As he listened to the choir, the cardinal struggled to maintain a neutral expression. His patience with so-called “praise motets” was badly strained. Even in Latin, there’s a limit to how many times the same phrase can be repeated before it loses all meaning. Trying to force a change, however, would result in a battle. The last time he requested a little Palestrina be added to the mix, the Schola Cantorum looked at him like he had just suggested replacing votive candles with LEDs. And the group’s director was the worst of the lot—Father Georgio, who fancied himself a composer, had just published a new collection of praise motets of his own. The book was called Holy Hip Hop Harmonies and the blasted thing was selling faster than Al Gore bobblehead dolls at a Greenpeace meeting. Something would have to be done.
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