Women for Faith & Family’s sister organization, Adoremus, just published a preview of the upcoming English-language Roman Missal that will soon replace the vernacular we Catholics have been accustomed to since soon after the end of  Vatican II.

Do click on the link above to read this fascinating, well organized article. You will find samples of the word changes and the reasons for those changes, and if you are like me, you will find yourself nodding your head.

Why a new Missal?

Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli, chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship, explains in the June/July Adoremus Bulletin:

In May 2002, the publication of the Missale Romanum marked an historic moment in the life of the Church in our day. It gave an impetus to the great liturgical renewal set in motion when Vatican II issued Sacrosanctum Concilium as its first document. With Vatican II,

began … the great work of renewal of the liturgical books of the Roman Rite. [This] … work … included their translation into vernacular languages, with the purpose of bringing about in the most diligent way that renewal of the sacred Liturgy…. (Liturgiam authenticam 1 and 2).

In the enthusiasm of the aggiornamento [updating], translators set to work to produce translations that expressed the Latin Missal in modes of expression appropriate to the vernacular languages. From 1969 until 2001, the document Comme le Prévoit granted translators wide latitude in translations for the liturgy. Rather quickly in the English-speaking world, translators adopted “dynamic equivalency” as their approach to the texts. Simply stated, dynamic equivalency translates the concepts and ideas of a text, but not necessarily the literal words or expressions.

In light of the experience in the last 36 years, the Church has revisited the question of how to best translate the texts of Sacred Scripture and the liturgy. Many people had noticed the deficiency of dynamic equivalency. In 2001, the Holy See issued the instruction Liturgiam authenticam to guide translations both of the Scriptures and of liturgical texts. The new instruction did not deny the necessity of making the text accessible to the listener. But, it did refocus the attention of translators on the principle of unearthing the theological richness of the original texts. This needed balance keeps us from suffering an impoverishment of language in terms of our biblical and liturgical tradition.

Liturgiam authenticam espouses the theory of “formal equivalency”. Not just concepts, but words and expression are to be translated faithfully. This approach respects the wealth contained in the original text. In fact, the new instruction has as its stated purpose something wider than translation. It “envisions and seeks to prepare for a new era of liturgical renewal, which is consonant with the qualities and the traditions of the particular Churches, but which safeguards also the faith and the unity of the whole Church of God” (Liturgiam authenticam 7).

From the very beginning, the translation of the third typical edition of the Roman Missal has followed the principles given in Liturgiam authenticam. To understand and appreciate the final text, it is extremely enlightening to understand the careful process that has been used in the work of translation. I would like to briefly share this process with you…..

If you have the time for further reading, you might take a look at  “The Spirit of the Liturgy” , a book written by Pope Benedict XVI when he was Cardinal Ratzinger .

And you might go to another Adoremus article,  Q&A with Cardinal George Pell, archbishop of Sydney, Australia as well as chairman of Vox Clara.

On a tangential topic — and lighter in tone — is Fr. James V. Schall’s “What Do We Mean When We Say ‘In Persona Christi’?”

Thanks, Adoremus, for keeping us up to date on the liturgy. I’m looking forward to this. Lex orandi, lex credendi.