Bill Murray Says: Bring Back The Latin Mass!

(CHRISM NEWS/ CHRIS POTRATZ) Catholics of a more traditional stripe have found an unlikely ally in none other than one of the most prolific comedic geniuses of our time: Bill Murray.

In a piece published recently in The Guardian, Murray spoke candidly about his love for the Latin Mass, and his longing for the Church to once again embrace sacred music in the liturgy.

Murray is quoted in the Guardian piece as saying, "I tend to disagree with what they call the new mass. I think we lost something by losing the Latin. Now if you go to a Catholic mass even just in Harlem it can be in Spanish, it can be in Ethiopian, it can be in any number of languages. The shape of it, the pictures, are the same but the words aren’t the same.”

Murray went on to lament the loss of sacred music, saying, "And I really miss the music – the power of it, y’know? Yikes! Sacred music has an effect on your brain.” Instead, he says, we get “folk songs … top 40 stuff … oh, brother….”

Murray also had some very interesting commentary on the nature of connonzation. The Guardian article states, "He [Murray] talks about how 19th-century candidates risk not getting canonized because the church is keen to push ahead with the likes of John Paul II and Mother Teresa. Murray said, 'I think they’re just trying to get current and hot,' he smiles."