A few days ago, Corriere della sera had a piece explaining that on 29 November, the 1st Sunday of Advent, the suffering Italians who still bother with the Church will now have to change the way they have prayed the Gloria and – incredibly – the Our Father.
And the priest is now directed to say “fratelli e sorelle”, which to my ear is speciesist and exclusionary.
In the the place of “non ci indurre in tentazione” (lead us not into temptation) the suffering Italians will now have to say, by Conference Fiat, “non abbandonarci alla tentazione” (do not abandon us to temptation).
This is obligatory from next Easter, 4 April 2021.
Some pencil-necked, pointy-headed expert, kind of Italian clerical “Good Idea Fairy“, noticed that the Greek words of the Lord in Matthew 6 could be translated in another way. “Hey!”, quoth the Fairy, let’s make everyone do it that way!”
In Matthew, eisenénkes, from eisféro has been rendered in Italian with the verb “indurre” because of St. Jerome’s Vulgate, which has the verb inducere.
But in 2017, FRANCIS, known to be quite the expert in ancient languages and liturgy, no doubt under the influence of the Fairy, said, “questa è una traduzione non buona”… “this is a translation not good”.
Behold, wisdom.
“I’m the one who falls. He isn’t the one who tosses me into temptation to see how I fall. A father doesn’t do this, he right away helps us to get up. The one who leads us into temptation is Satan, that’s Satan’s trade. … Our sense of the prayer is: What Satan leads me into temptation, you, please, give me a hand, give me your hand”.
Never mind the Pelagian overtone in “give me a hand”.
Suffering Italians will also have to add another thing to the Lord’s prayer. To be “more faithful” to the Greek text, when they say, “forgive us our trespasses” they will then add “as we also forgive those who trespass against us.” Much better, right?
But wait, there’s more.
In the Anglophone world, it seems that a decree is forthcoming for the Novus Ordo which will change the English translation of conclusions of orations. In Latin, we commonly say, “Per Dominum nostrum Iesum Christum Filium tuum, qui tecum vivit et regnat in unitate Spiritus Sancti Deus, per omnia saecula saeculorum. Amen.”, with slight variations. In English we have been saying for that Deus, “one God”… “who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever”. But now, that “one” is to be dropped. “who lives and reigns in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever” Why? Because in the Latin there is no “unus“.
Friends, this liturgical tweaking is tantamount to rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
It is a distraction.
This truly is Liturgy Science Theatre 3000.
Of course if you attend the Traditional Latin Mass, none of this nonsense makes any difference.