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Pope Saint Paul VI (3 April 1969): “Although the text of the Roman Gradual—at least that which concerns the singing—has not been changed, the Entrance antiphons and Communions antiphons have been revised for Masses without singing.”

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Views from the Choir Loft

Regarding “Pay-To-Pray” + Lectionary Errors

Jeff Ostrowski · March 31, 2025

HERE ARE TWO major problems with the Pay-To-Pray approach adopted after Vatican II.1 First of all, selling indulgenced prayers is immoral. Remember that the USCCB—as well as the various shell corporations it uses to collect the lucre—isn’t selling physical books. Rather, it claims to own the substance (!) of the readings, prayers, and acclamations. For several years, I served on the faculty of the annual CMAA colloquium. One year, a lengthy presentation was given by an ICEL executive who explained that his organization gave a portion of their profits to Catholics in poor countries. After the talk, one of the CMAA people said to me: “It’s nice to hear they’re using some of the money for a good cause—but they shouldn’t be collecting it in the first place.” He was absolutely correct. (The same is true of bank robbers who donate some of their loot to the poor; they don’t ‘absolve’ their robbery thereby.) Those prayers and readings are needed by Catholics to celebrate Mass. Selling them is immoral, and those responsible are obligated to make restitution. But how will they make restitution after raking in millions of dollars for sixty years?

Issue #2 • But there’s still another problem. The effort to make money off of these sacred texts resulted in deals being struck “behind closed doors.” Many decisions—even those with monumental consequences—were made in secret. Because so many decisions were made covertly, many errors crept in. Had things been done out in the open, such errors would have been noticed and corrected by “crowd sourcing.” Believe it or not, companies which attempted to correct errors were threatened with lawsuits. (I personally know several of these publishers and have seen the physical letters sent to them.) Consider the Responsorial Psalm for the 20th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B. There’s nothing confusing about its verses:

*  PDF • Official Text (20th Ord. B)

The 1970s version of the LECTIONARY printed the verses correctly, as you can see:

*  PDF • PREVIOUS LECTIONARY (20th Ord. B)

But in 1998, the LECTIONARY was “revised.” (Contradictory reasons have been given to justify this revision.) Many errors crept in—and you can see they totally botched the verses:

*  PDF • CURRENT LECTIONARY (20th Ord. B)

British Are Safe • American companies attempting to correct such errors were threatened with lawsuits. (For the record, an expert in these matters told me the USCCB would never actually file a lawsuit, because during the “discovery” phase its various shell corporations would be forced to disclose their profits.) However, as you can see the British versions were free to print the correct verses in their version of the LECTIONARY.

Still Broken • The version below is the (allegedly-forthcoming) The Abbey Psalms & Canticles which—in various iterations—has been “close to release” for almost two decades. You can see that twenty-seven (27) years after the LECTIONARY 1998 revision this psalm still hasn’t been fixed:

*  PDF • ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES (20th Ord. B)

Unanswered Questions:

Lack Of Transparency • How long will the faithful tolerate this situation? Catholics pay all the bills through their tithes, including the widow’s mite. Why haven’t they demanded to see—immediately—the total amount of royalties which the USCCB and its shell corporations have “earned” by selling the sacred prayers and readings for Mass? Furthermore, why don’t Catholics demand that OREGON CATHOLIC PRESS, which claims to be a non-profit organization, immediately explain why it claims $53,459,465.00 in assets but only reported $27,152 in salaries and wages during 2016? That’s not even enough salary for one person; is everyone who works at OCP a volunteer? Does that seem likely? It seems bizarre to me. (I’m just being honest.)

Intolerable Situation • Why are the sacred Mass prayers and readings being sold at all? Why do Catholic companies which desire to make corrections get threatened with legal action? Some of the errors are quite serious. For example, consider the Easter Vigil:

*  PDF • OFFICIAL LATIN TEXT (Holy Saturday)

But the 1998 “revision” of the LECTIONARY got things completely wrong—literally 100% backwards. The so-called Abbey Psalms & Canticles reproduces the error from 1998:

*  PDF • ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES (Holy Saturday)

What possible good could come from allowing certain corporations to make a profit by selling our sacred Mass prayers and readings? Was the person who gave total control over the entire psalter (!) to a non-Christian company ever reprimanded? What is the reason for all this secrecy? Am I the only one who cares about this? I hope you will let me know your thoughts.

1 Jeffrey Tucker, former managing editor for the Church Music Association of America, publicly declared the USCCB’s actions “simony”—and it would be difficult to argue with his characterization. Back in 2008, Jeffrey Tucker desperately begged and pleaded with the USCCB not to allow a non-Christian company to administer the copyright for the mandated psalter used by Catholics in the United States. His urgent plea was ignored. Recently, Michael Hichborn’s revelations about GIA PUBLICATIONS show the situation was even more scandalous than Jeffrey Tucker realized.

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

Filed Under: Articles, PDF Download Tagged With: Abbey Psalms and Canticles, Dr Jerry Galipeau WLP, Jeffrey Tucker CMAA, Jeffrey Tucker Sacred Music, Lectionary Error Typo, New Lectionary Edition USA, Novus Ordo Lectionary Reform, Oregon Catholic Press Last Updated: April 1, 2025

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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).

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Corpus Christi Watershed

President’s Corner

    Typo in the “Missale Romanum” (1962)
    The 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM was a transitional missal. It was on its way to becoming the 1970 version, but wasn’t there yet. It eliminated certain duplications, downplayed the Prayers at the Foot of the Altar, expanded the role of laymen, minimized the Last Gospel, made many items optional, and so forth. Father Valentine Young spotted many typos in the 1962 MISSALE ROMANUM, especially incorrect accents. The Offertory Antiphon for this coming Sunday (OF kalendar) contains an error, citing the wrong verse from Psalm 118. It should be 118:107b, not 118:154. If you read verse 154, you’ll understand how that error crept in. [In this particular case, the error pre-dates the 1962 Missal, since the 1940s hand-missal by Father Lasance also gets it wrong.]
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “Music List” • 30th in Ordinary Time (Year C)
    Readers have expressed interest in perusing the ORDER OF MUSIC I’ve prepared for 26 October 2025, which is the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year C). If such a thing interests you, feel free to download it as a PDF file. As always, the Responsorial Psalm, Gospel Acclamation, and Mass Propers for this Sunday are conveniently stored at the top-notch feasts website alongside the official texts in Latin.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    Little Encouragement?
    In the Gospel, our Savior tells about 10 lepers who were healed. Only one went back to give thanks. Precious few express gratitude, yet many have endless energy to complain. For that reason, I deeply appreciate receiving messages like the following, which arrived a few days ago (about the parish where I direct in Michigan): “Last Sunday, a couple I knew from Grand Rapids was at Mass at 10:00 a.m. I got a chance to talk to them after Mass. I wanted to let you know what they said about the choir. They were absolutely floored by our sound!!!!! They both said they could continuously listen to our choir and the beauty of it. They asked me: “Do you always sound like that?” And they were also very surprised at how packed the church was. They said it was nice for them to be in such a full church. I just thought you would be interested to know their thoughts about our choir.”
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Quick Thoughts

    “Our Father” • Musical Setting?
    Looking through a Roman Catholic Hymnal published in 1859 by Father Guido Maria Dreves (d. 1909), I stumbled upon this very beautiful tune (PDF file). I feel it would be absolutely perfect to set the “Our Father” in German to music. Thoughts?
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    New Bulletin Article • “12 October 2025”
    My pastor requested that I write short articles each week for our parish bulletin. Those responsible for preparing similar write-ups may find a bit of inspiration in these brief columns. The latest article (dated 12 October 2025) talks about an ‘irony’ or ‘paradox’ regarding the 1960s switch to a wider use (amplior locus) of vernacular in the liturgy.
    —Jeff Ostrowski
    “American Catholic Hymnal” (1991)
    The American Catholic Hymnal, with IMPRIMATUR granted (25 April 1991) by the Archdiocese of Chicago, is like a compendium of every horrible idea from the 1980s. Imagine being forced to stand all through Communion (even afterwards) when those self-same ‘enlightened’ liturgists moved the SEQUENCE before the Alleluia to make sure congregations wouldn’t have to stand during it. (Even worse, everything about the SEQUENCE—including its name—means it should follow the Alleluia.) And imagine endlessly repeating “Alleluia” during Holy Communion at every single Mass. It was all part of an effort to convince people that Holy Communion was historically a procession (which it wasn’t).
    —Jeff Ostrowski

Random Quote

“Only against this background, of the effective denial of the authority of Trent, can one understand the bitterness of the struggle against allowing the celebration of Mass according to the 1962 Missal after the liturgical reform. The possibility of so celebrating constitutes the strongest, and thus (for them) the most intolerable contradiction of the opinion of those who believe that the faith in the Eucharist, as formulated by Trent, has lost its validity.”

— Cardinal Ratzinger, 2001

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