Church revises Roman Missal

While Roman Catholics in the United States will be using a revised missal at the start of the Christmas season on Sunday, Catholics in the Philippines will have to wait another year to do so.

Caloocan Bishop Deogracias Iñiguez said the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) already had an English version of the Roman Missal. But it needs to be translated into various native languages in the Philippines, he said.

“We already have an English translation but we’re still waiting for it to be translated to the vernacular. We’ll be using the revised missal starting the First Sunday of Advent 2012,” Iñiguez told the Inquirer over the phone.

The CBCP Episcopal Commission on the Liturgy, headed by Zamboanga Archbishop Romulo Valles, is leading the translation of the missal into Filipino, Cebuano, Hiligaynon, Bicolano, Waray and other major languages of the Philippines in consultation with various dioceses.

“The 41-year-old liturgy, with its colloquial English phrasings, will be replaced by a revised Roman Missal that’s word-for-word more literally tied to the original Latin Mass,” USA Today reported.

The Roman Missal, also called Order of the Mass, is the liturgical book that contains the texts and rubrics for the celebration of the Mass in the Roman Rites of the Catholic Church.

Pope John Paul II authorized the revision of the missal way back in 2001 to reflect the Latin original. Pope Benedict XVI approved the revisions last year.

Changes

An example of the changes is the response “Et cum spiritu tuo” (literally, “And with your spirit”), which is rendered “And also with you” in the current missal.

There were also changes made in the Eucharistic prayer, in which the text “…cup of my blood” was changed to “…chalice of my blood,” and “it will be shed for you and for all men,” which was changed to “which will be poured out for you and for many.”

Other changes, according to USA Today and the Washington Post, include the following:

Where the Nicene Creed once spoke of Jesus as “one in Being with the Father,” now Jesus is “consubstantial with the father.”

The Gloria hymn’s familiar opening “Glory to God in the highest, and peace to his people on Earth,” is narrowed to offer peace only for those who have accepted Jesus as messiah, considered by the Church as “people of good will.”

The line “Lord, I am not worthy to receive you, but only say the word and I shall be healed,” becomes “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.”

The English version was completed by the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) last year and adopted by English-speaking countries such as the United States. The Philippines is a member of the ICEL, with Valles as representative.

Approved in January

In its plenary assembly in January early this year, the CBCP approved the adoption of the new English translation.

“Some parts of familiar responses and prayers have been amended to reflect the true meaning in the original Latin text, the language of the Roman liturgy,” the CBCP said.

The CBCP earlier ordered the liturgy commission to prepare a catechetical primer on the new missal to explain the changes to the clergy and laity. The primer would compare the 2010 and 1973 missals in both English and the vernacular.

Fr. Genaro Diwa, executive secretary of the commission, said changes always would usher in some difficulties, hence the need for liturgical catechesis for everybody, including the bishops and priests.

Critics

The new missal has its critics in the United States and Ireland.

Hundreds of Irish priests have called on their bishop to delay the use of the missal, according to USA Today. They also challenged the scholarship behind the changes.

A priest in Seattle, Micheal Ryan, launched a campaign on the Web urging the Vatican to first test it on a pilot group of parishes.

But the US bishops praised the new missal. “God merits elegant language, not ‘Hey. God, it’s me,”’ Msgr. Eugene Morris, director of Sacred Liturgy for the Pontifical College Josephinum in Columbus, Ohio, was quoted as saying by USA Today.