Views from the Choir Loft

C-SPAN Clip (1988) • “Return of the Latin Mass?”

Jeff Ostrowski · August 1, 2022

VERYONE KNOWS we don’t discuss politics here; and we’re not about to start! Nonetheless, it’s interesting to “travel back in time” to 29 June 1988, when there was barely a glimmer of hope for those with an attachment to the Traditional Latin Mass. To be very specific, the “glimmer” came from a document issued on 3 October 1984 by POPE SAINT JOHN PAUL II known as Quattuor Abhinc Annos. (You can read contemporary commentary by Monsignor Richrd J. Schuler.) In the following clip from C-SPAN, a former senior assistant to Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, and Ronald Reagan addresses the issue of the Missale Vetustum on live television. Notice how Mr. Buchanan says: “I guess we didn’t know what we had until we lost it…”

History Repeats: Just as in the 1970s, there are people in 2022 who wish to wipe the Missale Vetustum from the face of the earth, in spite of the strong declaration by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007: “It behooves ALL of us” to preserve the riches of the ancient Catholic liturgy.

Flawed Argument: On the one hand, they claim that those who desire the Latin Mass are “but a tiny, minuscule, insignificant group of people” and they deserve to be marginalized, punished, and disparaged. On the other hand, they advocate using a sledge hammer to crush this “insignificant” group of Catholics. Very curious.

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

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).

“Common” Responsorial Psalm?

I try to avoid arguing about liturgical legislation (even with Catholic priests) because it seems like many folks hold certain views—and nothing will persuade them to believe differently. You can show them 100 church documents, but it matters not. They won’t budge. Sometimes I’m confronted by people who insist that “there’s no such thing” as a COMMON RESPONSORIAL PSALM. When that happens, I show them a copy of the official legislation in Latin. I have occasionally prevailed by means of this method.

—Jeff Ostrowski

“Music List” • 5th Sunday of Easter (Year C)

Some have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I prepared for the 5th Sunday of Easter (18 May 2025). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. The Communion Antiphon was ‘restored’ the 1970 Missale Romanum (a.k.a. MISSALE RECENS) from an obscure martyr’s feast. Our choir is on break this Sunday, so the selections are relatively simple in nature.

—Jeff Ostrowski

Communion Chant (5th Sunday of Easter)

This coming Sunday—18 May 2025—is the 5th Sunday of Easter, Year C (MISSALE RECENS). The COMMUNION ANTIPHON “Ego Sum Vitis Vera” assigned by the Church is rather interesting, because it comes from a rare martyr’s feast: viz. Saint Vitalis of Milan. It was never part of the EDITIO VATICANA, which is the still the Church’s official edition. As a result, the musical notation had to be printed in the Ordo Cantus Missae, which appeared in 1970.

—Jeff Ostrowski

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