From the Catholic Herald:
Extraordinary Form missal to be produced in Braille for the first time
An Order of Mass for the older Latin form of the liturgy is to be produced in Braille in what is believed to be the first of its kind.
The Latin Mass Society is working to produce the missal with the help of the UK-based Torch Trust, a Christian charity that supports people with sight loss.
Joseph Shaw, LMS chairman, said the idea for the Order of Mass came from supporters. “It is demand-driven,” he said.
He said that LMS was also preparing a large-text “Bishop’s Canon”, which contains the Canon of the Mass and other important texts, for use by priests with poor eyesight.
Braille was invented in the 19th century by the French Catholic musician Louis Braille. He had been a pupil at the world’s first school for the blind, which had been set up decades earlier by Valentin Haüy, another Catholic, in Paris.
A Braille missal already exists for the new English translation of the Mass. The Xavier Society for the Blind, an American organisation, has produced Braille versions of the Catechism and the New American Bible.
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OH! That is so awesome. I hadn’t realized there wasn’t a braille edition yet.
My dad took braille classes last year and his classmate was an Augustinian priest who was even blinder. That priest would only want a braille missal if it was the OF in the old mistranslation -.-;;; Actually, that makes me wonder: could a blind or visually-impaired priest licitly use a braille missal, EF or OF? o.o
JesusFreak84 — I expect that the problem wouldn’t be the form of the Missal (Braille is just another font, albeit one with tactile features), but the difficulty of the blind priest knowing when he could use his hands to read, during Mass. He’d probably have to memorize some parts, because a priest has to have both hands in the air at some parts of Mass.
But I’m sure this sort of thing has already been worked out, and a blind priest would just have to ask around in the right places to learn the relevant procedure.
[I’m all for priests memorizing a couple of Mass formularies… against the day of our being rounded up.]
Suburbanbanshee & Fr. Z: “But I’m sure this sort of thing has already been worked out, and a blind priest would just have to ask around in the right places to learn the relevant procedure.
[I’m all for priests memorizing a couple of Mass formularies… against the day of our being rounded up.]”
Didn’t St. Pio frequently use just the Votive Mass of the Blessed Virgin, which he had memorised? And he was permitted to do so, as he got older. I’m pretty sure I read that in what (to me anyway) is the best biography of him, written by the Revd. Bernard Ruffin, an American Lutheran? I’ve read a few biographies of him, but Ruffin’s is very good – I’d recommend it.
Aargh, I meant to say: yes, a priest who has gone blind, or with restricted vision, would probably have to have a good assistant, like the MC at a High Mass, to make sure things don’t get knocked over. And it’s amazing, to us sighted people, how speedily blind people trained in Braille can read. One of my best friends, blind from birth, is an avid reader and has frequently read Braille books to me. He’s a grandfather now in his late 60s. He cooks well, and I remember when I first got to know him how, in his house, he and his wife and (then young) daughter, both sighted, made sure that everything was put back in proper order. Braille labels help, of course. Still thriving, thank God. And he served Mass, back in the 60s, in the chapel in the school for the Blind in Dublin – they learned the parts from Braille.
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