By Anthony Barich
Australia’s Bishops could be on the verge of recommending a three to five-month “roll-out” period of the new prayers of the Mass for parishes and communities to implement the newly translated Missal, expected to be introduced by Easter 2011.
Australian Catholic University Theology senior lecturer Dr Clare Johnson will present the Australian Bishops’ National Liturgical Council with seven models later this month with which to implement the new Missal translation due out by Easter next year.
One model will be chosen by the NLC and recommended to the Permanent Commission of the Bishops’ Conference.
If the Permanent Commission approves the model at its August meeting, it should hit dioceses around Australia for parishes and communities to start studying by the end of this year, giving them a number of months before the expected release of the Missal at Easter 2011.
The DVD resource which explains and demonstrates the Roman Missal’s changes, structures and history, will be produced by Australian company Fraynework for every English-speaking country.
Fr Peter Williams, executive secretary of the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, told The Record that, while the changes are the biggest since the current translation was issued in 1975, a shorter roll-out period may be recommended among models that propose between three and 12-month periods.
“It’s not my decision; it’s the decision of the Permanent Commission. I can’t imagine the Bishops, knowing them as I do, they will be looking for a longer roll-out rather than a shorter one,” said Fr Williams, who was Director of Liturgy for World Youth Day, including the re-enactment of the Stations of the Cross through the streets of Sydney.
In adopting whatever model the Bishops recommend, local dioceses, parishes and communities can change it at their discretion to suit their own needs.
“It’s not a one size fits all,” Fr Williams said.
Dr Johnson will make the presentation at NLC’s 28-29 June meeting in Melbourne, where it will also identify the needs of the local Church in Australia that are not covered in the DVD resource.
The NLC will also prepare for Australian dioceses parish bulletin insert articles, laminated Mass cards with the new texts, particularly the people’s parts, a PowerPoint presentation of the reworked texts and hymns, homily notes for priests on the new texts and parish commentators’ notes.
These will be downloadable for free on the ACBC website and Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy page.
These measures are a response to learned experience from the implementation of the current translation, when “the catechesis that should have been done was not done as well as it could have been”, Fr Williams told a group of over 150 Perth parish, school and community representatives at the Westminster Vietnamese Catholic Community Centre on 17 June.
“There is a general agreement that there was so much going on at the time in the Church in the post-Vatican II environment that the sustained teaching on the Eucharist and participating in Mass, what it means and how it should be celebrated, was largely missed,” he said.
Fr Williams also announced the foundational essays on which the DVD resource is based.
The DVD’s Celebrating the Eucharist section is based on an essay by Sister of Charity Janet Baxendale, a Professor of Liturgy at the Archdiocese of New York’s seminary.
Part of the Crafting the art of Liturgy section was based on an essay by Canon Alan Griffiths, a priest of the Diocese of Portsmouth, UK, chair of the Diocesan Liturgical Buildings Advisory Committee and teacher at a seminary in the south of England.
Living a Eucharistic life was written by Mgr Kevin Irwin, Dean of the Catholic University of America’s School of Theology. The essay that underpinned Exploring the Mass was by Mgr Paul McPartlan, Professor of Systematic Theology and Ecumenism at the Catholic University of America. The Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy also hopes to have received by its 28-29 June meeting an independent report on Mass music settings, which will recommend a final six from 60 that were submitted from Australian composers.
Dioceses can still use other hymns already in use in any event.