Bishop Vasa ends ties with hospital performing sterilizations

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

More news about Bp. Vasa in Baker, Oregon.

Bishop Vasa ends diocese’s sponsorship of hospital that performs sterilizations February 16, 2010

Bishop Robert Vasa of Baker has announced that his Oregon diocese is ending its sponsorship of St. Charles Medical Center-Bend because the hospital persists in performing tubal ligations, thus refusing to adhere to Catholic teaching on sterilization.

“It is my responsibility to ensure the hospital is following Catholic principles both in name and in fact,” said Bishop Vasa. “It would be misleading for me to allow St. Charles Bend to be acknowledged as Catholic in name while I am certain that some important tenets of the Ethical and Religious Directives are no longer being observed.”

Source(s): these links will take you to other sites, in a new window.

Posted in Emanations from Penumbras, Our Catholic Identity, The future and our choices |
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QUAERITUR: changing the blessing at the end of Mass

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a seminarian:

A priest at the seminary has been blessing saying "May almighty God bless you in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit."

Another priest mentioned this was wrong and even heretical for a priest to bless at this part of the Mass "in the name".

Do you know anything about this?

I don’t know about heresy, but I do I know this:

Priests should Say The Black and Do The Red. 

I believe the missal has a form to be used by the priest at the end of Holy Mass: Benedicat vos omnipotentis Deus, Pater et Filius et Spiritus Sanctus… May Almighty God bless you, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.   Buy WDTPRS stuff!

I would therefore wonder if the priest just didn’t pay adequate attention to the book and never really double-checked the proper form,… which is likely… or whether on his own initiative he decided that he knew better what the Church should do and changed it.   

Surely once he finds that he has been doing something wrong he will make a change.

Back to the question of heresy.   I am not sure in what the heresy would be found. 

There are other blessing forms, but I cannot call to mind one whereby the priest blesses "in the name" of the Trinity.  Priests call down invocative blessings but seemingly in their own name.  Either way, God is doing the blessing at the invocation of the priest.

Perhaps a reader or two might have something useful to contribute on this point.

Posted in ASK FATHER Question Box | Tagged
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WDTPRS: Ash Wednesday – Prayer over the people – (1962MR & 2002MR)

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I am delighted that in the 2002 Missale the tradition of the "Prayer over the people" was revived in Lent.  This is an important custom.

The origin of the Oratio super populum is quite complex and hard to pin down.  Turning to Fr. Joseph A. Jungmann’s monumental two volume The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development we find a history of this prayer at the beginning of the section concerning the close of the Mass (II, pp. 427ff).  Something Jungmann emphasizes that caught my attention is the fact that we are at a “frontier” moment, the threshold of the sacred precinct of the church and the world.  When properly formed we want the influence of our intimate contact with the divine to carry over into the outside world.  The use of this prayer is very ancient, found in both the Eastern liturgies of Syria and Egypt and in the West.  

Unlike the Postcommunio, the object of the prayer is not “us”.  Instead, the priest prayers for and over the people, not including himself as he does in the prayer after Communion. 

By the time of Pope Gregory the Great this was only in the Lenten season, probably because this is perceived to be a time of greater spiritual combat requiring more blessings.  Indeed it was extremely important for those who were not receiving Holy Communion, as was the case of those doing public penance before the Church, the ordo poenitentium.  

How important was this prayer to the Romans?  In 545, when Pope Vigilius (537-55) was conducting the station Mass at St. Cecilia in Trastevere, troops of the pro-Monophysite Byzantine Emperor Justinian arrived after Communion to take the Pope into custody and conduct him to Constantinople.  The people followed them to the ship and demanded “ut orationem ab eo acciperent… the they should receive the blessing prayer from him”.  The Pope recited it, the people said “Amen” and off went Vigilius who would return to Rome only after his death.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (2002MR):
Super inclinantes se tuae maiestati, Deus,
spiritum compunctionis propitius effunde,
ut praemia paenitentibus repromissa
misericorditer consequi mereantur.

This seems to be of new composition, though utilizing some snips from the older, corresponding prayer in the 1962MR.

We looked into this prayer HERE and some of you readers gave your versions:

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
O God, graciously pour forth a spirit of compunction
upon those bowing themselves to Your majesty,
so that they may merit to obtain
the rewards promised to penitents.

Let’s also have a look at the corresponding prayer in the older, traditional Missale Romanum:

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM (1962MR):
Inclinantes se, Domine, maiestati tuae,
propitiatus intende:
ut, qui divino munere sunt refecti,
caelestibus semper nutriantur auxiliis.
misericorditer consequi mereantur.

I found this prayer in ancient books such as the Liber sacramentorum Augustodunensis as the Postcommunio of the Mass for the Station at San Gregorio (Thursday after Ash Wednesday).

SLAVISHLY LITERAL VERSION:
Having been propitiated, have regard
for those bowing themselves to You majesty, O Lord:
so that, those who have been refreshed by the divine gift,
may always be nourished by heavenly helps,
and may merit, mercifully, strive after them.

When creating the Novus Ordo on their desks the cutters and snippers of Fr. Bugnini’s Consilium obviously wanted to keep something of the prayer from the pre-Conciliar Missale in their new version.

Under the other entry, I suggested some of you might offer translations of the prayers.  Since I have done that here, how about offering your views on the differences of content between the older prayer and the newer.

Remember: We are very glad that the Oratio super populum is once again part of the post-Conciliar Missale Romanum.  But let’s have a look at what the prayer really says, since we will be seeing it in the new translation.

Posted in LENT, WDTPRS | Tagged , , ,
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WDTPRS: Ash Wednesday (2002MR)

Posted on 17 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

The Roman Station for Ash Wednesday is Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill.

The Collect in the 2002 Missale Romanum, is an ancient prayer found in the Gelasian Sacramentary for the Vigil of Pentecost.

It is also among the prayers for the 4th day of the 4th month, which more than likely involved the traditional fast of the fourth month (there were fasts in the 4th, 7th and 10th months).  This prayer is in the so-called Veronese Sacramentary under the title In ieiunio quarti mensis. 

This prayer was in the 1962 Missale Romanum but at the end of the section for the blessing of and imposition of ashes, before the Introit of the Mass itself. 

Let’s see what the prayer really says.

COLLECT:
Concede nobis, Domine, praesidia militiae christianae
sanctis inchoare ieiuniis,
ut, contra spiritales nequitias pugnaturi,
continentiae muniamur auxiliis.

Praesidium has a powerfully military connotation.  It means fundamentally "defense, protection, help, aid, assistance" and thus it refers to "soldiers who are to serve as a guard".  Thus, by extension, it comes to mean "any place occupied by troops, as a hill, a camp, etc.; a post, station, entrenchment, fortification, camp".  Munio is equally military: "to build a wall around, to defend with a wall, to fortify, defend, protect, secure, put in a state of defense".  As you can imagine pugno, "to combat, give battle, engage, contend", is a military term.  Are you getting the picture?  Of course auxillium means "help, aid, assistance, support, succor", but when in the plural it is also "auxiliary troops, auxiliaries (mostly composed of allies and light-armed troops; hence opposed to the legions)".  Then there is militia, which is "military service, warfare, war" and also specifically in the genitive militiae "in military service, or on a campaign, in the field".  

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
Grant us, O Lord, to commence the defenses of the Christian field campaign by means of holy fasts,
so that, we who are about to do battle against spiritual negligences,
may be fortified by the support of continence.

This is a mighty prayer.  

Several things come to mind. 

First, most of us when we were confirmed were reminded in some way that we are soldiers in this pilgrim Church.  We must be ready to suffer for the Faith. 

Militaristic imagery informs much of the history of Christian spirituality. 

Next, while we are soldiers we are on the march, pilgrim soldiers.  We are on campaign.  When the Roman legions were on the march, they would build a fortified camp when they halted.  They took no chances.  We are on the march in a vale of tears where anything and everything can happen to us and around us. 

Thirdly, when we make mistakes, the results can be deadly.  The word nequitia means "bad quality, badness" but that is because it is "bad moral quality, of all degrees, idleness, negligence, worthlessness, vileness".  It usually refers to a lack of attention that duty and prudence require, resulting in negative consequences.  Moreover, the virtue of continence is described with the same word used to describe the auxiliary troops that supported the legion’s regulars.  While it could simply refer to "abstinence", continence is the virtue which restrains the will from consenting to strong impulses of sexual desire.  So, this prayer could have a special focus. 

SUPER OBLATA:
Sacrificium quadragesimalis initii sollemniter immolamus,
te, Domine, deprecantes,
ut per paenitentiae caritatis labores
a noxiis voluptatibus temperemus,
et, a peccatis mundati,
ad celebrandam Filii tui passionem
mereamur esse devoti.

This prayer also has roots in the ancient Gelasian and the Gregorian Sacramentary.  Notice, however, how long, wordy it is.  Hardly in the style of the terse prayers of the Romans.

REALLY LITERAL VERSION:
Praying to You, O Lord,
we solemnly raise up the Sacrifice of the beginning of Lent,
so that through the exertions of the charity of penitence
we may abstain from harmful pleasures,
and, cleansed from sins,
we may be worthy to be dedicated
to celebrating the Passion of Your Son.

St. Leo the Great refers to the time of the Lenten fast as a sacramentum, preparing us for the mysterium of the dying and rising of the Lord.  

Here at the threshold of Lent, let us make our "Lenten start". In the sacrament of Penance, Christ will cleanse your slate and you may make a renewed beginning.

POST COMMUNION:
Percepta nobis, Domine,
praebeant sacramenta subsidium,
ut tibi grata sint nostra ieiunia,
et nobis proficiant ad medelam.

A VERSION:
May the sacramental mysteries which we have received, O Lord,
afford us help,
that our fasts may be pleasing to You,
and may be profitable for us unto a remedy.

I am delighted that in the 2002 Missale the tradition of the "Prayer over the people" was revived in Lent.  This is an important custom.

The origin of the Oratio super populum is quite complex and hard to pin down.  Turning to Fr. Joseph A. Jungmann’s monumental two volume The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development we find a history of this prayer at the beginning of the section concerning the close of the Mass (II, pp. 427ff).  Something Jungmann emphasizes that caught my attention is the fact that we are at a “frontier” moment, the threshold of the sacred precinct of the church and the world.  When properly formed we want the influence of our intimate contact with the divine to carry over into the outside world.  The use of this prayer is very ancient, found in both the Eastern liturgies of Syria and Egypt and in the West.  

Unlike the Postcommunio, the object of the prayer is not “us”.  Instead, the priest prayers for and over the people, not including himself as he does in the prayer after Communion. 

By the time of Pope Gregory the Great this was only in the Lenten season, probably because this is perceived to be a time of greater spiritual combat requiring more blessings.  Indeed it was extremely important for those who were not receiving Holy Communion, as was the case of those doing public penance before the Church, the ordo poenitentium.  

How important was this prayer to the Romans?  In 545, when Pope Vigilius (537-55) was conducting the station Mass at St. Cecilia in Trastevere, troops of the pro-Monophysite Byzantine Emperor Justinian arrived after Communion to take the Pope into custody and conduct him to Constantinople.  The people followed them to the ship and demanded “ut orationem ab eo acciperent… the they should receive the blessing prayer from him”.  The Pope recited it, the people said “Amen” and off went Vigilius who would return to Rome only after his death.

ORATIO SUPER POPULUM:
Super inclinantes se tuae maiestati, Deus,
spiritum compunctionis propitius effunde,
ut praemia paenitentibus repromissa
misericorditer consequi mereantur.

Who wants to take a crack at it?

As we begin our Lenten observance, like a soldier on the march, on a mission from your great Captain, be sure you have your objectives clearly defined. Get clear in your head whatever strategies and tactics will win for you your prize. 

Posted in WDTPRS | Tagged
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25 March – Card. Egan – Pontifical Mass to mark 25th anniv of “Evangelium vitae”

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

I was sent this reliable information about an upcoming event in NYC.

CARDINAL TO CELEBRATE MASS MARKING 15TH ANNIVERSARY OF PRO-LIFE ENCYCLICAL

New York, Feb. 12, 2010 – New York’s Agnus Dei Council of the Knights of Columbus announced today that Edward Cardinal Egan, Archbishop Emeritus of New York, will celebrate a Pontifical Mass to mark the 15th anniversary of Evangelium Vitae (“The Gospel of Life”), the pro-life encyclical by Pope John Paul II.  Issued on March 25, the day nine months before Christmas when Catholics celebrate the Annunciation to Mary of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ in her womb, the 1995 encyclical condemns murder, abortion and euthanasia.

The Pontifical Mass for Life begins at 7:30 PM at the Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 W. 37th Street, in Manhattan.  Before Mass, there will be a Rosary for Life at 7:00 PM.  Organist and choirmaster, David J. Hughes, will lead the choir singing Tomas Luis Victoria’s Missa de Beata Mariae Virgine.  Edward Cardinal Egan will celebrate the Mass according to the Roman Missal of 1962, the form of the Catholic Church’s Mass before the Second Vatican Council.

According to Richard Janniello, past Grand Knight of the Agnus Dei Council, this is the second year the Knights have sponsored a special Mass for the Feast of the Annunciation.  “It was no coincidence that John Paul II issued his great pro-life encyclical on the Feast of the Annunciation and Incarnation.  It’s the preeminent pro-life Feast in our Catholic calendar,” he said, “because it reminds us every year that Our Lord’s human life was sacred from the very moment of His conception in the womb, already nine months before His birth.”

Evangelium Vitae explicitly recognizes this link in its opening words:  “Mary’s consent at the Annunciation and her motherhood stand at the very beginning of the mystery of life which Christ came to bestow on humanity. Through her acceptance and loving care for the life of the Incarnate Word, human life has been rescued from condemnation to final and eternal death.”

The Pontifical Mass for Life also marks an important milestone for the New York Archdiocese.  At the request of the Agnus Dei Knights, it will be the first time since the Second Vatican Council that an American Cardinal will celebrate a Pontifical Mass in New York City according to the form in use before the Council.  Anthony Ignacio, current Grand Knight of the Agnus Dei Knights, explained “the men of our Council share a special affection for this form of the Mass and His Eminence has shown extraordinary generosity in agreeing to celebrate it in this form.”

The Pontifical Mass for Life will be the third Pontifical Mass according to the earlier form celebrated in New York City in the last year.  “These Masses have become more common since Pope Benedict XVI’s Summorum Pontificum made the 1962 form available to every priest in the Church,” said Ignacio.  Before becoming Pope Benedict XVI, Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger often celebrated Mass according to the earlier form.

WHAT:  Pontifical Mass for Life
WHERE:  The Church of the Holy Innocents, 128 W. 37th Street, Manhattan
WHEN:  Rosary for Life, 7 PM; Pontifical Mass, 7:30 PM; Reception to follow in the Church Hall
For more information, call (212) 569-1252 or visit www.traditionalknight.com.

Posted in Brick by Brick | Tagged ,
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QUAERITUR: Funeral problems with relatives

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

From a reader:

An unhappy and scandalous situation has just occurred in my family. My aunt passed away last week. I live in a different state, and am not sure at what level she was still engaged in her Catholic faith, but she certainly did practice when I was in closer proximity to her, and I know that a few years ago when her husband died she provided for him a normal funeral, with wake the night before and a funeral mass the next day. Unfortunately, it doesn’t seem that she will receive the same treatment.

Her surviving children, neither of whom practices their faith anymore, decided NOT to arrange for any funeral mass. They had my aunt cremated and are having a “remembrance” luncheon instead.

So, Father, my quandary: if a person’s own children do not arrange for a funeral mass such as in a situation as this, can another more distant family member arrange for a funeral mass at the deceased person’s parish, even though the remains are not present?

This is going to happen more and more frequently, I’m afraid.

So many of the generation following the Council, so many aging children of the now elderly devout, are either unchurched or, having seen so much of the unworthy in their churches during their youth, simply drifted off into the warm embrace of the world, the flesh and the devil.

We cannot impose our will on the deceased’s immediate family. We can, however, on our own initiative arrange for Masses to be said for the one who died.

It would be a fine spiritual work of mercy.

[From my iPhone… broadband not to be had right now]

Posted in ASK FATHER Question Box |
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Quinquagesima sermon: a program for Lent

Posted on 15 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Here is a sermon for Quinquagesima.

I propose something for your Lent.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Moreover, it was a dreadful mistake to excise the pre-Lenten Sundays from the Church’s post-Conciliar calendar.

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WDTPRS: Quinquagesima – SECRET

Posted on 14 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

SECRET:
Haec hostia, Domine, quaesumus, emundet nostra delicta:
et ad sacrificium celebrandum,
subditorum tibi corpora mentesque sanctificet.

This prayer was in the ancient L.S. Engolismensis.  It didn’t survive the Consilium for the newer missal.

Subdo is “to put, place, set, or lay under; to bring under, subject, subdue”.  After Mary and Joseph found the young Jesus in the Temple, Our Lord went with them and was “subject” them (Luke 2:51).  Subdo is used to describe also the state of a wives to their husbands. This verb, in the participial form acting like an adjective, describes the state of the servants of God.  Very often our prayers describe us as servi or famuli or members of the familia of God.  That fam- root goes back to the household servants on an estate, totally under the law and care of their master.  We call those under someone’s mastery, “subjects”.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
O Lord, may this sacrificial offering cleanse away our sins,
and may it sanctify the bodies and minds of  those subject to You
unto the Sacrifice now to be celebrated.

Human beings are both body and soul.  The wounds to our human nature from the Fall of our First Parents affected us both spiritually and physically.  The whole human person needs healing. Therefore, the Word took up all of our human nature, perfect human body and soul, so that the whole of man could be redeemed.  At Mass there is also an inward component and an outward physical expression.  Both must be active, each in their own proper manner and moment.  The key in both cases is that we who are active participants nevertheless remain the subjects of the Lord, in the sense that we are entirely dependent on Him.

Paradoxically, we who are subjects in the sense of being beneath and dependent, by willing subjection become our own subjects, in the sense of being aware and willing actors.  In grammar a subject is the thing in an active sentence which acts on an object.  Because humans are God’s images, we are made to be subjects of our own determinations.  We mustn’t be turned into unwilling objects.  When we yield to God, however, in our state of being His “subjects” we are even more our own “subjects”.  As Pope Benedict reminded us in his inaugural sermon in April 2005,

… If we let Christ enter fully into our lives, if we open ourselves totally to him, … do we not then risk ending up diminished and deprived of our freedom? … No! If we let Christ into our lives, we lose nothing, nothing, absolutely nothing of what makes life free, beautiful and great. No! Only in this friendship are the doors of life opened wide. Only in this friendship is the great potential of human existence truly revealed. Only in this friendship do we experience beauty and liberation.

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WDTPRS: Quinquagesima

Posted on 13 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

In our traditional Roman calendar this Sunday is Quinquagesima, Latin for the symbolic “Fiftieth” day before Easter.  Today is one of the pre-Lenten Sundays which prepare us for the discipline of Lent. The priest’s vestments are purple. No Alleluia. The prayers and readings for the pre-Lenten Sundays were compiled by St. Gregory the Great (+604).   After the Second Vatican Council the Consilium’s liturgical reformers under Annibale Bugnini and others eliminated these pre-Lent Sundays, much to our detriment.

COLLECT:
Preces nostras, quaesumus, Domine, clementer exaudi:
atque, a peccatorum vinculis absolutos,
ab omni nos adversitate custodi.

This prayer is found in the ancient Liber Sacramentorum Augustodunensis and the L.S. Engolismensis.  I cannot find this prayer in any form in the post-Conciliar editions of the Missale Romanum. 

Of course you won’t find Quinquagesima either.

The ponderous Lewis & Short Dictionary reminds us that absolvo means “to loosen from, to make loose, set free, detach, untie” or in juridical language “to absolve from a charge, to acquit, declare innocent”.  The priest uses this word when he absolves you of the bonds of your sins.  Vinculum is “that with which any thing is bound, a band, bond, rope, cord, fetter, tie”.  This bond can be literal, as in physical fetters, or it can be moral or some sort of state.  You can be bound in charity or peace, or bound in damnation or sin.  In the case if sin, in liturgical prayer we find a form of vinculum or its plural with “loosing” verbs such as absolvo or resolvo or dissolvo.  In ancient prayer the state of sin conceived as a place in which we are bound.  The bonds must be loosed so that we can escape and be free.  In the whole of the post-Conciliar Missal I don’t believe the combination peccata absolvere is found, but it is in ancient collections.  One finds the phrase with some additional term such as “bonds” or “ties” of sins.

LITERAL TRANSLATION:
We beseech You, O Lord, graciously attend to our prayers:
and, having been loosed from the fetters of sins,
guard us from every adversity.

What is the first thing an enemy does to you, once you are captured?  He renders you powerless to do your own will.

The Sacrament of Penance is the great gift.  In all good will we must strive to live without mortal sin.  But we fall.  We pray to God to protect us from the dire consequences of sin, including the attacks of the Enemy, which on our own without God’s help we cannot resist.  Among the benefits of the Sacrament of Penance, along with being freed from the chains of sins, is a strengthening to resist sin in the future. 

These prayers of the pre-Lenten Sundays are meant among other things to help us ready with stores our interior fortresses before the spiritual battle of lent.  We must empty out what doesn’t serve and be filled with that which does.  Prepare yourselves for Lent’s discipline.

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Revolting liberals: against the new translation

Posted on 13 February 2010 by Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Liberals are fomenting revolt.

They are revolting against Pope Benedict XVI, and the bludgeon they are using right now is the new translation.

More and more we are catching whiffs of a rather rank dissent in the ranks of liberals who are seeking to persuade the less acute that they should resist the implementation of the new English translation of the Roman Missal.

Frankly, I say if you really hate the new translation the best way to protest is not to continue to use the lame-duck ICEL version but rather just switch to Latin.  That’s real protest!  But I digress.

This is from the UK’s best Catholic weekly The Catholic Herald, with my emphases and comments:

A new English translation? Amen to that

The objections to the new English translation of the Missal fall apart upon close inspection, says liturgical publisher John Newton [editor-in-chief of the excellent traditional liturgical publisher Baronius Press]

Some people are predicting riots in the pews when the new translation of the Mass is introduced.  [Correction: some people want riots.]

For several years now experts have been preparing a revised English translation of the Roman Missal, which follows the Latin more closely. Following Vatican approval in 2008 the introduction of the new texts into parishes is on the horizon.Yet the project is not without its critics.

Vociferous objections were raised in some quarters of South Africa when it was accidently [yah, right… it was an "accident"] introduced last year and in America Fr Michael Ryan’s internet petition to halt the implementation of the new translations has attracted more than 10,000 signatures from around the world. [Very many of them "anonymous", unverifiable, and even bogus.  Someone put my name on their list, for example.  Think about that.] But there’s no reason that changing the words of the Mass should cause any problems.

Perhaps time has dimmed our memories, but we seem to have forgotten that many of the people’s parts were changed in 1975, less than six years after the new form of the Mass was introduced. And, as many of the objections to the forthcoming changes focus on the use of more formal language, it is worth remembering that this is exactly the sort of language that was originally used in the new Mass.

A quick look at the Sanctus illustrates the point. The first line of the 1969 translation – "Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of hosts" – is identical to the new version. And those who fear the coming changes should be heartened by the fact that the rest of the new Sanctus is exactly the same as it is at the moment.  [The Lefevbrists-Of-The-Left will protest: "But…. but… sputter… but… we have been using this translation for nearly forty whole years now!  It’s a tradition that can’t be changed!  People are used to this!"  This from the same people who didn’t give a tinker’s damn about the people they hurt and the chaos created by the rupture they inflicted in the Church’s long liturgical tradition.]

For better or worse, we will not be going back to the 1969 text, which continued: "Thy glory fills all heaven and earth" – although I imagine there will be some who wish we were.

Indeed, one distinctive feature of the 1969 translations was the use of hierarchic language when addressing God. So the Gloria ran:

Glory be to God on high,
And on earth peace to men who are God’s friends
We praise thee. We bless thee.
We adore thee. We glorify thee.
We give thee thanks for thy great glory.

The reason the 1969 translations were replaced in 1975 was not a revolt against the thees and thous, nor because formal language had failed to serve the needs of the liturgy.

Rather it was because [get this] an ecumenical body, the International Consultation on English Texts (ICET), produced a version of the people’s parts of the liturgy that were adopted by the Catholic Church. Some opponents of the new English version have lamented the fact that, by abandoning the current texts, we will no longer be using common translations with other Christians.  [Too bad.  Furthermore, the only Protestants who will object to abandoning the poorly translated texts are also those who will object to the clearer theology of the better translation.]

This would be a fair point if it were true, but it is actually a base canard. Most Protestant communions stopped using these texts more than a decade ago. If they have found the ICET translations no longer meet the requirements of worship, there seems to me to be no good reason for us to keep them.

Indeed, given the Catholic Church seems to be leaning more and more towards the Orthodox, it is worth noting that when an English version of the Divine Liturgy of St John Chrysostom was published in 1995 it did not use the relevant ICET texts, but opted for a new translation employing more formal language.

Surprisingly, when the new English translations are introduced in the Mass the version of the Sanctus will be identical to that found in the Orthodox Liturgy. Many other parts have marked similarities – even the Creed, despite the inclusion of the filioque clause, is terribly close. It is hard to imagine that there was no consultation of the Orthodox texts when the new version of the Mass was being put together.

Yet, bizarrely, there are murmurings that in order to "save Vatican II" we need to resist the new translations. In high rhetorical fashion [the hysterical] Fr Ryan has said they are contributing to "what seems like the systematic dismantling of the great vision of the council’s decree".  [I like that: "dismantling the vision".  He can’t really point to anything in the documents themselves that is being "dismantled", so he points to a more nebulous "vision".]

He considers them "highly controversial" and asserts that "many highly respected liturgists and linguists" are unhappy with the "ungainly, awkward sentences".

While it is fair to say that not all of new texts are perfect, a little judicious polishing will smooth out the odd problems where these occur. What is needed is occasional fine tuning, not root and branch change.

Perhaps the problem is that we forget that liturgy is designed to lift our hearts and minds to God (see Sacrosanctum Concilium 33). [It also said that Latin was to be retained.] The natural language of liturgy leans towards the poetic, and when the new texts are approached as poetry then people will more readily be able to understand the riches they express.

Dignified and formal translations served the English-speaking Church well when the new Mass was first introduced in 1969, and they will do so again when the new texts arrive.

One hopes that, as the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops said, "the implementation of the revised Roman Missal [will] be a time of deepening, nurturing, and celebrating our faith through our worship and the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy".

Amen to that.
 

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