Posted on 08/05/2010 5:00:26 AM PDT by markomalley
Catholic clergy and lay leaders from around the region will gather in Milwaukee Thursday for a two-day conference that will be, for some, their first in-depth look at the controversial changes ahead in the Catholic liturgy.
The Vatican is issuing its most significant and extensive revision of the Roman Missal - the prayers and texts used in Catholic worship - since the 1960s in an effort said to better reflect the original Latin texts.
But some see the changes, due to be implemented late next year, as unwieldy and unnecessary. And they fear they could further alienate the faithful at a time when the church is already struggling financially and failing to retain members.
"For some people this will be very unsettling," said Father Ken Smits, a Capuchin priest and liturgical scholar who is troubled by the move away from the vernacular to a more stilted, "sacralizing" language.
"The real concern is among the parish priests, who will have to explain something many of them are not in favor of," said Smits. "They'd much rather spend their time in ministry than have to go through this linguistic exercise."
The Archdiocese of Milwaukee workshop is one of 22 around the country aimed at educating clergy and lay leaders on the revisions.
Dean Daniels, director of the archdiocese's Office for Worship, called critics' concerns valid, but said the revision will bring English-speaking Catholics in line with the global church.
"Anytime there are changes, people go through the process of being angry and sad," he said. "But the church has been changing forever. It's a dynamic, living organism."
The Vatican approved the U.S. version of the Missal revision in March. An international petition drive asking English-speaking bishops to slow the implementation using a pilot program has drawn more than 21,000 signatures, including many from Wisconsin.
The new translation, nine years in the making, is the work of the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments and a committee of English-speaking bishops and consultants known as Vox Clara, or "Clear Voice."
That alone is troubling to some who see the revisions as part of a systematic dismantling of provisions of the Second Vatican Council, which, among other things, endorsed the celebration of the Mass in the vernacular of the people and gave national bishops conferences authority over translations.
"The fathers of Vatican II said overwhelmingly that we know how to adapt the prayers to our own needs," said Father David Cooper of St. Matthias Parish in Milwaukee and chairman of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest Alliance.
The new translation introduces more formal, rarefied language into the liturgy. But Cooper and others who have studied drafts say it ignores English grammar and syntax and introduces terms - "consubstantial," "oblation," "ignominy," to mention a few - unfamiliar to many American Catholics. And some worry it will sow division in the pews.
"You can call it whatever you like, but it's not English," said Cooper.
"The language of prayer is supposed to be evocative, graceful, uplifting," he said. "This reads like clunk-clunk-clunk-bang-boom."
Some pastors have already begun preparing their parishioners for the changes, which will ultimately require an investment in new missals and hymnals.
"Much of the music that has come up over the last 30 years will no longer be useable," said Father Alan Jurkus of St. Alphonsus Parish in Greendale, who sent out a letter this month notifying members of the coming changes.
Jurkus is encouraging parishioners to accept the revision as an opportunity to grow in their faith. But he harbors his own concerns.
"The bottom line for me is why. Why, with everything else that's going on in the church, do we have to rub salt in the wounds?"
"The fathers of Vatican II said overwhelmingly that we know how to adapt the prayers to our own needs," said Father David Cooper of St. Matthias Parish in Milwaukee and chairman of the Milwaukee Archdiocese Priest Alliance.
"Spirit of Vatican II" -- ((barf))
How demeaning to the church population habiting the kneelers and the pews! This Catholic already knows those words and has used them for years. I say bring on the new missal quickly. We were without a missal for years after Vat. II. I don't want to go through a period like that again, where the Mass is distributed on mimeographed sheets stuffed in the hymnal racks.
And why are our hymns no longer useable? This is the first that I've heard this warning. I thought the language of the new missal was just to smooth out awkward and erroneous expressions that took effect after Vat. II when the Mass was translated into the vernacular.
It would seem that Fr. Smits is part of the problem.
More of the problem ... and I bet there's a lot of FLAK from NPM and "ministers of music".
Well, I'm sure it's not what he meant, but that's a perfect description of the current ICEL abomination translation.
HALLELUJAH!!!!!!!
I wonder if he’s related to the actor Jimmy Smits, who was once quite exceptionally attractive.
Wiki says Jimmy Smits has two sisters.
I have no desire to investigate the matter further.
I’ll defer to your judgment of masculine pulchritude.
Thanks!
The news keeps getting better!!
EO kudos to all who labor to restore a sense of mystery to the sacred rites - even if "hard words" like oblation are restored. (The Orthodox still offer the Holy Oblation)
** I say bring on the new missal quickly. **
Ditto! Let’s ask for it quickly. In fact, I think I will put in an order now!
I echo your song!
I’m thinking this is why my priest will be gone for four days at the beginning of September. Presbyteral councils will be buzzing! Workshops on this will be buzzing!
It's also a perfect description of the NAB -- especially the Psalms. But I don't suppose anything's being done about that . . . yet.
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