The National Schismatic Reporter informs us that, just about the same time the wonderful conference Sacra Liturgia 2013 was going on in Rome, the Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests met in Seattle. Sort of like bearded-Spock doing his thing in that strange parallel dimension.
The Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests gave an award to the former Erie Bishop and inveterate foe of the new, corrected translation, His Excellency Most Rev. Donald W. Trautman.
In his address to the Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests, Bp. Trautman (here’s a surprise) ran down the new, corrected translation!
According to Fishwrap (aka the National Schismatic Reporter):
U.S. Catholic bishops “must take to heart” that the “vast majority” of U.S. priests are “extremely dissatisfied” with the current translation of the Roman missal, says the bishop who was responsible for the nation’s liturgy policies for six years.
Setting aside the specious claims about “vast majority” and “extremely dissatisfied”, I have two points.
First: Priests are dissatisfied? So what. Say the black and do the red.
Second: Fathers, if you are so unhappy, I say “REBEL!” Rise up against your oppressive overlords in the CDW and ICEL. Refuse to use the new translation, I say! Set aside the English book and just use Latin.
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It’s nothing short of a tragedy that so many of today’s priests don’t even know Latin.
In the old days (even within living memory) seminarians had to be downright fluent just to get by. Philosophy and theology classes were conducted entirely in Latin; the textbooks were entirely in Latin. Those seminarians were thinking in Latin, which is to say thinking with the Church.
It’s ineffable to me how out of touch they are. Perhaps we can find a bus for them.
I prefer referring to the former Bishop of Erie as His Excellency Most Rev. Donald W. TrautPERSON. It’s consubstantially the same person, but much more befitting his views on our use of the language.
I can’t speak for the “vast majority” of priests; but as a newly ordained priest, I, for one, love the new translation of the Roman Missal. The heightened language and uncommon sentence structure causes me to take my time with the prayers so that the people can understand them well. So, if anyone is taking a poll, mark me down as “extremely satisfied.”
What is the average age of members in the Ass. of U.S. Catholic Priests?
I’ll be retiring soon and moving out of the city to our retirement home at a location as remote as anyone can imagine. “Out There” there’s only a mission church with a “circuit” priest and he speaks Spanish intermingled with broken English. He does about 50% of the mass in English and the rest is in Spanish. He is intensly devout, and very encouraging. There appear to be only about 10 or 12 parishoners for whom English was their “home” language. Guess I’ll be trying to learn Spanish although at my age, 60, I’m not sure its possible to “learn” anything.
Our “City” Parish is a Catholic Mega Church with an extremely effective Pastor. He’s one of the best speakers I’ve ever heard. There’s no visible support for the Latin mass that I can discern and we fumble along with the new translation which frankly, I find annoying. But the most appaling thing I’ve observed is whatever in the world they’ve done to the Psalms! The Parish recently purchased new hard cover missals that are in the Pews; my wife and I follow along with the “Word Among Us” monthly magazine which has the “old” versions of the Psalms; the new version of the Psalms is just plain weird! It seems they’ve tried to update the Psalms and in the process have managed to butcher not only the Psalms, but the English language as well and have obliterated the “intent” of the original version beyond recognition. Its truly appaling.
Eben, the Lectionary was not revised. Not yet anyway.
“…the vast majority… are extremely dissatisfied…”
Well yes… and then definitely no. The blog “Dominus mihi Adjutor” analysed that survey from which Abp. T seems to draw his conclusion and inter alia states:
“Let’s look more closely at the details of the survey. 32 dioceses participated, though all 178 US dioceses were invited. There is the first alarm bell – the diocesan participation rate is a mere 18%.” Here it is: http://hughosb.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/survey-showing-us-priests-dislike-new-missal-not-what-it-seems/
So much for “vast majority” and “extremely dissatisfied”. But then: ‘When I use a word,’ Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean — neither more nor less.’
In the US (where I am not), how similar are the liturgical texts to the NAB? Or more especially, is the NAB used for the Lectionary? I heard that the NAB has been revised to conform to Liturgiam authenticam.
When I was in seminary in the mid-90’s, seminarians who took Latin (as an elective) were considered suspect and possibly (shudders!) rigid. In fact, those seminarians who voluntarily prayed the Rosary after Evening Prayer were scrutinized. Ten years later at the same seminary, two years of Latin are mandatory and seminarians are questioned if they do not have a devotional life.
By the way, every orthodox priest I’ve spoken to about the new translation loves it, as do I.
Eben-
I don’t know where you’re from and can’t imagine unless its perhaps the Diocese of Erie. In my capacity I travel all over our state attending mass in many parishes and in different dioceses. The new translation is old news. Most places rolled it out (according to the direction of our bishops), Advent 2011 and are no longer using the “cards”. I rarely hear problems from either the priests or the pews. Notable exceptions are a few older priests introduced it slowly, resisted and complained. The congregations in those parishes followed the lead of the priest and still don’t have it together. As for the “hard cover” books and psalms -I bet its the wonderful Vatican II Hymnal! Both my parish and our Cathedral now have it and its the best thing in my lifetime (I’m 51).
But Father,
The Ass. of U.S. Katholic Priests is just trying to preserve “tradition”:
http://catholiccartoonblog.blogspot.ca/2009/01/have-i-mentioned-i-hate-guitar-mass.html
They keep using the word “sacramentary”, even though the Vatican told them to stop doing so back in March of 2000. Even the very name of the old English missal was wrong!
I would very much like to see the membership list. I’m sure I’d recognize some luminaries from my neck of the woods.
At their latest get-together, the Ass. of US Catholic Priests voted on several recommendations
for the reformation of the Church. The ordination of women to the diaconate was one proposal
that passed their vote, I believe, but recommending ordaining women and married men to the priesthood did not.
Fr. Dave Cooper of the diocese of Milwaukee, the leader of the Ass. of US Catholic Priests,
explained that voting down an endorsement of ordaining women was just a tactical move. The
Ass. would like to get the bishops to ‘dialogue’, and trying to put women’s ordination on the
table would insure bishops would never give them the time of day. The idea seemed to be that
once the bishop’s engagement gives the Ass. of US Catholic Priests some credibility, then
they could endorse all of the things they’d honestly like to see.
I thought it was interesting that Fr. Cooper saw the issue purely as one of tactics– the Church’s
unbroken tradition and the magisterium’s teaching in Ordinatio Sacerdotalis did not
seem to give him pause.
I’m very curious as to the average age of this group’s membership and the years that they attended seminary. I’d be willing to bet that none of them were ordained in the last 10 – 15 years!
The rest of us priests should join and vote for Pope Emeritus Benedict to receive next year’s award!
The Association has admitted to an average age of about 70. I suspect it’s higher.
You know, we should not be surprised if it turns out that there’s a diocese here or there where a majority of priests actually don’t like the new translation. Think of some of these old liberal strongholds – I shall not name names – where vocations have been low for years, and most priests are of a certain age. A good bishop can’t change that overnight.
MR3 could be better stylistically, no question. But it’s still vastly preferable to the 1973 ICEL, a deeply flawed and distorted translation that was allowed to stay in force for far too long. But I believe that our kind host has made that point pretty well on this blog over the years.
The biological solution marches on.
Kieninger,
Thank you.
Sigh.
He just confirmed my oldest son three weeks ago as Bishop Emeritus.
I pray my Saturday rosaries for His Excellency.
Please pray for our parish priest, a very holy and pious young man who is orthodox.