By Anthony Barich
Analysis
Some hesitation remains in Perth about the new Missal translations moving closer to their Latin and Scriptural foundations.
In a meeting with over 150 liturgists and representatives from parishes, schools and other communities around the Archdiocese on 17 June at the Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre, Fr Peter Williams, executive secretary of the Australian Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, clarified several contentious issues on which he was questioned.
How successfully the newly translated Missal is implemented upon its expected arrival by Easter 2011 depends largely on how priests, their lay or Religious parish liturgists and the faithful in general make use of the “key cornerstone” of catechesis: the One Body One Spirit in Christ interactive catechetical DVD resource.
Directed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL), Australian company Fraynework produced this resource to help Catholic communities understand the new translations.
The Australian Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy will also produce homily notes, laminated cards with new texts and reworked hymns and other resources to help Catholics understand that the Mass is more than just “something you listen to”, as Fr Williams said.
Using examples from the DVD resource, Fr Williams attempted to change some common misperceptions about fundamental issues regarding the Mass. These misperceptions are largely due to the general Catholic public’s ignorance of the meaning of the Mass, and the intentions of many of those who attend.
When asked during the forum whether the Doxology would be changed to become more meaningful, as, presently, the Great Amen seems flat, Fr Williams replied: “That presumes of course that people have an understanding (of) parts of the Mass … and often I’ve found over the last umpteen years since I have been celebrating Mass – which is a long time now – we still have large numbers of people who are ‘the silent attenders’ at Mass.
“I still celebrate Mass sometimes where up to one third of the congregation don’t say anything. Now, that’s a problem. For whatever reason, they don’t feel that they need to engage in the parts of the Mass that belong to them. That’s an education process.”
PRIESTS UN-CRITIQUED
Fr Williams told parish and school liturgists both in Bunbury and Perth last week that priests can develop “carelessness” in the liturgy because the way they celebrate Mass goes uncritiqued – unlike, say, homilies.
“There’s a sense in which priests rarely have anybody say to them from the assembly about the way in which they celebrate Mass,” he said at the Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre.
“Often we’ll have people say to us, ‘that was a great homily, Father’, or ‘that was terrible, it was only worth 20 cents in the plate’ or something like that. But very rarely does anybody ever say, ‘I thought the way in which you celebrated Mass was very prayerful and very reverent. It’s very rare.”
“So, as a result of that, the style of the way in which priests lead liturgical prayer often goes uncritiqued. Over a period of time, it’s very easy for anybody to develop … I wouldn’t say bad habits, but a carelessness sometimes.”
For this reason, he said the “Crafting the art of Liturgy” section of the One Body One Spirit in Christ DVD catechetical resource is not meant exclusively for priests, but I would certainly hope that priests and those who are responsible for the production of the Liturgy would look at this section very, very carefully. It’s a very important section of the resource.”
AND WITH YOUR SPIRIT
On 17 June, Fr Williams was confronted, as he was during the national liturgists’ conference in Perth in February, by someone who believed the change from ‘and also with you’ to ‘and with your spirit’ was “just not on”.
Fr Williams noted that Fr Andrew Wadsworth, the new General Secretary of ICEL, said in the DVD resource that the language used in liturgical prayer is not the language used in everyday speech.
“When we are engaged in the liturgy, I’m not talking to you and you’re not talking to me, we are actually in a conversation with God and we are in the action of worship,” Fr Williams said.
While the translators of the 1975 version “sincerely” believed that the language to be used in the Liturgy should be “in a sense pared down to be as simple as possible”, those charged with translating it this time, “and particularly the people in the Holy See”, believe the Church needs to “offer something richer … that is more elevated when we are engaged in the business of worship”.
He said many people have complained about the new “and with your spirit” response replacing “and also with you”.
The Holy See and the translators believe, however, that the language of the current Missal, “in some senses has served well but it hasn’t entirely captured the richness and the tradition of a Church that has been praying for 2,000 years, so they sought to … elevate the language”. While Fr Williams conceded this would be a difficult transition, he stressed that the new translation is “not unintelligible”, as some people have told him. “Having been intimately involved in the translating process over 10 years, I’m here to tell you that it’s not unintelligible. But it is different. And it is a different register”.
He recommended that people who have such fears should “sit with the texts”.
When the Holy See allowed Bishops’ conferences to adopt the Missal in the vernacular, the English and Portuguese-speaking Bishops’ conferences were the only ones in the world to adopt “and also with you”.
The adoption of “and also with you” originates in an ecumenical body in the 1960s and early 70s seeking to establish common texts amongst the Catholic, Lutheran, Anglican and other Churches. Some of these Churches – especially the Lutherans – were “not overly all that happy with the result”, he said, but went along with it for the sake of “ecumenical convergence”.
ROAD TO EMMAUS
A fundamental source of inspiration for the Mass and, subsequently, the Missal, is found in the story of the road to Emmaus in Luke’s Gospel.
This, Fr Williams said, provides a “very early biblical template for us as to how the early Church community understood the Eucharist”. The story tells how the disciples who were on the road had the Word broken open to them by their mysterious friend who joined them on the journey and how it was only when they got to the table in the inn that He said the blessing and broke the bread, and it was at that point they recognised Him.
“Here we see a very clear indication of the early Church’s understanding and the importance of the Eucharist,” he said of the story, which is given a special mention in the DVD resource.
HISTORY
That this story, and the Last Supper, are part of a grand tradition which has been mined to re-translate the Roman Missal is a point Fr Williams stressed to the liturgists gathered in Perth.
“We need to remind ourselves that we come from a very long and glorious liturgical history as Catholics. It isn’t something that happened in 1970 or in 1975,” he said. “In fact, there is a very complex and rich history to the liturgical life of the Catholic Church that reaches right back all the way to the Last Supper, which is the foundational event.”
SCRIPTURE
In overseeing interviews with priests and Bishops about the Mass and his involvement with the translation process over a decade, Fr Williams told the Perth gathering that a key discovery (or re-discovery) was the plethora of biblical images that abound in the Latin prayers, which were in many cases lost in the “clamouring from the Bishops” to get the current translation out in 1975.
“The source for most of our Latin prayers are either the Bible or the writings of the early Church Fathers,” he said.
The new text seeks to recover those biblical images and to try to express those in the translation of the prayers, so that Catholics are formed in the faith just by listening to them and praying them, as one American Monsignor in the DVD resource said.
“Of course, principally, what we are doing when we celebrate the Eucharist is that we are becoming engaged and immersed in the Pascal mystery, which is the Passion and death, the resurrection and the ascension of Christ,” Fr Williams said. As that same Monsignor said, his hope for this new translation is that Catholics learn that “what we pray is what we believe and to get our heads around the prayers to shape our belief. So I’m concerned that the new translations be received as a rich source of prayer to shape belief, to shape our lives.”
Another interviewee on the DVD said that the Mass is “not just an isolated part of our lives in which we come away for a while and try to be holy, as it were”.
“The Mass is only effective really if we can go forth … and live the Mass, live the Gospel reading,” the speaker said.
The history of the Roman Missal
2000 – Third Latin edition of the Roman Missal promulgated by Pope John Paul II.
2001 – Holy See promulgates Liturgiam Authenticam (“the authentic liturgy”), the guiding principle for translators of the Third Latin edition of the Roman Missal into English.
2001 – At the request of Leeds Bishop Arthur Roach, chairman of ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy), work started to help prepare a catechetical resource to assist implementation of a new translation of the Missal.
2002 – Third Latin edition of the Roman Missal published
25 March, 2010 – Recognizio (approval for use) of the new translation signed by Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Prefect of the Worship Congregation. Editorial changes, however, still need to be made before it is published.
This will include the prayers and Order of the Mass in the Latin Missal and those adaptations peculiar to Australia: the feast of Mary MacKillop and prayers on Australia Day, Anzac Day and for drought, bushfires and floods.
This also includes the General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which tells us how to celebrate Mass.
28 April, 2010 – The Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments’ advisory committee Vox Clara (“Clear Voice”), chaired by Sydney Cardinal George Pell, presented Pope Benedict XVI with the completed translation of the third Latin edition of the Roman Missal.
Under Chapter 9, each Bishops’ conference can make local adaptations on posture, gesture, liturgical colours and materials used for making sacred vessels and construction of altars when building new churches or renovating old ones.
Over the past eight years various drafts (Green Books) of new translations were given to the 11 English-speaking Bishops’ conferences for consideration and wider consultation with whomever they want.
Australia’s Bishops have been voting during their Plenary Meetings each May and November over several years on segments of the Missal issued in Grey Books (final form of the translation). They required two-thirds of the Bishops’ votes to pass before being presented for the Holy See’s Recognizio.