“The Liturgical Hall of Shame”
Fr. Godfrey Diekmann, OSB, was a major proponent of the “hootenanny Mass” following the Second Vatican Council.
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.”
A theorist, organist, and conductor, Jeff Ostrowski holds his B.M. in Music Theory from the University of Kansas (2004). He completed studies in Education and Musicology at the graduate level. Having worked as a church musician in Los Angeles for ten years, in 2024 he accepted a position as choirmaster for Saint Mary of the Immaculate Conception in Michigan, where he resides with his wife and children. —Read full biography (with photographs).
Fr. Godfrey Diekmann, OSB, was a major proponent of the “hootenanny Mass” following the Second Vatican Council.
A particular Greek manuscript may or may not be more ancient than, for instance, St. Jerome’s Latin Vulgate.
I have a hard time believing that nuns told young Catholics, “Whatever you do, don’t read the Bible!” Seriously?
USCCB Secretariat of Divine Worship: “The GIRM never speaks to every possible scenario that could take place.”
“There is nothing in the Council text about turning altars toward the people.” — Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger
Named Bishop of Mantua, Sarto began in 1884 to teach dogma courses in the Seminary, giving each student a personal copy of the “Summa Theologiae.”
“And the practice of saying a Low Mass while the choir sings bits of things is too dreadful to be described.” — Fr. Adrian Fortescue, 1912
One of our contributors, Richard Clark, plans to write about the 1998 ICEL translation . . .
I published this article in 2007. I am reproducing it here in case anyone finds it useful.
My dad used to say, “When all you’ve got is a hammer, everything starts looking like a nail.”
“At the same time, however, this reform cannot and does not repudiate the past. It tries to guard carefully.” — Cardinal Knox, writing on behalf of Pope Paul VI in 1974
Catholics in America are free to receive the Holy Eucharist in their hands, but the way Cardinal Bernardin forced this issue is disturbing.
Extraordinary photographs of a 1949 Pontifical Mass for the 400th anniversary of the arrival of St. Francis Xavier in Japan.
“The scribes seldom knew Greek, so these renderings of Greek texts in Latin characters teem with mistakes of every kind.” — Dr. Peter Wagner
Corpus Christi Watershed is a 501(c)3 public charity dedicated to exploring and embodying as our calling the relationship of religion, culture, and the arts. This non-profit organization employs the creative media in service of theology, the Church, and Christian culture for the enrichment and enjoyment of the public.