The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has announced that the Congregation for Divine Worship has granted recognitio for the new English translation of the Order of Mass (i.e. the unchanging parts, not the collects etc.)
The letter granting recognitio has said that this approval does not mean that the texts are to be put into use immediately. There is to be time for pastoral preparation of priests and deacons and catechesis of the lay faithful.
Such time was not given when the execrable old-ICEL translations were foisted upon us. I remember as a teenager looking at a parallel Latin-English text and being horrified at the systematic desacralisation of the translation. I even sat down and wrote out a translation of my own in long hand to try to appreciate the beauty of the liturgical texts.
Now that the new text has been given recognitio and we are supposed to be helping the people to cope with this unaccustomed influx of sacred language, perhaps we might be allowed to see the text at last...
4 comments:
I don't mean this to sound grumpy - but if they can spend time and money on preparing/training priests to use these new texts - why could they not do the same for the extraordinary form?
Fr. Tim,
"There is to be time for pastoral preparation of priests and deacons and catechesis of the lay faithful."
Let me make a suggestion. We should follow precedent and have a period of liturgical preparation of exactly the same duration as when:
"I believe in God" became "We believe in God;"
"Pray brethren" became "Pray [anything that does not denote the masculine gender];
"It is right and fitting" became "It is right to give Him thanks and praise;" and
"For you and for all men" became "For you and for all."
How about that for a sensible compromise fully consistent with previous changes to the translation of the Mass?
I noticed at the bottom of the article I read it said "no date has been given on when the entire English Missal will be released"
I'm guessing we'll have to wait until everything is approved by Rome before an official release will happen.
The CDW has been quite quick to give recognitio for the Ordinary and will probably not delay on the propers. Sadly the US bishops have just thrown a spanner in the works by rejecting them - this will delay the whole process.
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