New cathedral music director hopes to use his talents to sing God’s praise.
When Father Vincent Ferrer Bagan took over as the new director of music for the Cathedral of St. Thomas More in Arlington, Rick Gibala, the former director of music, shared with him that the choir members were concerned whether or not the new director would be a man of prayer.
Father Bagan, a priest since 2015, said with a warm laugh, “Hopefully it’s obvious that’s going to be the case.”
Father Bagan is a Dominican priest from the Province of St. Joseph, the eastern province of the U.S. While he is an ordained priest, he won’t be seen in the sanctuary during liturgies at the cathedral. Rather, he will be in the choir loft directing and playing the organ alongside roughly 40 professional and volunteer singers. He’s excited to enter into a role that has a strong foundation built by Gibala during his 32-year tenure.
“My predecessor has done fine work here and has been a very devoted servant of God,” Father Bagan said. “He and the choir have received me very kindly. It’s been wonderful to meet them, to see their passion for sacred music, to see their passion for what they do here at the cathedral.”
Like Gibala, Father Bagan is a member of the National Association of Pastoral Musicians, an organization that fosters and promotes the art of liturgical music.
His two-fold role of being the cathedral music director and the diocesan music director consists of overseeing all liturgies where the bishop is present or during special feast days, and also serving on the Diocesan Liturgical Commission.
There is some precedent for a clergyman to be the director of music at a parish in the U.S., with the late Father Carlo Rosini and Father James Chepponis in the Diocese of Pittsburgh. However, it’s much more of a European phenomenon. For example, the director of the Sistine choir, Monsignor Marcos Pavan, and Retired Pope Benedict XVI’s brother, the late Father Georg Ratzinger, the cathedral choir director in Regensburg, Germany. Father Bagan hopes to use his roles as priest and music director to help others “see the beauties” of both ministries.
Father Bagan has been fond of sacred music ever since he was a boy.
“My mother tells me I liked to listen to ‘Jesus music,’ ” he said.
He remembers returning home after Sunday Mass, swinging on his swing-set and singing the recessional hymn they had just sung earlier that day. He started playing the piano and the keyboard in second grade and joined the children’s choir at the local parish in his hometown of Waseca, Minn.
“I’ve just always had a great love for music and then putting that music at the service of the worship of God,” he said.
During middle school, his family’s practice of weekly Mass attendance waned. However, when he entered high school, he was recruited to sing in the choir by the local parish’s music director. This commitment is what brought him back to Mass every Sunday. The songs he sang served as a constant reminder of God and encouraged him to learn more about the faith.
“Music brought me back to the practice of the faith,” he said. “I would say that by the time I ended high school, I certainly, in a sense you could say, made the faith my own,” he said.
Before he considered the priesthood seriously, Father Bagan ventured 45 minutes north to St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minn., where he earned a bachelor’s in music education. As a Catholic, he had specific reasons for attending a college that was affiliated with the Lutheran Church.
“I like to say I was stealing the Lutheran’s secrets because they’re very good at music,” he said with a smile.
After considering whether he wanted to pursue a career as a high school or college choir director, he started discerning the priesthood, thanks to the advice of some close Catholic friends. After graduating from Ave Maria University in Florida with a bachelor’s in philosophy, he entered the Dominican order in 2009.
He eventually served as the director of liturgical music at the Pontifical North American College in Rome. He directed the choir during the liturgies and also helped seminarians who wanted to learn how to sing the Mass.
“It was a beautiful experience to work with men who will be priests all over the country, to see their passion for the Gospel, to see their passion for priestly ministry, and to see their passion for divine worship,” he reflected.
One thing that Father Bagan aims to communicate to the cathedral choir is that the activity of singing isn’t just practice for the upcoming Sunday Mass. It’s practice for heaven.
“We certainly don’t know exactly what heaven is going to be like, but we know we will be with God, we’re going to be rejoicing, and we’re going to be in perfect happiness because we are with God. So, we can certainly relate that to what we experience when we’re singing God’s praise in this life,” he said.
After starting the new position last month, he began immediately working on getting acquainted and preparing for the Sept. 17 Mass for permanent deacons. He’s excited for what’s ahead.
“I know a lot of great things are happening already in the diocese of Arlington,” he said. “I’m looking forward to being a part of that and continuing to foster it, so that more and more we can continue to sing God’s praise.”
Nevins, diocesan multimedia producer, can be reached at [email protected].
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