Approval requires a two-thirds majority of the Latin rite Bishops of the US - 166 votes. The vote of those present was inconclusive but the subsequent mail ballot for those not present meant that the text failed to reach the two-thirds majority and the resolution will be presented again at the November 2008 meeting.
Major interventions arguing against the translation were made by Bishop Galeone (right), Bishop Trautman and Cardinal Mahoney. ICEL have responded to Bishop Galeone's criticism with a superb article responding to Bishop Galeone's criticism and defending their use of language and in particular the placing of modifiers before the main verb in the postcommunion prayers in order to preserve the strong ending of the prayers.Archbishop John Vlazny spoke out strongly in favour of the translations:
But I have to step back and say, you know, Liturgiam authenticam gives some direction. We seem to have some difference of opinion about what the document suggests. But I think we’re trying our best to respect that document, to respect the participation of all those who are trying to produce an English translation that’s suitable for us. It may be imperfect, but as someone else has said, the previous document was imperfect. But it became familiar, and I think we can become familiar with many things. I can become familiar with ‘gibbet’, ‘ineffable’ and ‘wrought’, and I think my people can, too. And I think it will be a non-problem after we have proclaimed it for a few years.Those three words were picked out by Bishop Trautman as words that are "no longer current speech". I'm not sure about that. People often speak about someone "wreaking havoc". Gibbet is not a commonly used word but is found in the popular text of the Stations of the Cross. Bishop Galeone referred to it:
The last time I heard the word “gibbet” was back in the 1940s, during Lent. We were making the Stations of the Cross. I was in grade school. And there was Sister Helena leading us every Friday during Lent. And if it weren’t for the word ‘nails’ I would not have understood what ‘gibbet’ meant. “O Lord, you were nailed to that infamous gibbet…” I never heard the word since 1949. Never.It seems a pity that he has not heard this word since 1949. If he were to come to the Stations in my parish during Lent, he will hear it used. It's not so difficult, really.
There is an underlying question here, however. The objection to words that are not in current use relies on the assumption that the texts of the Liturgy must be in current everyday vernacular. As Fr Michael Lang has pointed out, this was not actually the case for the Latin texts of the Mass. Bishop Galeone in fact recognised this:
‘Quaesumus’ is a very archaic word in Latin. It’s like ‘prithee’ in English. Even in Cicero’s time it was archaic. [Pause, scattered laughter] You see.Quite so. Liturgical language does use archaic words and has always done so. A thoroughgoing project of modernisation would end in absurdity. In the News and Views section of Adoremus, there is a short piece about an article by Gareth Edwards, “Modern English in the Mass”, in the October 22, 1966 issue of America magazine. Edwards said at that time:
If the Church wants to sweep the world like the Beatles, it must use language as contemporary as theirs”He offers various alternatives for the word "Amen" - perhaps to be truly modern and "on the street", we should now render it "innit"?
Another consideration is the effect of the liturgy on language itself. Cranmer's English and the English of the Authorised Version of the bible had a considerable effect on the standardisation of English spelling, and on the language itself. If we try simply to follow modern English, we will need a new translation every generation. Since it seems that it takes about a generation to produce such a translation, the prospect for vernacular liturgy is not very promising.
In the meantime, can I suggest that bloggers regularly try to work the words "wrought", "gibbet" and "ineffable" into their writing?
UPDATE: Oh dear - not only did Hilary have this idea back in June, she even tagged me. It was one of those quite busy times...
27 comments:
Maybe it's just the way I was brought up - polyglot family - but I've always known what "wrought", "gibbet" and "ineffable" meant.
Indeed, the hairs always stand up on the back of my neck when I hear the word gibbet, because I always associate it with "that infamous Gibbet".
In the meantime, can I suggest that bloggers regularly try to work the words "wrought", "gibbet" and "ineffable" into their writing?
Well, let's be careful not to make our daily secular dialect become the same as the language of the liturgy! ;)
The English-language edition of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church includes two instances of the word "ineffable" and one instance of the word "wrought". No "gibbet", though.
(Only contributing this because each and every English-speaking pilgrim at World Youth Day 2008 received a copy of the Compendium with their pack.)
Oooo !!
I'm so miffed with you Father!
I challenged everyone to use the three words months ago.
You not only didn't read my post, now you're pinching my idea!
Bad Blogger! No link!
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Just what hath we wrought?
I'm still steamed that Satan only has empty promises and not the old "allurements".
At the very least, having words of antiquity in our reading is wonderful fodder for catechesis. And I can name a few priests who need the help.
Just how many new words have entered the English language since the bishop claims he last heard "gibbet"? My boys have no trouble with gigabyte, geostationary and cardiopulmonary. They can learn a few new old ones.
The fact that these bishops think their flocks really are composed of ineducable sheep is downright ... ineffable.
Well Fr., while I am considering how I can introduce 'wrought', 'gibbet' and 'ineffable' into a comment, I wondered if, being truly modern and streetwise, it would be possible to introduce 'cool' or possibly 'yay' as an updated rendition of 'Amen'?what do you think?!
On a more serious note, one of the most beautiful prayers that I learnt by heart,as a child, was this one which was part of the 'trimming' on the daily Rosary:
'O most loving Jesus, who, by Thy ineffable virtue, and by the example of Thy domestic life, didst consecrate the Family which Thou didst choose on earth.In thy clemency, look down upon this household, humbly prostrate before thee and imploring Thy mercy.Look upon us in Thy loving kindness, preserve us from danger, give us help in the time of need and grant us the grace to persevere to the end in the imitation of Thy holy family, that having revered thee and loved thee faithfully on earth, we may bless and praise thee eternally in heaven.
O Mary, most sweet Mother, we implore thy protection,knowing that thy Divine Son will hear thy prayers, and do thou also, glorious patriarch, St. Joseph,assist us by thy powerful patronage, and offer by the hands of Mary, our prayers to Jesus Christ.
And I would just like to add that I was born some years AFTER 1949!
Well, now that you mentioned the Beatles, wait 'til you hear the new CD that my band, Commander Craig and the Ineffable Gibbets, has wrought. Due out soon on Quaesemus Records.
The ineffable idiocy of some of these bishops might tempt me to hang some of them (temporarily of course!) from a gibbet wrought by my own fair hands...
I've used 3 out of three of those words. Maybe Mahoney needs to be trained, much as you paper train a puppy. The wonder is this bozo made it to cardinal in the first place.
In this case it wouldn't even hurt to swat him with a newspaper across the muzzle. It's easier than nailing him to a gibbet.
Seriously though, I think most people EXPECT somewhat elevated language for formal situations. I've been a lector for a long time now, and I'd love to have copies of what the Passion Sunday narrative was from 30+ years ago. The language gets "dumber and dumber" every year.
Sure some of it might be a bit archaic, but I'd really be torqued if someone tried to mess around with the Our Father, for instance. I'm still ticked off that we added that "for thine is the kingdom" business.
Some of your readers might like to see the little hand out I was given at age 7, around the time of my first communion in 64.
This was the FIRST "Cheat sheet" for the average pew sitter. No fuss, no muss, here it is...and you can see the people still had some bits of Latin.
I was in New Zealand recently. At Mass there the words of the Our Father had been completely changed and they posted up this new version on an overhead. I felt affronted by this, they had trespassed on my ineffable love of this wonderful prayer. Although my dislike of this certainly showed, I would not have gone so far as to nail its author on a gibbet.
The Church there certainly seemed to be in a somewhat parlous state. That Mass was the last one being said by that priest in Queenstown since he had been moved to Invercargill and there was no priest to replace him. The town of Queenstown is a popular holiday spot and the church was absolutely packed. The priest had been looking after another four parishes as well as the one in Queenstown. The bishop had no one to replace him.
JARay
Thanks for pointing this out Father. I need to stop in at Adoremus more often. They have had some really great transcripts there in the past that were quite revealing.
God bless!
"When you hang from a *gibbet* at your window for the sport of your own crows. I will have peace with you and Orthanc."
Someone has yet to read the greatest book ever! :-)
Gibbet - isnt that a device to hang a liberal on? Though a feminist would presumably have to get hanged on a flibbertigibbet.
Sorry Father - I'm still incensed reading about what that idiot said over 40 years ago about the language of the Church needing to be contemporaneous with that used by the beatles.
Time has shown what sort of a role model this quartet of promiscuous druggies really were.
Remember when they were shaving down the response to the readings? "This is the word of the Lord" was shaved down to "The word of the Lord". I asked someone once why and was told it was more up to date. My question as to why a perfectly intelligible English sentence had to be changed at all went unanswered.
But afterwards I thought about it and was fairly sure that we had to have the change because it was more cool and hip. The trouble with cool and hip is that it changes every week, as you have said.
But one must try.
I always thought, since we were shaving things down, it would be much more cool and hip to have the lector say
"Word"
and the congregation could raise their arms with a fist and solemnly chant
"Yo"
Father
How about this for a sentence using your three preferred words:
“The only way, when translating the words of the Most Holy Mass from Latin into English, by which one may accurately convey the ineffable mystery of the Paschal sacrifice that was wrought on the gibbet by Our Lord is to use English words hallowed by tradition.”
Attende
Margaret: Remember when they were shaving down the response to the readings? "This is the word of the Lord" was shaved down to "The word of the Lord".
When was that? I guess that was a revision made for the 1985 English translation? In all honesty, Verbum Domini has no explicit "this is".
Japhy - "The word of the Lord" is found in American missals. In England it is still "This is the word of the Lord."
Thank you, Father. (It's hard for me to shift out of this American-centric frame of mind.)
It is a surprise that anyone here in the US - much less some educated ecclesiastics - should have a problem with 'wrought'. Generations of schoolchildren learned that "What hath God wrought" was the first telegraph message sent by Samuel Morse back in the 1840s. Though I doubt that many learned that the phrase was not original, but a Biblical quotation!
As a child my mother was accustomed to referring to someone who was very upset as being "over-wrought".
As for 'gibbet', we were not unfamiliar with it - from the Stations of the Cross. We also associated the word with 'gallows' - very familiar to us in old Irish patriotic songs, as in: "High upon the gallows tree..."
As to 'ineffable', I vouchsafe that if it was not understood heretofore, it soon will be!
But, of course, some people here in the US still don't understand the word 'niggardly'...
Japhy, I remember that change over. *precisely* the reason they changed it. No "this is" about it!
Nice idea, Father. I took it for a walk over on the NLM comment board.
The unstated undercurrent in the controversy about the new translation is that many of the American clergy are resolutely opposed to learning anything new. We regularly hear that it will be impossible for them to master a new text. Of course, it will also be impossible for the congregations to learn "new" responses after the not-quite-40-years of the existing translation.
I once had an English teacher at my progressive school refuse to change a mark he had given me, even after I had showed him the word "wrought" in the dictionary. He had first told me that no such word existed.
I asked him if he had ever heard of a "wrought iron gate". He had not. One wonders which planet these people were raised on.
Gibbet - isnt that a device to hang a liberal on?
I thought it was the thing they hung themselves on once you give them sufficient rope. Their own petard?
Now that's a word I'd like to see more of.
Hilary reminds me:
one of my sons, aged about eight, was aked by his teacher to think of an adverb. "Tentatively", he said. "No such word", she replied.
I fear it's a widespread phenomenon.
Well, I learnt the word "gibbet" (along with "tumulus") around 1980 from an early text-based computer game. I wouldn't have known it wasn't current English if I hadn't been told ...
Was it Zork? :)
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