Archbishop Alexander Sample of Portland, Oregon, has brought attention to a 2019 pastoral letter urging a broader restoration of Gregorian chant and plainchant settings in parish worship, reposting excerpts this week that argue many Catholic communities have drifted from the Church’s stated musical ideals.
In a Jan. 17 post on X, Archbishop Sample shared selections from his pastoral letter on sacred music in the liturgy, originally issued in January 2019, highlighting his contention that Gregorian chant — despite repeated endorsements by popes, the Second Vatican Council, and U.S. bishops — is “rarely if ever” heard at Mass.
“This is a situation which must be rectified,” the letter states.
The archbishop added that restoring chant will require “great effort and serious catechesis for the clergy and faithful.”
The archbishop’s pastoral letter, titled “Sing to the LORD a New Song,” frames sacred music as an element meant to serve the Church’s worship by fostering prayer, unity, and reverence. It appeals to Vatican II’s constitution, Sacrosanctum Concilium, and later liturgical documents to argue for music with the qualities of “sanctity, beauty and universality” and for a renewed emphasis on chanting the texts of the Mass rather than “tack[ing] on” hymns.
Archbishop Sample argues that music at Mass is “an essential element of worship itself,” meant to help the assembly “sing and pray the texts of the Mass itself, not just ornament it.”
In explaining why he issued the letter, Archbishop Sample writes that music at Mass is too often treated as a matter of subjective “taste” — what appeals to one group or another — “as if there were no objective principles to be followed.”
The purpose of the letter, he says, is to give pastors and musicians a more detailed reference for formation, complementing the Archdiocesan Liturgical Handbook and grounding musical choices in the Church’s liturgical tradition.
He writes that the purpose of sacred music is twofold: “the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.” That purpose, he insists, must shape everything from musical style to how music functions within the Mass.
In the excerpts Archbishop Sample reposted, he returns to Gregorian chant’s “pride of place” in Roman Catholic worship — a phrase he notes has been consistently affirmed by popes, Vatican II, and U.S. bishops, but has not translated into parish practice.
“Given all of this strong teaching,” the letter asks, “how is it that this ideal concerning Gregorian chant has not been realized in the Church?”
Rather than proposing an abrupt overhaul, Archbishop Sample emphasizes incremental, practical steps. He calls on every parish to learn the English plainchant settings of the Mass ordinary found in the Roman Missal — such as the “Sanctus” and “Agnus Dei” — which he says “should be given pride of place.” Clergy, he adds, should model this renewal by singing with the assembly “wherever in the Mass this is appropriate.”
The letter also encourages parishes to build a basic repertoire of Latin chant sung by the people, identifying Mass VIII (De Angelis) and Mass XVIII (Deus Genitor Alme) as accessible starting points. Parishes with greater resources, Sample writes, should continue expanding that repertoire over time.
Archbishop Sample cites the late Pope Francis, who said that liturgical music can fall into “mediocrity, superficiality and banality,” undermining the beauty and intensity of worship. Sacred music, Archbishop Sample argues, deserves greater care precisely because of its impact on the Church’s prayer.
From its opening pages, the letter situates music within Christian worship “from the earliest days of the Church,” rooted in the singing of the psalms and the proclamation of Scripture. Archbishop Sample writes that because the Word of God was meant to be sung, music came to be understood as “part of the very integrity of the Word of God,” and therefore something to be preserved and fostered in the Church’s public prayer.
Archbishop Sample has not, in the reposted excerpts, framed the letter as a new policy announcement. The archdiocese itself has described the letter as a continuing summons to rediscover what it calls the “beauty, theological depth, and spiritual power” of the Church’s musical tradition.
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