on top of injury. And then there is the Te Deum sung in Naples in October 1860 to celebrate Garibaldi’s victory. Garibaldi was a hero and a man of great personal integrity, but he was a fierce enemy of the Church, and was already at daggers drawn with the local Archbishop when they presided together at this spectacularly hypocritical ceremony. The end of the story was war between the Italian State and the Church that lasted, hot and then cold, for decades. I don’t know what I want, really, but I wish some of those Te Deums had been left unsung.

Discover more from The American Catholic

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading

Scroll to Top