NY Daily News on new, corrected translation. WDTPRS POLL ALERT!

At The New York Daily News there is a piece about the new, corrected translation and there is a POLL which you should use.

My emphases and comments.

Catholic Church unveils strict Latin translation, biggest change to Mass in 40 years

New English-version debuts nationwide Nov. 27
BY LORE CROGHAN
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS

The city’s Roman Catholics are preparing for the biggest change to the Mass in 40 years, a new English translation that will be rolled out nationwide Nov. 27.

A decade in the making, the new Mass is a more precise translation from Latin than the current version, peppered with more theological words and Biblical images.

Supporters say it will bring a more reverent, solemn tone to services, while detractors think the new language is too obscure or stilted.

Diane DeBernardo, 45, just knows it will be “a challenge.”

“In church, all my life I’ve known what to say,” the Kensington, Brooklyn, teacher said. “I’ll have to use a missal for the first time.” [Not a bad thing, in itself.  And she will get used to the new version quickly.]

[…]

The latest change is a new English translation of the Third Edition of the Roman Missal. It aims for a more reverent, solemn tone.

“In trying to make things relevant we lost a sense of the importance of ritual language,” said the Rev. Frank Tumino, pastor of the Church of Saint Thomas the Apostle in Woodhaven, Queens, who is helping to implement the revisions.

The structure of the Mass will remain the same, along with some major parts, such as the “Our Father.”

Some New Yorkers welcome the changes, which include a new emphasis on forgotten gestures like churchgoers striking their chests with fists when they ask God’s forgiveness. [Wasn’t that in the lame-duck rubrics?  One of the benefits of the new translation is the rediscovery of things people should have been doing all along.]

“We’ve been a little complacent,” said Theresa Noll, 59, a Windsor Terrace retiree and Immaculate Heart parishioner. “We need to be shaken up a little bit.

Others say the translation is a step backward because of its grammatical similarity to the Latin-language Mass and its use of unfamiliar vocabulary.

Church officials say the lexicon is important.

We want the sense of special respect for what we do at church, and we want to appreciate the exact nature of some theological words, like ‘consubstantial,’” said Msgr. William Belford, the vicar for clergy at the Archdiocese of New York.

“Nothing else says the mystery of the relationship of God the Father and God the Son as well as that word, which is 1,700 years old.”  [Good for him!  “Consubstantial” is about the best word we have to express this difficult concept.  “One in being” never did cut it.  Not even close.]

The theological precision of the new translation got a thumbs-up from schoolteacher Timothy Thomas, 29, of the upper East Side.

There’s more meat on the bone — something you can really sink your teeth into,” said Thomas, a parishioner at the Church of Saint Vincent Ferrer.

It’s winning fans among New Yorkers who prefer traditional Latin Mass, which is celebrated in a handful of churches.

Johnny Egan, 45, an assistant film and TV director who attends Latin services at the Church of the Holy Innocents in the Garment District [hurray!], usually steers clear of English-language Mass. He’ll be more willing to give it a try come Nov. 27.

“I’ll feel more at home,” the upper East Side resident said.

There is a POLL at the site of the The New York Daily News.

Here is what the form looks like… I’m not telling you how to vote… but… there it is.  CLICK the image below to go there.

And as of this writing here are the results so far.  You decide what to do about it.

Have an opinion?

UPDATE: 20:45 GMT:

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14 Comments

  1. Maltese says:

    There will soon be available a new translation of the various texts, certainly improved regarding some verses, but I will not marvel at all if for other passages there will be more problems than in the first edition resulting from certain exegetical or historical-theological eccentricities –Msgr. Gherardini

    The new translation will be a bandaid on a gaping wound. The problem isn’t this or that phraseology; it is the systemic orientation of the new mass to man, and away from God.

  2. Jbuntin says:

    This new translation is a good start, but without leadership in the parish by a holy priest, it will only be a change of words and not of the heart. I pray for the latter. God’s grace can work miracles.

  3. Supertradmum says:

    Jbuntin,

    May I gently disagree and state that the language and the rationality of the New Mass will touch people’s hearts without the leadership of a priest, as God works through the priest and even, in spite of him. Ex opere operato

  4. JoyfulMom7 says:

    Just voted! We are ahead – 82%!

  5. Charles E Flynn says:

    I liked the ill-defined term “progressive” that provides the alternative to the corrected translation. The choice may just as well have read, “No, the Church should stick with its defective consumer product.”

    Please say a prayer for one of the world’s great translators, Allen Mandelbaum, who died on October 27.

  6. Miriam says:

    When I look at the picture of the church from the story, I think the new translation is a much better fit with the architecture.

    Did we end up with so many banal churches because we used banal language in our worship? Perhaps the more holy language will inspire better church design, I hope.

  7. Joseph says:

    My question here still is, why did it take so long for only a small step?
    So many lost souls, or so it seems in those years.

  8. Will D. says:

    My priest has been very gung-ho about the new translation. He’s been doing some mini-WDTPRS topics in his homilies lately. Today, for instance, he talked about the change in the “Domine non sum dignus” prayer, emphasizing its direct relation to the Gospel and how it had been badly translated in the lame-duck missal.
    I’m very much looking forward to the First Sunday of Advent. I just wish that I could get my new hand missal in time.

  9. jeff says:

    Whilst I welcome “consubstantial”, in Australia we were saying “of one being with” which is, IMHO a lot better than the American version. We were also saying “and was made man”.

  10. samgr says:

    The Daily News poll’s reported results, at last glance, were even more favorable to the change: 88% for, 9% against, 3% undecided.

  11. Peter G says:

    November Ist was the big day here in Australia when the new translation formally came into full use.
    In my parish in suburban Melbourne,we have been using the new translation for about 2 months and with very good catechesis in the lead up,there has been overwhelming acceptance by parishoners.
    Our altar edition of the new missal arrived last week and it is a beautifully produced and detailed publication.
    Melbourne is numerically the biggest diocese in Australia with just under 300 parishes.The altar edition of the missal costs around $400 and our Catholic Development Fund purchased a copy for each parish.This would have cost them well over $100K so it is “Deo Gratias”for the CDF.

  12. JP Borberg says:

    “She will get used to the new version quickly”

    The new translation for the congregation’s responses has been used in our diocese for about a year now. The bishop gave a workshop when the change happened and they printed some booklets with the responses that are left around the churches, but I didn’t hear any sermons about it (though I did hear a ‘for you and for many’ the other week).

    But whatdoyouknow, no one seems to care any more. It’s like they’ve been giving those responses all their lives. I’ve seen no heads exploding, no children crying, not even any liberals hyperventilating. Just the same old awkward Novus Ordo I refuse to get use to.

  13. JonPatrick says:

    We will be going up to Maine the weekend of Nov 20 so that will probably be the last time (thankfully) I hear the “lame duck” translation. Although the last time we were there the priest used Eucharistic Prayer III and said “… from the rising of the sun to its setting…” so the new translation is starting to creep in already. He had also given sermons on it so it sounds like they are on board with the changes at that parish.

  14. catholicmidwest says:

    Get yourself an inexpensive missal and be on guard for hybrid versions, ad libs or partial defections to the unapproved text of 1998. There are some funny things that are going to happen here and there, I think.

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