OU CAN INSTANTLY watch the brief video (which took place earlier today) showing Bishop Michael G. Woost being elected CHAIRMAN of the USCCB “Committee on Divine Divine Worship.” He beat Archbishop Alexander K. Sample, and will replace Bishop Steven J. Lopes. In the month of November, the bishops of the United States often hold important meetings. According to an 11 November 2024 article in The Pillar, there has been some movement regarding the “new” (!) lectionary project announced in 2013.
New Lectionary • For some time, the claim has been made that the “Abbey Psalms & Canticles” will eventually appear in the USA Lectionary, which (at some point) is supposed to be revised. Many are skeptical, because the exact same claim was made by the USCCB regarding the Revised-Revised Grail—but that was a lie.1
Copyright Status • Considerable discussion online has ensued regarding whether the “Abbey Psalms & Canticles” is a candidate for proprietary copyright status:
* PDF Download • Re: Copyright Status of “Abbey Psalms & Canticles”
—This article contains a PDF comparison chart.
Garbled Words • For sixty years, Catholics have demanded to know what is gained by the ceaseless tinkering with liturgical translations. Mary Elizabeth Sperry (associate director of the USCCB’s Office for the Biblical Apostolate) attempted to justify the constant modifications as follows:
“The primary way that most Catholics are going to experience Scripture is in the Word proclaimed to the Eucharistic assembly,” Sperry said. “If they can’t understand what they hear, they are missing one of the presence [sic] of Christ in the liturgy.”
Such a statement strikes me as extremely problematic. For one thing, there are many passages in Sacred Scripture which not even the Catholic Church “understands”—cf. the Book of Revelation. Indeed, Saint Peter said of Saint Paul’s Epistles: “There are passages in them difficult to understand, and these, like the rest of scripture, are twisted into a wrong sense by ignorant and restless minds, to their own undoing.” Furthermore, OUR REDEEMER (Jesus Christ, the Second Person of the Blessed Trinity) is present—Body, Blood, Soul, and Divinity—in the SANCTISSIMUM. What more could we sinful humans reasonably demand? It would be weird for a Catholic to say: “Yeah, I know Jesus is present in the Eucharist—and that’s great and everything—but I want more.” I’m skeptical that the reason for this constant tinkering is owing to a “lack of presence” on the part of our Savior.
New Lectionary • When will this “new” Lectionary appear? Catholics have been asking that since 2013. The “best” guess seems to be 2029. Mary Elizabeth Sperry told The Pillar “it’s not clear how long that process will take.”
1 Pew books such as WORSHIP IV HYMNAL (G.I.A. Publications) which tried to “get a leg up on the competition” ended up printing a translation in hundreds of thousands of books that has never appeared—and will never appear—in any USA Lectionary. Some believe the reason the Revised-Revised Grail was abandoned had to do with its particular copyright scheme. The USCCB allowed the copyright of the Revised-Revised Grail to be administered by a private, non-Christian company. Anybody who used the texts of the Mass, proclaimed them on YouTube, reproduced them in a prayer book, or broadcast them on the radio could only do so if that company gave permission. When this scheme was revealed publicly by people like Jeffrey Tucker (a high-ranking officer of the Church Music Association of America), it caused enormous scandal—for good reason. Texts which are mandated for use in the sacred liturgy and heavily indulgenced should not be sold.
