• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

We’re a 501(c)3 public charity established in 2006. We have no endowment, no major donors, no savings, and run no advertisements. We exist solely by the generosity of small donors.

  • Donate
  • Our Team
    • Our Editorial Policy
    • Who We Are
    • How To Contact Us
    • Sainte Marie Bulletin Articles
  • Pew Resources
    • Brébeuf Catholic Hymnal
    • Jogues Illuminated Missal
    • KYRIALE • Saint Antoine Daniel
    • Campion Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Repository • “Spanish Music”
    • Ordinary Form Feasts (Sainte-Marie)
  • MUSICAL WEBSITES
    • René Goupil Gregorian Chant
    • Noël Chabanel Psalms
    • Nova Organi Harmonia (2,279 pages)
    • Roman Missal, 3rd Edition
    • Father Enemond Massé Manuscripts
    • Lalemant Polyphonic
  • Miscellaneous
    • Site Map
    • Secrets of the Conscientious Choirmaster
    • “Wedding March” for lazy organists
    • Emporium Kevin Allen
    • Saint Jean de Lalande Library
    • Sacred Music Symposium 2023
    • The Eight Gregorian Modes
    • Gradual by Pothier’s Protégé
    • Seven (7) Considerations
Views from the Choir Loft

Five Questions No Liturgist Can Answer

Jeff Ostrowski · August 5, 2014

983 Pope Paul VI Fanon ERE IN TEXAS, there’s been much discussion about undocumented minors entering the USA. A few weeks ago, in a doctor’s waiting room, I saw an argument on television about this very issue. One of the talking heads said we should accept all these minors and allow them to be USA citizens. The other said the USA cannot accept all the minors in the world who’d like to come here. Again and again, he asked this question: “How many minors can we accept? A hundred thousand? A million? Six million? Give me a number, and we’ll proceed.”

It would be totally inappropriate for me to comment on which course of action we should take. However, I must admit the 2nd man’s tactic was very effective. He insisted upon a number, and the other guy refused to answer.

WATCHING THAT MAN REFUSE to answer the question “struck a nerve” with me. For a long time, serious liturgists have been asking questions which simply will not be answered. This is perplexing. 1

                    QUESTIONS WHICH HAVE NEVER BEEN ANSWERED :

It has been asserted that music for Mass ought to be chosen according to the individual tastes of members of the congregation. But what happens when Person A likes rock’n’roll, Person B prefers jazz, and Person C likes Gregorian chant?

The Traditional Mass contained 1,182 orations. The reformers eliminated 760, and altered about half of the remaining ones. Why were these prayers deleted? Where did the Second Vatican Council ask for anything like this?

Were the liturgical reforms an effort to adapt the ancient rites for “Modern Man,” or restore a “Pristine” liturgical era? How does that square with what the Consilium’s Secretary said? “The entire revision must be carried out in accordance with the tradition of the Church.”

Some liturgists have called Gregorian chant a “weapon” and said there’s no such thing as “sacred” music. But surely not every musical style is suitable for Mass, right?

Why were clear directives of the Second Vatican Council ignored, distorted, and contradicted? For example, why was Latin eliminated in some dioceses, 2 when the Council had expressly ordered that it be preserved?


UNDOUBTEDLY, YOU NOW DESIRE to hear my brilliant solution, right? All we have to do is imitate Dom Pothier, who worked for the restoration of authentic Gregorian chant decades before it actually happened, at a time when no sane person believed his research would ever sway the current situation.

I feel it’s our duty to form some sort of coalition in support of true liturgical reform. Then, when the time comes for Rome to correct “reforms” not in accordance with the Council, the rationale will already be available. Indeed, much has already been accomplished, 3 so perhaps we could start by assembling all those statements in one place: carefully, professionally, and with discernment.

UPDATE:

Here’s a “riddle” that liturgists will understand:

The Roman Rite has gotten off track before. Homo Modernus of Paul VI is akin to the “Classicism” of Urban VIII.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   Please recall, while reading this list, that the reformers began their work in earnest only after the Council ended.

2   A list of dioceses which illicitly “corrected” the Council on this point is given toward the end of this document by Msgr. Johannes Overath.

3   Dr. James Hitchcock is the husband of Helen Hitchcock, whose organization (Adoremus) is intended to suggest improvements to the Ordinary Form. Consider what he wrote in 1974:

The process of liturgical change was handled badly from a number of points of view: the people were never consulted as to their wants and needs; there was insufficient education in the new ways prior to their introduction; change was often presented as a hierarchical command to be obeyed; there were conflicting signals about the rationale for the changes (for example, was it to restore the ancient liturgy or to come to terms with modern culture?); change was piecemeal and hence doubly confusing. Although many liturgists oppose it, a permanent missal for the laity would be an important symbol at this time, implying that a new age of stability has been reached. The present welter of discardable booklets, mimeographed sheets, divergent paperback hymnals, etc. is not only confusing but appears to signify a haphazard, impermanent, jerry-built liturgy and has unfortunate psychological effects. Habits of irreverence and in attention are built up, for example, by the feeling that rites currently being used may be revised or discarded and hence are of little significance.

Dr. Hitchcock would probably be pleased with this book, published four decades after his statement.

Opinions by blog authors do not necessarily represent the views of Corpus Christi Watershed.

Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Annibale Bugnini Reform, Helen Hull Hitchcock Adoremus Last Updated: January 1, 2020

Subscribe

It greatly helps us if you subscribe to our mailing list!

* indicates required

About Jeff Ostrowski

Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He resides with his wife and children in Michigan. —(Read full biography).

Primary Sidebar

Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
    I was asked to create a booklet for my parish to use during our CORPUS CHRISTI PROCESSION on 22 June 2025. Would you be willing to look over the DRAFT BOOKLET (16 pages) I came up with? I tried to include a variety of hymns: some have a refrain; some are in major, others in minor; some are metered, others are plainsong; some are in Spanish, some are in Latin, but most are in English. Normally, we’d use the Brébeuf Hymnal—but we can’t risk having our congregation carry those heavy books all over the city to various churches.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Yahweh” in church songs?
    My pastor asked me to write a weekly column for our parish bulletin. The one scheduled to run on 22 June 2025 is called “Three Words in a Psalm” and speaks of translating the TETRAGRAMMATON. You can read the article at this column repository. All of them are quite brief because I was asked to keep within a certain word limit.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
    Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for Pentecost Sunday (8 June 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. Because our choir is on break this week, the music is relatively simple.
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    Antiphons Don’t Match?
    A reader wants to know why the Entrance and Communion antiphons in certain publications deviate from what’s prescribed by the GRADUALE ROMANUM published after Vatican II. Click here to read our answer. The short answer is: the Adalbert Propers were never intended to be sung. They were intended for private Masses only (or Masses without music). The “Graduale Parvum,” published by the John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music in 2023, mostly uses the Adalbert Propers—but sometimes uses the GRADUALE text: e.g. Solemnity of Saints Peter and Paul (29 June).
    —Corpus Christi Watershed
    When to Sit, Stand and Kneel like it’s 1962
    There are lots of different guides to postures for Mass, but I couldn’t find one which matched our local Latin Mass, so I made this one: sit-stand-kneel-crop
    —Veronica Brandt
    The Funeral Rites of the Graduale Romanum
    Lately I have been paging through the 1974 Graduale Romanum (see p. 678 ff.) and have been fascinated by the funeral rites found therein, especially the simply-beautiful Psalmody that is appointed for all the different occasions before and after the funeral Mass: at the vigil/wake, at the house of the deceased, processing to the church, at the church, processing to the cemetery, and at the cemetery. Would that this “stational Psalmody” of the Novus Ordo funeral rites saw wider usage! If you or anyone you know have ever used it, please do let me know.
    —Daniel Tucker

Random Quote

“If he converses with the learned and judicious, he delights in their talent—if with the ignorant and foolish, he enjoys their stupidity. He is not even offended by professional jesters. With a wonderful dexterity he accommodates himself to every disposition. As a rule, in talking with women (even with his own wife) he is full of jokes and banter.”

— ‘Erasmus on St. Thomas More (England’s 1st lay Chancellor)’

Recent Posts

  • “Booklet of Eucharistic Hymns” (16 pages)
  • PDF Download • “Text by Saint Francis of Assisi” (choral setting w/ organ: Soprano & Alto)
  • “Yahweh” in church songs?
  • “Music List” • Pentecost Sunday
  • “Participation” • Recovering its Receptive Dimension

Subscribe

Subscribe

* indicates required

Copyright © 2025 Corpus Christi Watershed · Isaac Jogues on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.

The election of Pope Leo XIV has been exciting, and we’re filled with hope for our apostolate’s future!

But we’re under pressure to transfer our website to a “subscription model.”

We don’t want to do that. We believe our website should remain free to all.

Our president has written the following letter:

President’s Message (dated 30 May 2025)

Are you able to support us?

clock.png

Time's up