As a Catholic, I think I'd say Johnny is right. Catholic churches have a history of paying musicians poorly. Catholic priests are selected for reasons other than their preaching ability - and when you train a seminarian for 8 years, you're reluctant to kick him out just because his preaching is poor. Besides, Catholic priests are ordained for life - they can get fired or defrocked for misconduct, but rarely for poor performance.
But the Catholic congregational singing problem is something I don't understand. Maybe it's from generation upon generation of singing in a language people don't understand. Maybe it will take generations to repair that damage. When I sing in the congregation instead of with the choir, people tend to turn around and look at me. After Mass, they'll often stop and say they wish more people would sing so nicely - but wht I wonder is why don't they sing, instead of just talking about it.
I've been struggling to encourage Catholic congregational singing for 30 years, and have had only limited success. One part of the problem is reluctance on the part of church musicians, I think there are many other factors I haven't figured out yet.
-Joe Offer-