Ah... the deuterocanonicals of the Old Testament. The Roman Catholic Church still includes the deuterocanonicals in their New American Bible. I just visited a RCC a couple of months ago. The second reading was from the book of Tobit so they are actively included. Sirach is also included in the NAB.
And yes, the deuterocanonicals lend towards a better understanding of the New Testament and I'd know more off of the top of my head if I would have been more attentive in high school. *sigh*
There are several New Testament Books that were almost chopped for various reasons. James with his works-based salvation and Revelation were two of them. Seems like one or more of the others may have had "too" many references to the Old Testament deuterocanonicals - not sure what kind of metrics were used for "too" but moot point now since, to my knowledge, nothing was removed.