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Views from the Choir Loft

Why Don’t Serious Catholics Address This?

Jeff Ostrowski · December 14, 2015

935 PAINT MAGINE ENTERING a room where children are using paint to draw cartoons on the walls. When you ask if a parent gave permission, they reply, “Yes, we have permission.” They go on to explain: “Our parents have not come here and forced us to stop what we’re doing, so we have their permission.”

Sounds crazy, right? Yet, this same situation is what the USCCB has “interpreted” for Masses in the United States.

The official Ordinary Form rubrics 1 REQUIRE that any hymn replacing the 1974 Graduale Propers use a text specifically approved by the local bishop. Over the years, the USCCB has “interpreted” this requirement in many ways. The most serious way is by claiming that any song has “automatic approval” from the local bishop—even though he hasn’t heard the song—unless that bishop specifically forbids the song. 2 This interpretation was confirmed by the USCCB again on 20 November 2012. Moreover, the Bishops’ Liturgy Committee has officially refused to walk back or modify this bizarre policy. Our current situation, therefore, allows anyone—even non-Catholics—to compose lyrics which replace, for example, the ENTRANCE ANTIPHON without permission from any bishop.

Over the years, I’ve heard many powerful talks by strong Catholics: Scott Hahn, Edward Sri, folks from Catholic Answers, folks from Saint Joseph Communications, Adoremus Bulletin, Homiletic & Pastoral Review, and so forth. Many liturgical institutes and blogs also profess to care about sacred music. Why won’t anyone address this issue? Why is this issue never brought up? This situation does incredible damage to sacred music, yet nobody will address it.

If you desire to test the USCCB policy, try this experiment. Compose some lyrics and mail them to your bishop with his name & permission. I promise your bishop will not be pleased. You can try to explain “tacit permission” to him, but I guarantee it won’t do any good. You will be told to immediately remove that permission notice…because this whole “tacit permission” thing is nonsense—and anyone who carefully examines what’s been happening for 40 years will agree.



NOTES FROM THIS ARTICLE:

1   These are found in the current General Instruction of the Roman Missal.

2   As you’ve probably guessed, not many bishops forbid songs of whose existence they are unaware!

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

Filed Under: Articles Last Updated: January 1, 2020

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Jeff Ostrowski

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 Los Angeles.—(Read full biography).

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Surprising Popularity!

One of our most popular downloads has proven to be the organ accompaniment to “The Monastery Hymnal” (131 pages). This book was compiled, arranged, and edited by Achille P. Bragers, who studied at the Lemmensinstituut (Belgium) about thirty years before that school produced the NOH. Bragers might be considered an example of Belgium “Stile Antico” whereas Flor Peeters and Jules Van Nuffel represented Belgium “Prima Pratica.” You can download the hymnal by Bragers at this link.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • To Capitalize…?

In the Introit for the 6th Sunday after Pentecost, there is a question regarding whether to capitalize the word “christi.” The Vulgata does not, because Psalm 27 is not specifically referring to Our Lord, but rather to God’s “anointed one.” However, Missals tend to capitalize it, such as the official 1962 Missal and also a book from 1777 called Missel de Paris. Something tells me Monsignor Knox would not capitalize it.

—Jeff Ostrowski
15 February 2021 • “Sung vs. Spoken”

We have spoken quite a bit about “sung vs. spoken” antiphons. We have also noted that the texts of the Graduale Romanum sometimes don’t match the Missal texts (in the Extraordinary Form) because the Mass Propers are older than Saint Jerome’s Vulgate, and sometimes came from the ITALA versions of Sacred Scripture. On occasion, the Missal itself doesn’t match the Vulgate—cf. the Introit “Esto Mihi.” The Vulgate has: “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in domum refúgii…” but the Missal and Graduale Romanum use “Esto mihi in Deum protectórem et in locum refúgii…” The 1970s “spoken propers” use the traditional version, as you can see.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“After the Second Vatican Council, the impression arose that the pope really could do anything in liturgical matters, especially if he were acting on the mandate of an ecumenical council. Eventually, the idea of the givenness of the liturgy, the fact that one cannot do with it what one will, faded from the public consciousness of the West.”

— Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger

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