Posted on 11/13/2008 9:38:59 AM PST by NYer
BALTIMORE (CNS) -- Despite some continued criticism that the translation is plagued by obscure wording and sentences that are too long, the U.S. bishops approved another lengthy section of the English translation of the third edition of the Roman Missal Nov. 11.
Needing affirmation by two-thirds of the 264 Latin-rite U.S. bishops, or 176 bishops, the heavily amended translation of the Proper of the Seasons -- made up of the proper prayers for Sundays and feast days during the liturgical year -- received 189 votes in favor and 30 against. During the bishops' meeting in Orlando, Fla., in June, the document had failed to get the required two-thirds majority.
Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, called the translation "a step forward in the continual renewal of the liturgy" and said no document was ever likely to receive the unanimous support of the bishops.
"We will never have a completely perfect translation that will meet the tastes of all of us," he said. "But it is time to recognize the great progress that has been made" since the Second Vatican Council.
The translation now goes to the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments for "recognitio," or confirmation. The first section of the missal came before the bishops in 2006 and was confirmed by the Vatican earlier this year.
The remaining sections of the missal, as translated by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, known as ICEL, are to come before the U.S. bishops in 2009 and 2010.
Introducing the document Nov. 10, Bishop Serratelli outlined the steps his committee had taken since the June rejection of the document.
"We have been very encouraged by the participation of the body of bishops" in the amendment process, he said.
Of the more than 300 new modifications submitted to the document after the June meeting, Bishop Serratelli said, more than 90 were related to syntax, grammar and sentence structure; 14 were made to break up long sentences; 13 corrected inaccuracies in the translation; and 180 dealt with concerns about vocabulary.
At the Orlando meeting, the majority of bishops voted not to return the translation to ICEL, made up of representatives of episcopal conferences in 11 English-speaking countries. Many U.S. bishops expressed frustration that suggestions they had submitted to ICEL to clarify the sentence structure or revise archaic language had been ignored.
Two of the leading critics of the translation in Orlando -- Bishops Donald W. Trautman of Erie, Pa., and Victor B. Galeone of St. Augustine, Fla. -- continued to oppose the document in Baltimore.
Calling the ICEL translation "fundamentally flawed," Bishop Trautman said the document "does not communicate," in part because of "lengthy sentences that are not pronounceable."
"If we do approve this, it will confuse our people," said Bishop Galeone.
But the majority of bishops disagreed, with many citing a need to start educating Catholics about the changes to come in celebrating the Mass with the new missal.
"The sooner we start putting things together the better," said Bishop Edward K. Braxton of Belleville, Ill., adding that members of one parish in his diocese had already told him they did not approve of certain changes mandated by the Vatican-approved missal translation.
With the time needed for publishers to produce the new edition of the missal and for Catholics to receive proper catechesis about the changes in the Mass, use of the new missal is not expected before Advent of 2012, Bishop Serratelli said.
In July, the Vatican told the USCCB that it had given "recognitio" to the first section of the missal translation. Approved by the U.S. bishops in Los Angeles in June 2006, that section involves the translation of the penitential rite, Gloria, creed, eucharistic prayers, eucharistic acclamations, Our Father and other prayers and responses used daily.
Says a lot .... and it says nothing.
Bring back the Latin mass.
Why don’t the Bishops and Cardinals spend as much time on the teaching of the Pro Life theology?
Why don’t the Bishops and Cardinals spend as much time on the teaching of the Pro Life theology?
Why don’t the Bishops and Cardinals spend as much time on the teaching of the Pro Life theology?
Here! Here! I wholeheartedly agree. At the Sunday Mass on All Souls Day, the choir sang the Our Father in Latin. You never saw a bunch of confused church-goers. The ones who normally hold hands or raise their hands during the Our Father were at a loss on what to do. It sounded beautiful, BTW.
Lazy priests need to have “intro to latin” classes at their parishes. Just basic latin is all that is needed.
The Mass is central to Catholic worship and having Mass in Latin would remind the world that it’s the One, Holy, Catholic, Apostolic Church and not a collection of people wanting their language front and center.
I think replacing the Latin Mass with the Novu Ordo Mass was a plot instigated by the Church’s eternal enemies or it could have been spiritual laziness (the same thing?).
LOL! That's a great account!
In a completely unrelated note, your tagline says your a Marine mom. Here's what the Marines do in honor of one of the heroes from Vietnam, who died recently.
I was a lazy altar boy when I started. I discovered that saying "sack of potatoes sack of peas" repeatedly while the priest was saying the Confetior worked. Until he stopped one day, and left me on my own. I learned it that day.
My bishop is Bp Galeone, who led the charge against the good translation, but who is actually great on pro-life things. He published his own letter because he felt the Florida bishops didn’t go far enough, and he was excellent when I wrote to him to ask about a pro-Obama priest (who preached a pro-Obama homily). Of course, about 50% of the priests in his diocese refused to read his letter, and probably the majority were pro-Obama and actually don’t care about pro-life issues. The only ones who supported him are the “conservative” ones, who are also those in favor of the better translation, a return to Latin, etc.
Bp. Galeone was one of the leaders of this stupid attempt to continue to dumb down the liturgy. He has never understood that one of the reasons he gets no support for his excellent pro-life positions is that the liturgy and the theology of the Church have been dumbed down for the past 40 years. In addition, the disobedience sown by VatII that led to a rejection of the translation and of the tendency to make up the mass as you go along (and I hate to say it, but he does this), is one of the things that made his priests so disobedient that they didn’t read his pro-life letter or even scoffed at it.
These things are all tied together.
Or .. you can give one the following DVD (free to priests!)
The Extraordinary Form of the Mass - an instructinal video for priests and seminarians.
I love the Marines. Thank you for the very moving video.
My take on this is, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Since
Vatican II and the introduction of the “New Mass”, vocations have fallen, and the ones that they do have for the most part can’t hold a candle to the nuns and priests of old. (Of course, there are a few exceptions). The irreverence shown at Mass in the way people dress and act has gotten worse and worse over the years.
If he was responsive to your past letter, I think that you really should write him and explain this to him - about how we (the Catholic faithful) do not appreciate a dumbed-down liturgy that actually lessons the glory given to God and about what an amazing power the dignity and sobriety of the Mass has over the beliefs of parishioners over time.
We pray as we believe and we believe as we pray...
If he was responsive to your past letter, I think that you really should write him and explain this to him - about how we (the Catholic faithful) do not appreciate a dumbed-down liturgy that actually lessons the glory given to God and about what an amazing power the dignity and sobriety of the Mass has over the beliefs of parishioners over time.
We pray as we believe and we believe as we pray...
I’m with you! I don’t understand why people say that the Latin Mass is hard to follow or understand. My youngest follows along just fine and knows all her prayers in Latin. What are these people saying, they aren’t as bright as a little kid?
Perfectly describes the talk I heard by Bishop Vigneron last week on this very subject. What I did get out of it, though, is that ICEL would send the translation to the Vatican and it would get rejected on a regular basis for not being close enough to the original. The majority of the difficult language (huh?), long sentences (breathe before the prepositions and at the commas just like we do when we sing) and otherwise non pop culture language was dictated from above ICEL. They didn't have a choice.
Fabulous, if you ask me.
You asked three times.
I only wish I had one answer.
Is one of these, your little kid?
http://www.atonementparish.blogspot.com
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