PRESS RELEASE
NATIONAL MEETING OF LITURGISTS GATHER IN
OMAHA
[FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE]
165 delegates from 97 dioceses
gathered in Omaha, Nebraska, October 10-13, 2006, for the annual
National Meeting of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions.
The meeting, jointly sponsored by
the Federation of Liturgical Commissions (FDLC) and the Bishops’
Committee on the Liturgy (BCL), focused its theme on Music and the
Art of Celebration.
The meeting addresses were offered
by Rev. Anthony Ruff, O.S.B. of St. John’s Abbey and St. John’s
University in Collegeville; Dr. Marie Rubis Bauer, the Director of
Cathedral Music Ministries and Organist at the Cathedral of Saint
Cecilia in the Archdiocese of Omaha; and Dr. J. Michael McMahon, the
President of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians. The text
of these presentations will be posted to the FDLC website by November
1.
Business sessions included the
presentations of reports from the Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy
offered by its Chair, Most Reverend Donald Trautman, Bishop of Erie,
and from the Federation’s Chair of the Board of Directors, Reverend
Monsignor John Burton.
In the course of the meeting the Federation presented its annual
Frederick R. McManus Award for pastoral liturgy to
Dr. Nathan D. Mitchell,
Professional Specialist in the University of Notre Dame
Department of Theology and Concurrent Associate Director for the Notre
Dame Center for Liturgy.
During the meeting the
diocesan delegates passed seven position statements that had been
formulated during FDLC regional meetings earlier this year and one
Executive Committee Resolution. Five of the seven position statements
deal with ministerial formation, one with translation of liturgical
texts, and the other with education in the utilization of technology
in liturgical catechesis. The resolution focused on the revision of
Music in Catholic Worship.
