Athwart "Bondage," Yelling "Stop"
Sure, the US bishops will be tackling topics ranging from embryonic stem-cell research to the Pew report at their Spring Meeting, which begins this morning in Orlando.
In keeping with longstanding tradition, however, no meeting of the body would be complete without some showdown on the liturgy -- a topic that, in recent years, has focused on the approval of a new wholesale translation of the Roman Missal, which current projections seem to be eyeing for implementation in late 2010.
As many are well-aware, we've been here before; among others, the new rendering's flashpoint squabbles have come over words like "dew," "deign" and "consubstantial," to say nothing of a whole host of phrases given the coming text's stated intent to elevate the tone of liturgical celebrations.
Despite being one of those few high-beat story-lines that'll have a significant effect on ground level come implementation, the (Re-)Making of the Mass has almost entirely been relegated to the in-house press. But as this weekend's sessions prepare for debate and vote on the new rendering's Proper of Seasons, a notable exception came in this morning's papers as the project's longtime lead critic, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie -- who stepped down as chair of the Bishops' Committee for the Liturgy at last November's plenary -- took his qualms to the pages of his hometown Times-News:
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In keeping with longstanding tradition, however, no meeting of the body would be complete without some showdown on the liturgy -- a topic that, in recent years, has focused on the approval of a new wholesale translation of the Roman Missal, which current projections seem to be eyeing for implementation in late 2010.
As many are well-aware, we've been here before; among others, the new rendering's flashpoint squabbles have come over words like "dew," "deign" and "consubstantial," to say nothing of a whole host of phrases given the coming text's stated intent to elevate the tone of liturgical celebrations.
Despite being one of those few high-beat story-lines that'll have a significant effect on ground level come implementation, the (Re-)Making of the Mass has almost entirely been relegated to the in-house press. But as this weekend's sessions prepare for debate and vote on the new rendering's Proper of Seasons, a notable exception came in this morning's papers as the project's longtime lead critic, Bishop Donald Trautman of Erie -- who stepped down as chair of the Bishops' Committee for the Liturgy at last November's plenary -- took his qualms to the pages of his hometown Times-News:
"Ineffable."In the other big agenda-item on divine worship, this meeting will see a debate and vote on a pronoun change to the increasingly-important (and used) Spanish Missal:
The word worries Erie Catholic Bishop Donald W. Trautman.
He doubts that "John and Mary Catholic," sitting in their church pew, would understand it.
That's why Trautman will try to tell other U.S. bishops that such words shouldn't be in a new English translation of the Roman Missal.
U.S. Catholic bishops are holding their June general meeting today through Saturday in Orlando, Fla. They are expected to vote on an English version of the portion of the Roman Missal involving prayers for seasons like Advent and Lent, unless Trautman can convince them to delay a decision on the translation.
"I am at this point reserved about endorsing it," Trautman said two days before the start of the meeting. "I will try to speak on the conference floor to point out what I consider some major deficiencies in the translation."...
Trautman said the draft includes words such as "ineffable" that would not be in the ordinary vocabulary of people.
"This should be the prayer of the people," Trautman said. "I'm not for having street language. ... We should certainly have elevated tone, but words like that are just beyond the common comprehension."
Catholics coming out of a lunchtime Mass at Erie's St. Peter Cathedral weren't familiar with "ineffable."
According to Webster's New World College Dictionary, Fourth Edition, the word means "too overwhelming to be expressed or described in words; inexpressible; too awesome or sacred to be spoken."
It's "not in my daily language," said Shirley Skiba, a member of St. Luke Catholic Church in Erie.
Skiba said words used in the Mass should be "something we feel comfortable with." That's the case with the current translation, for the most part, she said.
"I think it should be language the everyday person can understand," she said.
Trautman called parts of the proposed translation "archaic" and "just clumsy language."
One proposed change, for the first week in Advent, would replace "old way of life" with "ancient bondage," the Erie bishop said.
"Ancient bondage is very ambiguous and not clear enough to the people," he said.
[T]he bishops will be asked to approve a change from the formal "vosotros" to the more familiar "ustedes" in Spanish-language Masses in the U.S....and they're off.
Although both words mean the plural "you" in English, "vosotros" is "no longer current speech" in most of the Spanish-speaking world, except in Spain, [Divine Worship chair] Bishop [Arthur] Serratelli [of Paterson] said in an introductory note to his fellow bishops on the proposed change.
In 2006 the heads of 22 national liturgical commissions in Latin America and the Caribbean asked the Vatican that the order of the Mass in Spanish be published "using 'ustedes' in place of 'vosotros' since the majority of Catholics who speak Spanish (more than 90 percent) use 'ustedes,'" the introduction noted.
"The Committee on Divine Worship recommends for pastoral reasons that the ritual accommodate the manner of speech which has been in use for many years in Mexico, the Caribbean and South American countries and used by the majority of Hispanics in the United States," Bishop Serratelli said.
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posted by Rocco Palmo at 09:00
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