Lord

The heart of the Christian community is our Triune Lord: Father, Son, Holy Spirit. Geography, history, and numbers are not the heart, but probably I will type mostly on these topics. As the internet already provides many encouraging spiritual guides and discouraging contentious forums, I intend to offer neither.
-----
To find a parish, enter a keyword in the search box at the top left, or look through the labels and links down the right-hand column. The posts themselves follow the Blogger format of newest items on top.
-----

Saturday, May 16, 2020

CatholicPhilly and copyrights of music and texts

CatholicPhilly.com is the official news website of the archdiocese of Philadelphia, replacing the weekly Catholic Standard newspaper that folded in 2012. A few days ago, this important article appeared, Parishes Livestreaming Masses Need Licenses.
---
Almost all choir directors, pastors, and assistants are probably alert to this issue lurking behind the worship in our churches. Not only do the hymn writers have to get their royalties, but also the basic texts of our worship, the Bible readings, liturgical texts (as the Canon of the Mass), the Sacramentary, and other prayers are owned by an entity, generally the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops or the Confraternity of Christian Doctrine. Open any pew Mass booklet, look for the fine print about copyrights, and you will discover the titles of the owners.
---
I must let the above article speak for itself.