Black-shirts and storm-troopers parade in full battle gear as Catholic faithful become restless with the latest rejection by the USCCB of proposed translations of the 2000 Latin Typical Edition of the Roman Missal. Correct and accurate are not diametrically opposed to edifying, reverent and eloquent. Unfortunately, the lower clergy and the laity suffer with the sometimes droll, often inaccurate and usually pedestrian ICEL English translations from the 1970 Paul VI Missal. Meanwhile, the latest John Paul II edition remains in the Latin and unused in most of the USA. Despite Bishop Serratelli's erudite article, 2/3rd's of his brother bishops in the United States did not approve the recent proposed translation. Evidently, too many polysyllabic, urbane and debonair words for the allegedly unsophisticated, mundane, and prosaic faithful who supposedly need banal, pedestrian and trite translations instead. Maybe we need Liturgical Sesame Street to help people learn about the ineffable and sublime sacred mysteries of authentic divine worship; or so we are led to believe by the 'experts.'
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8 comments:
Soccer Dad and I agree: It shows a laziness to simply say that we are too stupid to understand the more difficult vocabulary. There are two options here: one is to educate us! Good golly, as it is coming, tell us what it means, if it's so hard! Two (and this was my father's method for vocabulary enrichment), tell people to use a dictionary and look words up! Gibbet was the one word we didn't know, so we pulled out our dictionary and found it. (Where does that come up, anyway? There's nothing I can think of in the Ordinary Form that compare to it.)
Besides, our vocabulary is better than some of the good bishops seem to think. On one hand, we're smart enough to run parishes (I'm in a semi-rural area of the Richmond Diocese, so all we hear about is how short we are on priests and how we'll need extensive use of SCAP in the near future), but on the other hand, words like "ineffable" will be too difficult to understand? Make up your mind!
Are you suggesting that the Bishops are calling us, dare I say it, stupid? :-) I think they ought to have a little more faith is us and our ability to pull a dictionary off the shelf if we need to. Good heavens!
Father, keep up the good fight!!
Or maybe we need the Holy Father to provide a little "encouragement", as in "accept or else."
Does anybody know if this is just an American thing? To date, I haven't found any indication anywhere that any of the other conferences in English-speaking countries are making the same kind of stink. Even here in Canada.
I know if the new Missal was delayed further here because of the US bishops, I'd be mighty ticked.
I agree that maybe it's time for Rome to step in.
Nancy,
As I understand it -- all other English speaking countries have "signed off" on the new Missal.
Midwest St. Michael
Reverend Father, I take it that you are referring to fellow Catholics who do not embrace the precepts of the traditionalist movement (just as you have difficulties with post-conciliar liturgy) as "Liturgical Nazis". I sincerely hope that the piety which you find in the traditional celebration of mass will kindle with the virtue of prudence to avoid using such derogatory terms when speaking about people of whom you are pastor in persona Christi. God Bless.
Dear Veni Creator Spiritus,
Satire was used by some of the great saints and is not considered 'mean' or 'nasty', otherwise it would be sarcasm. I love both the Extraordinary and the Ordinary Forms of the Roman Rite when done properly. I do not advocate a reversal of V2, rather, I seek a real and full implementation of what the Council Fathers actually directed. I did a 16 episode series on the documents of Vatican II for EWTN and by looking at the actual documents, I found one could easily ascertain the SPIRIT of the Council by knowing the LETTER of the Council, i.e., the actual statements and not interpretations. Sacrosanctum Concilium had no desire to eliminate all Latin from the Mass nor did it mandate the priest face the people rather than the traditional posture of facing east (ad orientem). V2 sought to bridge the old and the new, but the BEST of both worlds. Sadly, so-called liturgical experts spun their agenda while the bishops still met in Rome. REVERENT celebration of the Mass can and ought to be done, whether TLM or Novus Ordo. The vernacular need not be nor was it intended to be the ONLY liturgical language for the parish or diocese. Just as the contemporary Jew in the USA uses both Hebrew and English and likewise our Eastern Orthodox brethren combine Greek or Russian with English, Roman Catholicism has no need to be ashamed or embarrassed of our Westin heritage or Latin patrimony. When priests bully little old ladies to the point of refusing them Holy Communion merely for kneeling, then who is acting like a Nazi? It has happened more than once and across the country as well. Faithful who kneel or genuflect are publicly humiliated at Mass in parishes where notorious pro-abortion politicians are regularly and casually given Holy Communion. One need not be a 'traditionalist' or a 'conservative' to be disgusted by such hipocracy.
Father
I'm not the brightest of people... no, really... but guess what?! I was raised an Anglican, on the prose of the Book of Common Prayer and the English Missal. As I'm sure you know, these books have lots of "big" words in them. However, I did something really radical: I looked these words up in a dictionary. I now have a much wider vocabulary thanks to the Prayer Book than I would otherwise have had.
Veni Creator
It's nothing to do with being a "traditionalist". Rather, it's about offering God and his people the very best.
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