David Skeel relates his experience visiting an Italian language service while in Milan:
I ended up in the Italian language service because of the timing of the services—certainly not because of proficiency in Italian, which is still years away. ...It also reminds me of the arguments made by traditional Catholics for the Tridentine Mass. Having attended for many years a mass in which the Alleluia, Kyrie, Gloria, Credo, Sanctus, Benedictus, and Agnus Dei are chanted (Gregorian) in Latin, I could attend a Tridentine Mass anywhere in the world and fully participate in key sections of the Mass, which I can't do when the entire Mass is conducted in the vernacular. A mix of Latin and the vernacular thus strikes me as ideal, providing a sort of leingua franca that binds all Catholics together.
The wonderfully lively service made me see contemporary worship songs projected on a screen in a new light. The general familiarity of praise songs, and the simplicity of the words, enabled me to join in the worship to an extent that wouldn’t have been possible otherwise. Even I understood lines like “Cantero del tuo amor/per sempre” (I will sing of your love always). It reminded me of the argument that the Catholic church has always made for paintings and other art in the church—that it made it possible for ordinary people to understand the richness of the Bible in an era when few could read.
As for "praise songs," however, don't get me started. Praise songs, worship rock bands, and PowerPoint sing along screens are all part of what drove me across the Tiber. (Of course, then I found about guitar masses. Shudder.) But YMMV.
