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Views from the Choir Loft

One more regrettable mistake by the Bishop of Boise, Idaho

Veronica Moreno · April 8, 2020

Y PANDEMIC DAYS are full of the life of my children and my husband. After that, I prepare to cantor at Mass and somewhere in all of this, try to cook dinner. I don’t have time for “liturgy wars”. I am obedient to my pastor, to my bishop, to my choir director every week as I diligently prepare my role in the Mass to the best of my ability. But I could not remain quiet when my husband told me this: Bishop Christensen’s recent letter was plagiarized.

See for yourself. On the left is the letter from 2020; a 2016 blog post is on the right:

My thoughts about this:

1) I started this post by saying that I don’t have time for “liturgy wars”, but this letter is terrifying. Everything about its “record-keeping” request to tally all Extraordinary Form Masses sounds ominous when paired with the rhetoric of the rest of the letter. This fear prompted me—and my husband—to re-read the text, and with a simple internet search…he found the original from 2016.

It took all of seven seconds to find the original.

2) Which then brought up a second thought direct from the Bishop’s letter: “Sources such as independent websites and social media platforms that are unaffiliated with the Holy See or the USCCB are not to be considered trustworthy or appropriate for catechesis.”

I thought about this line over and over last night.


Surely much more can be written, and will be written.

As for me, I have to finish this because my pastor needs me to prepare for Good Friday liturgy. But if we worshiped in the Diocese of Boise, I would find myself increasingly confused by this letter and wondering what to do about the inevitable effects of one Rite’s “gravitational pull” on the other.

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

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Filed Under: Articles Tagged With: Ad Orientem, Bishop Peter Christensen, GIRM Paragraph 299, Mass Facing The People Last Updated: November 15, 2020

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About Veronica Moreno

Veronica Moreno is married to a teacher and homeschools five children. She has been cantor at her local Catholic parish for over a decade.—(Read full biography).

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Quick Thoughts

Alabama Assessment!

We received this evaluation of Symposium 2022 from an Alabama participant:

“Oh, how the Symposium echoed the words of Cardinal Merry Del Val: …choosing only what is most conformed to Thy glory, which is my final aim. In one short and fast paced week, the faculty and attendees showed me the hand of God and our Lady working in our lives. The wide range of education—from Gregorian Chant, jazz modes in organ improvisation, to ‘staying sane’ while leading a choir—were certainly first-class knowledge from the best teachers of the art. However, the most powerful lesson was learning how to pray as a choir. The sacrifice of putting songs together, taking time to learn the sacred text, meditating on the church teaching through the chants, and gaining the virtues required to persevere in these duties were not only qualities of a choir but of a saint. The sanctification of the lives of the attendees was a beautiful outcome of this event … and that in itself is worth more than a beautifully-sung Solesmes style chant!”

—Jeff Ostrowski
PDF Download • Trinity Sunday (22 pages)

Feel free to download this Organ Accompaniment Booklet for Trinity Sunday (Second Vespers). Notice how the modes progress by number. Psalm 1 is mode 1; Psalm 2 is mode 2; Psalm 3 is mode 3; Psalm 4 is mode 4; Psalm 5 is mode 5. I am told by an expert that other feasts (such as Corpus Christi) are likewise organized by mode, and it’s called a “numerical office.”

—Jeff Ostrowski
10 June 2022 • “Official” rhythm of plainsong

I continue to search for the most beautiful way to present the “pure” Editio Vaticana scores. (Technically, the “pure” rhythm of the official edition is what everyone is supposed to use.) You can download my latest attempt, which is the Introit for this coming Sunday: Feast of the Most Holy Trinity. Because this is not an ancient feast, the Introit had to be adapted (perhaps around 750AD). Prior Johner says the adaptation is “not an entirely happy one.”

—Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“From six in the evening, his martyrdom had continued through the ghastly night until nine o’clock in the morning. After fifteen hours of torture rarely if ever surpassed in the bloody annals of the Iroquois, the soul of Gabriel Lalemant was freed from its charred and mutilated prison and summoned to join his comrade Jean de Brébeuf in the radiant splendor of God. March 17th, 1649, was the date; for Brébeuf it had been the sixteenth.”

— ‘Fr. John A. O’Brien, speaking of St. Gabriel Lalemant’

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