The Hymnal Industrial Complex II: Worship Shapes Belief

When The Hymnal Industrial Complex was first published, it struck a nerve. Many faithful Catholics responded with gratitude, seeing the corruption behind parish music, which many suspected, laid bare. Though small in number, the few dissenting voices revealed telling misunderstandings about sacred music, the liturgy, and even the nature of worship itself.

That first report exposed how powerful publishing houses, driven by profit and ideology, replaced the Church’s musical tradition with content that is doctrinally compromised, emotionally manipulative, and sometimes heretical. It detailed how non-Catholic executives and progressive activists dominate Catholic hymnody, distorting the liturgy while extracting millions from parishes.

But diagnosis is not enough. Sacred music is not a matter of nostalgia or personal taste. It is about offering God the worship He is due, and preparing faithful souls to receive Him worthily in the Holy Eucharist, as the Church herself teaches and directs.

This follow-up addresses the most common criticisms raised in the comment sections from the accompanying video and subsequent interviews.

Worship Is Not Accessory

Comment: So stupid to even care about this bs. Who cares about the music?! Give me Jesus in the eucharist that’s all I need. Novus ordo, TLM, who cares, is Jesus not present in the eucharist? Or are you headed towards protestantism?! Stop making up rules that don’t exist and focus on your relationship with Jesus, and bringing others to him. You’re wasting so much time and effort on silly things that don’t even matter.

This kind of comment is one of the most common—and on the surface, it seems pious. After all, isn’t the Eucharist the source and summit of the Christian life? Yes, it is. But this argument misses a crucial truth that the Church has taught for centuries:

The Eucharist must be received worthily, and that requires proper preparation.

That’s why the Church doesn’t just offer the Eucharist; she also provides rules, rubrics, and reverent rites to form our hearts and prepare our souls. Among these is sacred music—not as background noise, but as part of the Church’s sanctifying action. As Pope Pius XII taught in Mediator Dei:

If they are to produce their proper effect, it is absolutely necessary that our hearts be properly disposed to receive [the sacraments]. Hence the warning of Paul the Apostle with reference to holy communion, “But let a man first prove himself; and then let him eat of this bread and drink of the chalice” (Mediator Dei, §31)​.

When properly chosen and reverently executed, sacred music helps dispose us to receive Christ not casually, but worthily, with hearts attuned to His majesty, not dulled by banality.

The Church is unambiguous: music at Mass is not a mere ornament or emotional backdrop. It is an integral part of the liturgical action itself, ordered toward the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.

The 1967 instruction on sacred music issued by the Sacred Congregation of Rites following the Second Vatican Council, As Musicam Sacram, states:

It is to be hoped that pastors of souls, musicians and the faithful will gladly accept these norms and put them into practice, uniting their efforts to attain the true purpose of sacred music, “which is the glory of God and the sanctification of the faithful.” (Musica Sacram, §4)

Yes, give the faithful Jesus in the Eucharist, but with music that glorifies the Most Holy Trinity and prepares souls to receive Him with reverence and awe.

Takeaway: The same Church that gives the Eucharist also gives the rubrics for proper worship and worthy reception, including sacred music.

Liturgy Teaches Doctrine

Comment: If people don’t even understand the Eucharist, how are they going to understand bad music from good music? Let’s catechise them first, then that’ll follow.

Comment: How are people to know what’s good, and what’s bad theologically, in a hymn? If they don’t believe or understand church theology to start with, you can’t expect them to judge a song theologically correctly, if they don’t understand the theology, or believe it. Let’s start catechizing them first and then go from there.

This thinking sounds reasonable initially but it inverts the Church’s understanding of worship and formation. It assumes that catechesis must come first, and that liturgy and sacred music are only helpful after the faithful are doctrinally well-formed.

But in reality, the Church has always understood that the liturgy is itself a form of catechesis. The liturgy teaches us how to believe through how we worship. The ancient maxim, lex orandi, lex credendi (“the law of prayer is the law of belief”), expresses this clearly. We are shaped by what we sing, what we hear, and how we pray in the sacred rites.

Case in Point: The Divinity of the Holy Spirit

The Church’s understanding of the Holy Spirit’s full divinity lived in worship before it was formally defined. As early as the third century, Eastern liturgies invoked the Holy Spirit directly in the epicleses to sanctify the Eucharist. The Trinitarian doxology (“Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit”) was in widespread use before the Council of Constantinople (381 A.D.), which formally defined the Spirit’s consubstantiality. Pentecost celebrations honored the Holy Spirit as God in hymns and prayers.

Notably, writing before this Council, St. Basil the Great explicitly used these established worship practices, such as the doxologies and baptismal formula, as a primary argument for the Holy Spirit’s full divinity in his work De Spiritu Sancto, asserting that the Church’s prayer (“lex orandi”) revealed its belief (“lex credendi”).

This is a perfect example of the Church’s practice forming her theology, not vice versa. The faithful were singing the truth before it was clearly articulated theologically.

So when today’s hymns distort doctrine or reduce profound mysteries to slogans and sentiments, it is not a neutral mistake; it is malformation—flawed catechesis by default.

In our time, when so many Catholics are poorly catechized, this matters more, not less, because what they sing on Sunday might be the only theology they hear all week.

Takeaway: Before the Church defined the Holy Spirit’s divinity, she lived it in her worship, because when we sing and pray, we learn and proclaim doctrine whether we realize it or not.

Restoration Is Not Regression

Comment: You may have some logical points, but you’re dreaming in color if you suppose that anything about the liturgy would regress to anything notably traditional such as Gregorian chant. Neither the bishops nor the laity would support that. Support for such traditions is extremely limited to a small fringe.

The concern raised here seems less about theology and more about perceived feasibility, framing the issue in terms of popular support rather than fidelity. But the sacred liturgy is not shaped by trends or convenience; it is ordered toward giving God His due and sanctifying souls, as the Church herself consistently teaches.

And on this topic, the Church’s voice is unmistakable: Gregorian chant remains the official music of the Roman Rite. It has never been abolished or consigned to history. The Second Vatican Council affirmed, “The Church acknowledges Gregorian chant as proper to the Roman liturgy; therefore, other things being equal, it should be given pride of place in liturgical services” (Sacrosanctum Concilium, §116).

Pope St. Pius X affirmed: “Gregorian chant has always been considered the supreme model of sacred music, for this rule is true: the more closely a musical composition follows the Gregorian style, the more sacred and liturgical it is; the more it departs from that supreme model, the less worthy it is of the temple” (Tra le Sollecitudini, 1903, §3, author’s translation).

Pope Pius XII reaffirmed this teaching in documents such as Musicae Sacrae Disciplina (1955). Nearly a decade later, the post-conciliar instruction Musicam Sacram mentioned above likewise stated that Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, organ music, and even certain forms of approved religious music belong to the Church’s treasury of sacred music, “provided they meet the Church’s criteria” (Musicam Sacram, §4).

Note: The phrase “approved religious music,” which appears in Musicam Sacram §4, refers to a distinct category unidentical to the hymns under discussion here. A separate article will clarify what this term includes and does not.

Though it’s true that Gregorian chant is rarely heard in parishes today, this absence is not the result of any prohibition. Rather, chant was displaced—often abruptly—in direct contradiction to the Church’s own clear and consistent teaching. Nowhere in official Church documents will one find a mandate for the widespread use of modern hymnals. What one does find, time and again, are references to Gregorian chant, sacred polyphony, and other forms of music the Church identifies as most fitting for divine worship.

To acknowledge this reality, then dismiss it as impractical or unrealistic, is a bit like admitting a bridge is structurally unsound but saying, “Well, no one’s going to fix it, so let’s just keep driving over it.” That’s not prudence; it’s fatalism, and fatalism is not a fruit of faith.

This is not about regression. It is about the restoration of what the Church herself has consistently identified in her official teaching as most sacred and appropriate for divine worship. To dismiss that as “dreaming in color” is to ignore both the mind of the Church and the quiet movement already underway. A forthcoming article will explore this movement in greater detail.

Takeaway: The Church’s sacred music was not lost by decree, but by disobedience, and it will be restored not by wishful thinking, but by fidelity.

Truth is Not Discord

Comment: More crypto Catholic crap calculated to cause discord. Please just go away.

Accusations of sowing discord are the predictable defense of those who cannot address the facts. This is a spiritual gaslighting tactic, attempting to silence faithful Catholics by mischaracterizing correction as cruelty.

However, the true source of division lies with those who deviate from the Church’s teachings, whether regarding liturgical norms, Eucharistic reverence, or sacred music. They are the ones who replace or tolerate the replacement of Gregorian chant and sacred polyphony with secular tunes, and doctrinal integrity with sentimental trivialities.

When the Church designates Gregorian chant as having “pride of place” and music ministers opt for something else, that sows division. When the Church condemns theatrical styles and theologically unsound hymn texts while composers continue introducing them into parishes, that sows division.

The origin of this wound cannot be found among those who expose the wound as a first step towards healing. And what some characterize as “crypto Catholic crap” is nothing more than Church teachings; this is simply a call to return to those teachings.

Takeaway: Calling Catholics back to the Church’s teachings is not divisive. Abandoning those teachings is.

Fidelity, not Superiority 

Comment: I sing both traditional and Glory and Praise. I am a classically trained musician and I sing everything and not all “new” music including All the ones your making fun of right now and you’re all haters! You’re holier than thou b.s. is ridiculous!

Discovering that what one has long cherished may not reflect the fullness of the Church’s liturgical vision can be deeply unsettling. Emotional responses are understandable, especially when familiar worship forms are challenged. But the goal is not to mock or condemn. The goal is to awaken hearts to a richer inheritance—their birthright as baptized Catholics, which many have never been shown.

The charge of being “holier-than-thou” can surface in such conversations. But it misses the point. This is not about pride or elitism. It is about fidelity: fidelity to God, to the Church’s norms, and to the purpose of the liturgy itself.

As the Church’s public worship, the liturgy is not a matter of taste. It is not about choosing between chant or guitars, polyphony or praise bands. It is about giving God the worship He is due, and sanctifying the faithful in the manner the Church herself prescribes.

Takeaway: This is not about personal preference or superiority, but fidelity to what the Church teaches about sacred music, so that God may be glorified, and souls properly prepared for union with Him in the Eucharist.