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.
There is no Church sanction on those who assist at an SSPX Mass. Honolulu was a test case, proving you wrong. But you know that. Why do you attempt to deceive?
Howver, I have (and will again) grant you that following the V.II the 'dam broke.' It's not unlike what happened after Luther--all the bad guys came out of the closet and took advantage of the turmoil--Zwingli, Calvin, Henry VIII.
More current, it was Bugnini, Williamson, and LeFebvre.
I'm afraid I do. Read it again: "I come to the conclusion that, canonically speaking, he's [Lefebvre's]not guilty of a schismatic act punishable by canon law. He's guilty of an act of disobedience to the Pope, but he did it in such a way that he could avail himself of a provision of the law that would prevent him from being automatically excommunicated (latae sententiae) for this act." (Latin Mass Magazine, Fall, 1995)
Sounds pretty cunning, to me.
Back in the fifties my father attended a Jesuit novitiate-juniorate in Pennsylvania. The vocations from a SINGLE province--MD and PA--filled the house with hundreds of straight young men in their late teens and early twenties. And that was just one province of one order in a given year. Nor were they scraping the bottom of the barrel to fill up the place.
I beg to differ. My Dad is 66 and grew up in Boston in the 40s and 50s, when everyone was either Irish or Italian and Catholic, attended Catholic schools for 12 years and went on to a Catholic college. Yes, there were lots of seminarians, but he told me that the stories about them turned "regular guys" away. This is the honest truth. He said there were always stories about seminarian "bed hopping" (although nothing about kids/boys being abused) and it discouraged a lot of good guys - this was in the 50s. He is and was not shocked at the "situation" that manifested itself publically this year.
The Jesuits especially were tough to get into. Many young men of promise were turned away. Compare this with the Jesuits today--a handful of vocations, maybe five or six, for the WHOLE COUNTRY, too many of them gay.
Funny how God takes care of these things, isn't it? Evil withers on the vine. Have patience.
How old are you? Sacred Heart Cathedral in Dallas at an early-morning Sunday Mass was crawling with senoras in tilmas making Novenas, saying the Stations, and praying to La Virgen de Guadalupe.
And the Rosary was said by more than a few. Entire parochial schools said the Rosary during weekday Masses every single day all over the United States. "Little kids" had Missals, given to them at First Communion that were never used again.
You must be a kid. If you were my age, you'd know that Catholics did everything but reverently attend Mass in "the old days."
"Leave it to Beaver" is a television show, though many folks thought it represented American life back in the 50s and 60s.
The Catholic Church was never "Leave it to Beaver."
Please note carefully the response of the Vatican congregation posted above by Patent.
The Congregation makes clear that those who attend the SSPX's Masses are NOT, ipso facto, schismatic (as are the members of the Society proper) and NOT excommunicated latae sententiae (as are the members of the Society proper.)
HOWEVER, the Congregation also WARNS the faithful against attending such Masses regularly, as the laity may get the wrong idea.
It's perfectly obvious that the Congregation's suspicions were correct.
But we persevere and try our best, with the grace of God, to spread the Truth and Good News!
Translation: I am NOT outside the Church.
This, from a member of a sect which includes among its leadership a bizarre bishop who actually admires Ted Kaszcynski, the Unabomber.
Sorry to disappoint you my dearly beloved separated brethren, but this book is all horse manure. It never "became illicit" to celebrate the Novus Ordo in Latin and the "provision for aged priests" never existed.
To: ultima ratio
...On June 14th, 1971, the Congregation for Worship issued a Notification granting to Episcopal Conferences the right to impose the exclusive use of the vernacular in the New Ordo, once the translations had been approved. It thus became illicit to celebrate the New Ordo in Latin. (. . .) It also repeated the provision in the instruction of October 20th, 1969 that the Old Mass could only be said by aged priests sine populo...
302 posted on 12/02/2002 2:14 PM PST by Bellarmine
To: Bellarmine
Thank you very much for this very interesting post. It, of course, makes perfect sense...
304 posted on 12/02/2002 4:21 PM PST by Zviadist
Don't let 'em fool ya or confuse ya.
Colleen, you are the example of Christian charity to me. I thought some of them guys were plain nuts, and I thought I was being charitable :-D
You can document this claim, of course.
In the entire Milwaukee metropolitan area, population around 1.5 million, I know of about 1,000 people who are NOT attending a licit Mass.
And of that 1,000, approximately half are under the age of 16--that is to say, they don't get a choice in the matter.
There were better reasons to leave the Church, if you consider the lure of materialism and NFL football "better."
Remember, the Church never accepted birth control and is still quite serious about marriage, sensationalized reports to the contrary notwithstanding.
Further, the Church's 'social issues' stands, while sometimes also taken to extremes by overzealous MA/Sociology nuns, was also not too popular--especially with those who (to this day) despise the concept of 'civil rights.'
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