The back story is that the English translations of the Mass are so poor, so full of theological inexactitudes, that Pope John Paul II ordered a new translation of the entire Missal. Msgr Harbert, who incidently used to be a priest of our diocese and worked in Brighton as chaplain to the University here, is in charge of producing these translations. Many of us have been waiting for these translations with great eagerness. Sean Tribe has this:
"Monsignor Bruce Harbert, executive secretary for ICEL and a member of the Society, announced his personal hope that the new-and-improved ICEL translation of the Latin Missal will first be used by the Holy Father at World Youth Day 2008 (Sydney, Australia). That, he said, is not beyond the realm of possibility, since ICEL has finished its work on the Ordinary of the Mass and is expected to complete the translation of the propers by this time next year (leaving sufficient time for Rome’s final approval of the work)."
2 comments:
The idea of having liturgies in the vernacular contradicts the whole concept of a Catholic Church for the whole of humanity.
I have attended Mass in Estonia, Germany and Sweden this year. They have a very nice translation here but it is always a struggle to have to deal with it as my Swedish is rudimentary - I was pleased that there was a Latin mass in Göteborg on 29 September and there will be another on Sunday, my last day here. There are separate liturgies in Polish, Arabic, and various other languages, but with so much movement these days from one country to another, it is a case of "united we stand..."
In Brighton, the Polish people have their own Mass and the church is too small for them - we should not be separating like this. Sometimes we have visiting priests who struggle to say Mass in English. Why should they be expected to and why should congregations have to put up with hearing their native language massacred?
The bishops should be talking to each other across national boundaries and there should be a policy that people from different countries should not go to separate services - the separation should take place through, say, social clubs, though it is undesirable anyway and people should be encouraged to integrate with the host communities.
So isn't it time that the use of the vernacular should be for didactic reasons only eg in schools and between consenting adults in private?
The good thing in the past was that we shared a common ignorance of the Mass, none of us had Latin, therefore we had to find other ways of getting people to undeerstand the meaning of the Church's teaching.
I was amused by your remark about leaving the vernacular for "consenting adults in private".
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