A colleague and I feel that the loss of the practice of sung Gregorian chant during our religious ceremonies, since Vatican II, has been a serious loss for our western Catholic Church. Our religious authorities were too hasty in doing away with it and in introducing music of dubious discotheque value: loud drums and electric guitars. And no Latin at all.

A tradition going back 1,500 years was done away with and lost peremptorily. It had graced churches with silent and soft, melodious, sublime music, reminiscent of Europe’s Romanesque and Gothic cathedrals.

Surely Gregorian chant can be revived at St John’s Cathedral and at our Mdina Cathedral but not only. In monotone and unison it revives the ambience of monasteries and, accompanied by the church organ, it is solemn and prayerful. Surely the clock can be set rolling back for a revival.

Pope Benedict XVI was all for reviving the Tridentine Mass and Pope Francis’s attitude is liberal and seemingly welcoming all forms of song in both churches and monasteries.

‘Qui canit, bis orat.’ Who sings prays twice. This tenet is eminently suited to Gregorian chant.