Posted on 08/12/2008 1:40:53 PM PDT by NYer
WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the not-too-distant future, songs such as "You Are Near," "I Will Bless Yahweh" and "Rise, O Yahweh" will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States.
At the very least, the songs will be edited to remove the word "Yahweh" -- a name of God that the Vatican has ruled must not "be used or pronounced" in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses.
Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced the new Vatican "directives on the use of 'the name of God' in the sacred liturgy" in an Aug. 8 letter to his fellow bishops.
He said the directives would not "force any changes to official liturgical texts" or to the bishops' current missal translation project but would likely have "some impact on the use of particular pieces of liturgical music in our country as well as in the composition of variable texts such as the general intercessions for the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments."
John Limb, publisher of OCP in Portland, Ore., said the most popular hymn in the OCP repertoire that would be affected was Dan Schutte's "You Are Near," which begins, "Yahweh, I know you are near."
He estimated that only "a handful" of other OCP hymns use the word "Yahweh," although a search of the OCP Web site turned up about a dozen examples of songs that included the word.
OCP is a nonprofit publisher of liturgical music and worship resources.
Limb said the company would be contacting composers to "ask them to try to come up with alternate language" for their hymns. But he said hymnals for 2009 had already been printed, so the affected hymns would not include the new wording for at least another year.
Even when the new hymnals are out, "it may take time for people to get used to singing something different," he added in an Aug. 11 telephone interview with Catholic News Service.
At Chicago-based GIA Publications, another major Catholic publisher of hymnals, no major revisions will be necessary, because of the company's longtime editorial policy against use of the word "Yahweh."
Kelly Dobbs-Mickus, senior editor at GIA Publications, told CNS Aug. 11 that the policy, which dates to 1986, was based not on Vatican directives but on sensitivity to concerns among observant Jews about pronouncing the name of God. As an example, she cited Heinrich Schutz's "Thanks Be to Yahweh," which appears in a GIA hymnal under the title "Thanks Be to God."
Bishop Serratelli said the Vatican decision also would provide "an opportunity to offer catechesis for the faithful as an encouragement to show reverence for the name of God in daily life, emphasizing the power of language as an act of devotion and worship."
His letter to bishops came with a two-page letter from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, dated June 29 and addressed to episcopal conferences around the world.
"By directive of the Holy Father, in accord with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, this congregation ... deems it convenient to communicate to the bishops' conferences ... as regards the translation and the pronunciation, in a liturgical setting, of the divine name signified in the sacred Tetragrammaton," said the letter signed by Cardinal Francis Arinze and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, congregation prefect and secretary, respectively.
The Tetragrammaton is YHWH, the four consonants of the ancient Hebrew name for God.
"As an expression of the infinite greatness and majesty of God, it was held to be unpronounceable and hence was replaced during the reading of sacred Scripture by means of the use of an alternate name: 'Adonai,' which means 'Lord,'" the Vatican letter said. Similarly, Greek translations of the Bible used the word "Kyrios" and Latin scholars translated it to "Dominus"; both also mean Lord.
"Avoiding pronouncing the Tetragrammaton of the name of God on the part of the church has therefore its own grounds," the letter said. "Apart from a motive of a purely philological order, there is also that of remaining faithful to the church's tradition, from the beginning, that the sacred Tetragrammaton was never pronounced in the Christian context nor translated into any of the languages into which the Bible was translated."
The two Vatican officials noted that "Liturgiam Authenticam," the congregation's 2001 document on liturgical translations, stated that "the name of almighty God expressed by the Hebrew Tetragrammaton and rendered in Latin by the word 'Dominus,' is to be rendered into any given vernacular by a word equivalent in meaning."
"Notwithstanding such a clear norm, in recent years the practice has crept in of pronouncing the God of Israel's proper name," the letter said. "The practice of vocalizing it is met with both in the reading of biblical texts taken from the Lectionary as well as in prayers and hymns, and it occurs in diverse written and spoken forms," including Yahweh, Jahweh and Yehovah.
I don’t see any reason not to respect the feelings of Jews, it hurts no-one.
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No singing at all would be fine.
Those lyrics are too complicated.
Do they sing this at some masses? The only place I ever heard it sung was at Girl Scout camp.
Some of the liberal Catholics would find” Jailhouse Rock” acceptable.
Didn't hear it again there! A small victory, but I savored it.
Does that have scriptural support or is it tradition ?
shalom b'SHEM Yah'shua HaMashiach Adonai
I don't see any reason not to use the name of our Father in heaven especially since observant Jews do not attend Catholic services, and so, could not be offended by songs sung there.
This is silly political correctness.
Oh hogwash. The law of God does not say we cannot say His name. It says we cannot say His name in vain. It is not vanity to use the name of God in songs of praise to Him.
Besides, observant Jews don't attend Catholic services, so they would not be offended by songs sung there.
This is political correctness at its silliest.
Exactly. This is ridiculous.
Wow! That is amazingly informative. Thanks!
Personally I have seen “G-d” written that way here on FR. It’s just not natural for me. I stick with “Our Lord” and everyone gets who I’m talking about.
Actually, we used to sing it at my home parish in Berea Ohio during the “guitar mass”. I haven’t heard it in a while because it has become the red light for cheezy in liturgical music.
Although, here in “Innovation Central”, I wouldn’t be surprised to hear it coming from a neighboring parish.
I’m in an historically Catholic church. The farthest we go is “Holy, Holy, Holy”!
>>This is political correctness at its silliest. <<
Personally, if it’s not Historically Catholic to use it, skip it, IMO.
We say, Our Lord, or Heavenly Father. Using that word was made vogue my the hippies of the sixties. BAH! It’s like my lesbian sister who sees no problem with her lifestyle, calls herself “Marian” and always writes G-d.
This is the least of my worries. If the Vatican says not to use it in the Holy Mass, good on them. I’m not adding it in.
That’s called using “inclusive language” and yes it is very PC.
The GIRM gives the offical language of the Holy Mass. Nothing is to be added, changed or omitted. The Vatican is cracking down on it and depending on your Bishop, you should see a change.
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Anyway, this is bad news for Marty Haugen, isn't it?
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