O faithful catholic, is this you?

[presbyter]

Enjoy!!



From the Notre Dame Hymn Tune Book - compiled and arranged by Birtchnell and Brown, Liverpool, 1905.



I am a faithful Catholic,
I love my Holy Faith,
I will be true to Holy Church,
And steadfast until death.


I shun the haunts of those who seek
To ensnare poor Catholic youth ;
No Church I own, no schools I know,
But those that teach the Truth.


If base it is to yield before
The persecutor's rod;
Then baser far to side with those
Who insult the Church of God,


Oh, far from me such wickedness
One treasure I hold dear,
MY HOLY FAITH. I fear not men
'Tis God alone I fear.


I love His Altar, where I kneel,
My Jesus to adore;
I love my Mother, Mary dear,
Oh! may I love them more.


I love the Saints of olden time,
The places where they dwelt;
I love to pray where Saints have prayed,
And kneel where they have knelt.


I love my Cross, I love my Beads,
Each emblem of my faith;
Let foolish men rail as they will,
I'll love them until death.


Moir Brown


They don't make 'em like this anymore!

[musicus]

He (she?) half-rhymes 'faith' with 'death' twice! I suppose that's allowed in doggerel.

[gwyn]

He (she?) half-rhymes 'faith' with 'death' twice!

Faber did the same with
Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith,
We will be true to thee 'til death.

Both he and Moir pushing their luck.

[docmattc]

Hands up anyone who will be using that next Sunday

[Sonoqui]

Hands up anyone who will be using that next Sunday

By which, of course, you mean

Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith,
We will be true to thee 'til death.

(Sorry, haven't worked out how to 'double quote!)

I'd LOVE to hear this (FooF) sung in MY Church this weekend!

Oh, favoured choir leader, please take note!

[docmattc]

By which, of course, you mean

Faith of Our Fathers, Holy Faith,
We will be true to thee 'til death.

Actually I didn't, I meant the subject of the thread.

Were we really so persecuted/ghettoised/insecure/inward looking 100 years ago that we had to sing this sort of thing?

[oopsorganist]

I'm going to see if it is in any of my ancient hymn books in the organ loft.

I think our parish might quite like it.

[John Ainslie]

Oh, 'Faith of our Fathers' is still around! And in Laudate and CFE. We are just about to introduce Laudate in my parish, and the only question I have received so far from a parishioner-in-the-pew is "Does it have 'Faith of our Fathers'?"

Some years ago, the then PP confessed that he was completely unnerved by hearing 200 children at a primary School Mass singing with great gusto 'we will be true to thee till death'.

Only last Sunday I happened to be in church just before Evening Mass (for which I have no musical responsibility) and the resident (not parish) priest said "It's Mission Sunday, so I thought we'd have 'Faith of our Fathers'". I said "Yes, father" and made for the door!

[alan29]

I seem to remember that Faith of our Fathers either appeared in a non-catholic hymn book, or was used by a seriously evangelical church, but for the life of me I can't call to mind where that snippet has come from.
Perhaps someone else can help out?
Freddy Faber would be spinning though, wouldn't he?
Alan

[VML]

What is actually wrong with professing we will be true to God and our Faith till death?

I know some of the other words are not PC these days, but there is plenty of anti-Catholic sentiment around as well as enforcement of laws that are distinctly against Church teaching.

Shall we just sing 'Go with the flow...' ?

[Nick Baty]

I live in a part of the world where – even post war – this song waas a jingoistic anthem rather than a declaration of faith. People sang it as they were being attacked by the Other Side and some really did die in these pitched battles. Our church used to have bouncers on the doors (particularly during the consecration) and a former parish priest lost an eye in an attack. So, no, don't think we'd use it. Anyway, whenever I hear the tune, I think of it as the theme music of "Bless Me, Father" with Arthur Lowe as Fr Duddleswell.

[presbyter]

I live in a part of the world where ? even post war ? this song waas a jingoistic anthem rather than a declaration of faith.

You can remember The Notre Dame Hymn Tune Book - compiled and arranged by Birtchnell and Brown, Liverpool, 1905 - being in use?

[Nick Baty]

No. I was staying with the topic in hand – Faith of Our Fathers.

[nazard]

When I was growing up in a pre legalisation parish in the Black Country we still had bouncers. I think their official title was watchmen. They lasted into the seventies, although as far as I know there had not been an attack on a catholic service for a century at least.

Back to "catholic" hymns, I think we need something to reinforce catholic teaching, but in a more gentle but nevertheless meaningful way. In my present parish it is not unusual to hear parishioners deny transubstantiation, the sacrifice of the mass and papal authority, all in the spirit of Vatican II, naturally.

[John Ainslie]

I seem to remember that Faith of our Fathers either appeared in a non-catholic hymn book...

Yes, indeed. It appears in the 1933 Methodist Hymn Book. Verses 1, 2 and 4, also the refrain, are unaltered, but verse 3 appears as:

Faith of our fathers! God's great power
Shall soon all nations win for thee;
And through the truth that comes from God
Mankind shall then indeed be free.

...a much more universal (catholic!) salvific theme.

The tune in the Methodist hymnal is not the one with which Catholics are familiar, though it is by the Catholic composer A. E. Tozer (1857-1910), whose Benediction Manual (of 1898, if I remember correctly) was an essential vade mecum of every Catholic organ loft until the 1960s and after.