Posted on 11/29/2002 5:00:21 PM PST by Loyalist
An Open Letter to the Church Renouncing my Service on I.C.E.L.
Father Stephen Somerville, STL.
Dear Fellow Catholics in the Roman Rite,
1 – I am a priest who for over ten years collaborated in a work that became a notable harm to the Catholic Faith. I wish now to apologize before God and the Church and to renounce decisively my personal sharing in that damaging project. I am speaking of the official work of translating the new post-Vatican II Latin liturgy into the English language, when I was a member of the Advisory Board of the International Commission on English Liturgy (I.C.E.L.).
2 – I am a priest of the Archdiocese of Toronto, Canada, ordained in 1956. Fascinated by the Liturgy from early youth, I was singled out in 1964 to represent Canada on the newly constituted I.C.E.L. as a member of the Advisory Board. At 33 its youngest member, and awkwardly aware of my shortcomings in liturgiology and related disciplines, I soon felt perplexity before the bold mistranslations confidently proposed and pressed by the everstrengthening radical/progressive element in our group. I felt but could not articulate the wrongness of so many of our committee’s renderings.
3 – Let me illustrate briefly with a few examples. To the frequent greeting by the priest, The Lord be with you, the people traditionally answered, and with your (Thy) spirit: in Latin, Et cum spiritu tuo. But I.C.E.L. rewrote the answer: And also with you. This, besides having an overall trite sound, has added a redundant word, also. Worse, it has suppressed the word spirit which reminds us that we human beings have a spiritual soul. Furthermore, it has stopped the echo of four (inspired) uses of with your spirit in St. Paul’s letters.
4 – In the I confess of the penitential rite, I.C.E.L. eliminated the threefold through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault, and substituted one feeble through my own fault. This is another nail in the coffin of the sense of sin.
5 – Before Communion, we pray Lord I am not worthy that thou shouldst (you should) enter under my roof. I.C.E.L. changed this to ... not worthy to receive you. We loose the roof metaphor, clear echo of the Gospel (Matth. 8:8), and a vivid, concrete image for a child.
6 – I.C.E.L.’s changes amounted to true devastation especially in the oration prayers of the Mass. The Collect or Opening Prayer for Ordinary Sunday 21 will exemplify the damage. The Latin prayer, strictly translated, runs thus: O God, who make the minds of the faithful to be of one will, grant to your peoples (grace) to love that which you command and to desire that which you promise, so that, amidst worldly variety, our hearts may there be fixed where true joys are found.
7 – Here is the I.C.E.L. version, in use since 1973: Father, help us to seek the values that will bring us lasting joy in this changing world. In our desire for what you promise, make us one in mind and heart.
8 – Now a few comments: To call God Father is not customary in the Liturgy, except Our Father in the Lord’s prayer. Help us to seek implies that we could do this alone (Pelagian heresy) but would like some aid from God. Jesus teaches, without Me you can do nothing. The Latin prays grant (to us), not just help us. I.C.E.L.’s values suggests that secular buzzword, “values” that are currently popular, or politically correct, or changing from person to person, place to place. Lasting joy in this changing world, is impossible. In our desire presumes we already have the desire, but the Latin humbly prays for this. What you promise omits “what you (God) command”, thus weakening our sense of duty. Make us one in mind (and heart) is a new sentence, and appears as the main petition, yet not in coherence with what went before. The Latin rather teaches that uniting our minds is a constant work of God, to be achieved by our pondering his commandments and promises. Clearly, I.C.E.L. has written a new prayer. Does all this criticism matter? Profoundly! The Liturgy is our law of praying (lex orandi), and it forms our law of believing (lex credendi). If I.C.E.L. has changed our liturgy, it will change our faith. We see signs of this change and loss of faith all around us.
9 – The foregoing instances of weakening the Latin Catholic Liturgy prayers must suffice. There are certainly THOUSANDS OF MISTRANSLATIONS in the accumulated work of I.C.E.L. As the work progressed I became a more and more articulate critic. My term of office on the Advisory Board ended voluntarily about 1973, and I was named Member Emeritus and Consultant. As of this writing I renounce any lingering reality of this status.
10 – The I.C.E.L. labours were far from being all negative. I remember with appreciation the rich brotherly sharing, the growing fund of church knowledge, the Catholic presence in Rome and London and elswhere, the assisting at a day-session of Vatican II Council, the encounters with distinguished Christian personalities, and more besides. I gratefully acknowledge two fellow members of I.C.E.L. who saw then, so much more clearly than I, the right translating way to follow: the late Professor Herbert Finberg, and Fr. James Quinn S.J. of Edinburgh. Not for these positive features and persons do I renounce my I.C.E.L. past, but for the corrosion of Catholic Faith and of reverence to which I.C.E.L.’s work has contributed. And for this corrosion, however slight my personal part in it, I humbly and sincerely apologize to God and to Holy Church.
11 – Having just mentioned in passing the Second Vatican Council (1962-1965), I now come to identify my other reason for renouncing my translating work on I.C.E.L. It is an even more serious and delicate matter. In the past year (from mid 2001), I have come to know with respect and admiration many traditional Catholics. These, being persons who have decided to return to pre-Vatican II Catholic Mass and Liturgy, and being distinct from “conservative” Catholics (those trying to retouch and improve the Novus Ordo Mass and Sacraments of post-Vatican II), these Traditionals, I say, have taught me a grave lesson. They brought to me a large number of published books and essays. These demonstrated cumulatively, in both scholarly and popular fashion, that the Second Vatican Council was early commandeered and manipulated and infected by modernist, liberalist, and protestantizing persons and ideas. These writings show further that the new liturgy produced by the Vatican “Concilium” group, under the late Archbishop A. Bugnini, was similarly infected. Especially the New Mass is problematic. It waters down the doctrine that the Eucharist is a true Sacrifice, not just a memorial. It weakens the truth of the Real Presence of Christ’s victim Body and Blood by demoting the Tabernacle to a corner, by reduced signs of reverence around the Consecration, by giving Communion in the hand, often of women, by cheapering the sacred vessels, by having used six Protestant experts (who disbelieve the Real Presence) in the preparation of the new rite, by encouraging the use of sacro-pop music with guitars, instead of Gregorian chant, and by still further novelties.
12 – Such a litany of defects suggests that many modern Masses are sacrilegious, and some could well be invalid. They certainly are less Catholic, and less apt to sustain Catholic Faith.
13 – Who are the authors of these published critiques of the Conciliar Church? Of the many names, let a few be noted as articulate, sober evaluators of the Council: Atila Sinka Guimaeres (In the Murky Waters of Vatican II), Romano Amerio (Iota Unum: A Study of the Changes in the Catholic Church in the 20th Century), Michael Davies (various books and booklets, TAN Books), and Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, one the Council Fathers, who worked on the preparatory schemas for discussions, and has written many readable essays on Council and Mass (cf Angelus Press).
14 – Among traditional Catholics, the late Archbishop Lefebvre stands out because he founded the Society of St Pius X (SSPX), a strong society of priests (including six seminaries to date) for the celebration of the traditional Catholic liturgy. Many Catholics who are aware of this may share the opinion that he was excommunicated and that his followers are in schism. There are however solid authorities (including Cardinal Ratzinger, the top theologian in the Vatican) who hold that this is not so. SSPX declares itself fully Roman Catholic, recognizing Pope John Paul II while respectfully maintaining certain serious reservations.
15 – I thank the kindly reader for persevering with me thus far. Let it be clear that it is FOR THE FAITH that I am renouncing my association with I.C.E.L. and the changes in the Liturgy. It is FOR THE FAITH that one must recover Catholic liturgical tradition. It is not a matter of mere nostalgia or recoiling before bad taste.
16 – Dear non-traditional Catholic Reader, do not lightly put aside this letter. It is addressed to you, who must know that only the true Faith can save you, that eternal salvation depends on holy and grace-filled sacraments as preserved under Christ by His faithful Church. Pursue these grave questions with prayer and by serious reading, especially in the publications of the Society of St Pius X.
17 – Peace be with you. May Jesus and Mary grant to us all a Blessed Return and a Faithful Perseverance in our true Catholic home.
Rev Father Stephen F. Somerville, STL.
Sinkspur, if you're trying to portray the Roman Rite's use of Latin as an offense you must acknowledge that you stand outside the Church in this accusation. This notion not only goes beyong Vatican II, it is explicitly contrary to it.
If you're in the SSPX (which you are), then american colleen is dead on.
And you are downright unpleasant at the time I tried to reach out and mend fences.
Mend fences? Telling someone that, unless they attend the Tridentine Mass, they are on the path to hell is hardly "mending fences."
The lovely "american colleen" is much more amenable to your lofty-sounding nonsense then I am, because she's nicer than I am.
You and ultima ratio are a tag team who, like a wind-up dolls, rail and raise hell against the Novus Ordo, John Paul II, and those of us who follow his directives.
Come back to earth, bub. Those of you who think your measly efforts at trying to force the Tridentine Mass back on the liturgical stage will bear fruit are mistaken!
The next Pope is likely to be an African or a South American or an Italian.
Not a single cardinal representing those nationalities is known to favor a return to the pre-Vatican II Church. Not one. In fact, you better pray an Italian doesn't succeed John Paul II, as any one of the majority of the Italians would be likely to take the Church to the fullness of Vatican II.
BTW, you guys better be pushing the Unabomber-loving Williamson to make peace with John Paul II; an Italian Pope is likely to tell your little sect to wander in the wilderness.
This was my experience at the Tridentine as well. But sinkspur claims it was different in his experience.
I'm honestly curious to hear from the Orthodox in this, because I definitely remember reading about private devotions during the Orthodox Mass. It would be instructive to compare.
God only understands Latin?
I got news: my private prayers to God are in English.
You speak as if the Novus Ordo didn't set a precedent for changing this sort of thing. In good humor can you at least see the irony?
The use of Latin is not an offense; it's just not done very often!
What is the Western Church's practice? Vernacular liturgy. And there is not going to be any reimposition of Latin on Catholics who have two generations of vernacular liturgies in their background.
The Jesuits in the USA (10 provinces) have been averaging 40-50 novices per year total, according to the Society of Jesus (USA) website. A far cry from the days when they had that, and more, in every province.
The FSSP averages about 10-15 new seminarians a year in Nebraska, while drawing from a significantly smaller pool. It turns men away for lack of space. No doubt, the SSPX does as well. The Jesuits have far more resources on their side and yet harvest far fewer vocations per capita.
Catholic orthodoxy and tradition sells, to juring and non-juring Catholic men, alike.
Irony? Celebrating the principal Mystery of the Catholic Faith in a language understood by all seems the height of good sense.
Something the Holy Spirit always seems to inject into history at just the right moment.
Description of Scalia's take on the ACTUAL words of the Pope. Refer to my earlier post.
The Pope may have argued that the death penalty, in his opinion, is not appropriate under any circumstances. BUT HE DID NOT CHANGE THE POSITION OF THE CHURCH.
Sinkspur, there was an imposition of the vernacular on Catholics who had countless generatations of Latin liturgies in their background. That doesn't make two generations of vernacular a terribly daunting barrier.
Mind you, I neither think the vernacular is going away within my lifetime, nor do I think it a wise idea to rip away established liturgical traditions. This is one of the reasons I find the manner the Novus Ordo was imposed to have been senseless and brutal. It's not something I'd like to see the Church ever revisit on you or any other Catholic.
The SSPX is outside the Catholic Church. Filling seminaries with schismatics is good news only in the hope that one of them will bring the SSPX to its senses and lead it back to reunion with Rome.
Apparently you can't see it. God bless.
I am in union with the pope. Who the hell are you to suggest I am not?If you're in the SSPX (which you are), then american colleen is dead on.
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The Society of Saint Pius X professes filial devotion and loyalty to Pope John Paul II, the Successor of Saint Peter and the Vicar of Christ. The priests of the Society pray for His Holiness and the local Ordinary at every Mass they celebrate.
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I guess I can't.
God bless you too, even if you don't need it.
You are not in union with the Church.
You said it best. I would add that they also don't give a rotten fig about it...
Believe me I do. Not everyone you argue with on these matters thinks themself to be a saint. I'm far from it and need all the help I can get. ...
Even if it's in Latin. ;-)
You are an elitist snob. You chide me for having "the new Mass and the new catechism and the new rubrics and the new etc.," when you are doing nothing to work for change.
I love the Tridentine Mass, but forcing it on the masses would have a horrible effect. I tell everyone I know about the available Tridentine in my state and everyone oohs and ahhs, but not one person has ever expressed an interest in attending, even when I offer to drive.
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