HE FORMER (2006-2014) managing editor for the Church Music Association of America—JEFFREY TUCKER—posted the following on 16 August 2025: “Among the many rotten scams in the world that merge greed and state power, the USCCB deserves to be called out and scorned for maintaining a strict copyright over its liturgical texts and music. Can you even imagine such a thing? Here we have what is essentially an industry purporting to represent a religion with universal reach enlisting state power to fine and punish anyone who would dare use their texts without the permission of the clerical elites in charge.” Is it possible Mr. Tucker has been following our series?
Theft Has Occurred • There’s no need to belabor what we’ve already said in Serious Problems with the Lectionary Translation. It’s clearly immoral to make a profit selling mandatory Mass texts—the very Word of God—especially under the guise of various shell corporations. (The Mass texts are also indulgenced.) But we encourage Jeffrey Tucker to take a deeper look, from a legal perspective. The ‘translations’ over which the various shell corporations claim copyright aren’t eligible for copyright. They aren’t translations at all. The shell corporations have ‘pillaged’ or ‘borrowed’ or ‘stolen’ the work of others, especially original productions by Father Cuthbert Lattey (who taught Holy Scripture at Saint Bruno’s College in North Wales). Because it was using a fraudulent scheme, all that ‘profit’ must be given back someday, to satisfy the doctrine of restitution.
(1 of 4) Abbey Psalms & Canticles • Merely substituting a word here and there is insufficient to copyright something as “an original work.” Consider the so-called ABBEY PSALMS version of PSALM 103, verse 5, which seems lifted from the SAINT ANDREW MISSAL:
Abbey Psalms:
You set the earth on its foundation,
immovable from age to age.
Saint Andrew Missal:
You fixed the earth upon its foundation,
not to be moved forever.
Next consider the ABBEY PSALMS version of PSALM 103, verse 6, which seems lifted from the Jerusalem Bible (by Dom Henry Wansbrough of Ampleforth Abbey), although the word “overtopping” seemed too sacral for their tastes:
Abbey Psalms:
You wrapped it with the depths like a cloak;
the waters stood higher than the mountains.
Jerusalem Bible:
You wrapped it with the deep as with a robe,
the waters overtopping the mountains.
Now consider the ABBEY PSALMS version of PSALM 103, verse 9, which seems lifted from the SAINT ANDREW MISSAL:
Abbey Psalms:
You set limits they might not pass,
lest they return to cover the earth.
Saint Andrew Missal:
You set a limit they may not pass,
nor shall they cover the earth again.
Now consider the ABBEY PSALMS version of PSALM 103, verse 21, which seems lifted from the SAINT ANDREW MISSAL:
Abbey Psalms:
The young lions roar for their prey,
and seek their food from God.
Saint Andrew Missal:
Young lions roar for the prey
and seek their food from God.
Someone who’s gullible might object: “It isn’t identical because one version adds the whereas the other omits that word.” But that isn’t how copyright works; changing a word here and there does not constitute an original translation.1 It’s difficult to imagine a judge who would rule the ABBEY PSALMS as an “original” translation. (And it isn’t even a close call.) So why are the various shell corporations selling it for profit?
(2 of 4) Abbey Psalms & Canticles • Is the so-called ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES an excellent translation or is it deficient? In terms of the division of its strophes it’s undoubtably a vast improvement. The fair-minded will admit it’s a reasonably accurate translation, though it hardly manifests the vaunted “improvements” it was supposed to (from Hebrew manuscripts). Although not superb from a linguistic standpoint, one could do much worse. Perhaps the defining characteristic of the ABBEY PSALMS translation is its overwhelming blandness. It avoids language that’s colorful, bold, or memorable. It comes across as a translation tinkered with for half a century by a bureaucracy … which is exactly what happened.
(3 of 4) Abbey Psalms & Canticles • The so-called ABBEY PSALMS translation is virtually identical to the “Revised Grail” which the USCCB pretended was going to end up in the Lectionary someday—but never did. In 2008, a sordid deal had clandestinely been made with GIA PUBLICATIONS in which that private company (owned by a non-Christian family) would control the ‘rights’ to the mandatory psalter. Jeffrey Tucker of the Church Music Association of America exposed the matter on Shawn Tribe’s blog. Over the next decade, opposition to this shameful arrangement grew, and the USCCB—because of Jeffrey Tucker’s efforts—ended up purchasing the Revised-Grail and renaming it: “ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES.”
(4 of 4) Abbey Psalms & Canticles • The ABBEY PSALMS translation is virtually identical to the “Revised Grail,” but those who diligently compare them will notice infinitesimal modifications. Since we’ve been examining PSALM 103, consider verse 13:
Abbey Psalms:
From your dwelling you water the mountains;
Revised Grail:
From your dwelling you water the hills;
Did you notice the tiny change? The word “hills” became “mountains.” Now consider PSALM 103 verse 3:
Abbey Psalms:
On the waters, you lay the foundation for your dwelling.
Revised Grail:
On the waters you establish your dwelling.
What Criteria? • Did you notice the slight changes? Who is responsible for such infinitesimal changes? The bishops conference never voted on changing “hills” to “mountains”—so who changed it? Some believe Dom Gregory Polan of CONCEPTION ABBEY made these infinitesimal changes, but this is difficult to verify. What specific criteria demanded—to the mind of Dom Gregory Polan—that “hills” be changed to “mountains?” The people in the pews are the ones paying for all this tinkering; they have a right to know.
Moreover, small changes are being introduced the forthcoming version of Responsorial Psalms. For instance, the official version of the ABBEY PSALMS AND CANTICLES has the following for PSALM 77 (used on the 18th Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B):
Abbey Psalms:
The things we have heard and understood,
the things our fathers have told us,
these we will not hide from their children
but will tell them to the next generation:
the glories of the Lord and his might,
and the marvelous deeds he has done.
The changes mysteriously introduced violate correct grammar (in our view):
Someone is modifying the texts. Who is doing this?
To be continued.
ROBERT O’NEILL
Former associate of Monsignor
Francis “Frank” P. Schmitt
at Boys Town in Nebraska
JAMES ARNOLD
Formerly associated w/ King’s College, Cambridge
A convert to the Catholic Church, and
distant relative of J. H. Arnold
MARIA B.
Currently serves as a musician in the
Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.
Those aware of the situation in
her diocese won’t be surprised she
chose to withhold her last name.
1 To see a truly original translation, take a look at the one produced by Monsignor Ronald Knox in the late 1940s.