Posted on 01/11/2007 1:31:21 PM PST by NYer
Vox Clara, the Roman commission assisting in the preparation of a new English translation of the Mass in conformity with the instruction Liturgiam authenticam, received two crushing body-blows this week, delivered by internationally recognized experts in the field of pastoral liturgy, both of whom were scathingly critical of the return to "sacral" language. The first blast was dealt by Bishop Donald Trautman, Bishop of Erie and chair of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on the Liturgy, in the course of an address to the Catholic Academy of Liturgy in Toronto. The NCR's John Allen gives the gist (tip to Bill Cork):
According to a press release issued by a member of the academy's Executive Committee, Jesuit Fr. Keith Pecklers of Rome's Gregorian University, Trautman "contended that the new translations do not adequately meet the liturgical needs of the average Catholic," and he "expressed fears that the significant changes in the texts no longer reflect understandable English usage."
"Trautman argued that the proposed changes of the people's parts during the Mass will confuse the faithful, and predicted that the new texts will contribute to a greater number of departures from the Catholic Church," the release stated.
Trautman also challenged a recent ruling from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments that the Latin phrase pro multis in the formula for the consecration of the Precious Blood should be rendered as "for many" rather than the current English phrase "for all."
Comparably devastating to the new translation endeavor were the remarks of Dr. A.J.P. Funicello, Director of the Center for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Marcoux Professor of Christodramatics at Cal State Fullerton.[See note below] Off The Record was able to conduct a telephone interview with Funicello at her office.
OTR: Professor, what do you feel the impact of the revised translation will be on the lay faithful?
AJF: Well uncle di we here at livermore believe that language like is a dynamic and not a static reality so when you try to make it sacred or sacral it doesn't speak to my own experience as a mature educated adult and a person of gender
OTR: And you think this linguistic disconne --
AJF: in a fully renewed like faith community we celebrate being who we are as ourselves and talking about god as something like out there makes you feel small and funny inside and this new liturgy thing will contribute to departures I mean I and my stepdaughter don't do the church thing but if we did I mean the language well it's not how I talk and it would make us feel pain and hurt and it would make us like depart if we hadn't departed already
OTR: If we consider for a momen --
AJF: and take the example of for many uncle di I mean that makes me feel left out because all means all and many doesn't and besides in my habilitationsschrift Beach Blanket Benefice tübingen 1967 I like demonstrate that the aramaic vorlage of pro multis really means like we're a people gathered faithfully together and when I listened to the proposed translation on all things considered I cried
OTR: Then if I understand you correc --
AJF: and when I hear and with your spirit I freak I mean I suppose people said that to each other every day back in the fifties but today we say like see you next week
Vox Clara chairman Cardinal George Pell was unavailable for comment.
NOTE: The senior communications officer at Cal State Fullerton has asked that we note that in fact Annette Funicello is not a member of the faculty there. Nor is she an employee of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. This post is a joke. Seriously. 
Dale Price on Bishop Trautman's Pro Multis criticism.
Bishop Trautman, bulwark against things Traditional, has issued another call to arms. Anyone else reminded how alpha-male baboons deal with challengers? So much to fisk, so little time.
So I'll just jump on this little nugget:
“That change easily could be misinterpreted as denying the faith of the Roman Catholic Church that Christ died for all people,” the press release quoted Trautman as saying.
Translation: the Ordinary of Erie thinks you are a USCCB-Certified, Grade-A idiot. And by "you," I am saying those in Holy Orders as well as lay people. He's assuming (1) pastors are faced with a theological conundrum equivalent to reciting from memory the canons of the Council of Nicaea, (2) said pastors are absolutely incapable of giving a three-sentence (maximum) explanation of the change, and that us dunsels in the pews are (3) lowing cattle mentally incapable of putting the round peg in the round hole and (4) are such delicate hothouse flowers we are sure to sprint from our parishes in tears upon hearing the change from "all" to "many."
We hear over and over that we are the "most-educated laity in the history of the Church." We have lay pastoral education initiatives out the wazoo. Adult education programs are a priority of the Church in America. But we simply can't get this one. Right. I mean, just imagine the spontaneous combustions that will occur when us poor dears read that the Lord uses "for many" in the Last Supper narratives in Matthew and Mark.
Sounds like someone's condescending ox is getting gored.
Bishop Trautman is sort of like a reverse liturgical parrot in a coal mine. That is if some form of liturgy starts to give him problems - it is near an infallible sign that it is good liturgy. If he feels comfortable run for your life and attend a different Mass. Dale is exactly right on this form of criticism. The argument would imply that all the centuries of the Latin Mass that nobody understood this theological point or for that any any current translation in any language that does not use a form of all.
Amy Welborn also makes some excellent comments in reference to this and other arguments by Bishop Trautman.
More on the translation front.
TORONTO, Canada (The Catholic Register) – The outgoing president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a leading Catholic liturgist has told The Catholic Register the most recent translation of the Roman Missal is “a step backwards” for ecumenical relations.
“It’s going to feel like the ecumenical movement has taken a hit,” Father Paul Turner, pastor of St. Munchin Church in Cameron, Mo., and author of a half-dozen books on Catholic liturgy, said following an opening liturgy for the North American Academy of Liturgy annual meeting here Jan. 4.
New, more literal, translations from Latin of liturgical texts scheduled to hit parishes in two years are a departure from the Second Vatican Council’s movement toward common texts with Anglican, Lutheran and other churches, Father Turner said. Those common texts were a specific goal of council fathers in the 1960s, and non-Catholic scholars were consulted by Catholic liturgists and translators in the past.
“That same effort is not being made today,” he said.
While Father Turner regrets the ecumenical implications of the new translations, he supports the new texts generally.
“The words will be an improvement as a whole,” he said.
So not having identical translations is now a ecumenical threat? Plus considering that already Anglican and Lutheran churches already do not use the same wording in lectionaries this argument makes even less sense. Is the current translation anything like the much more beautiful language in the Anglicans Book of Common Prayer? Are there really Anglicans and Lutherans who would give up on ecumenism because of more accurate translations changes? If so then there wasn't much chance of moving forward with them anyway.
What I never understand about the translation gripers is how narrow there view is. If they really think more accurate translations are a problem then they should be griping about the official Latin texts instead. If there is such a problem with the Latin texts in their view then they should be lobbying for them to change since they would affect all the other language translations - not just English.
Father Turner also warned that most dioceses in North America aren’t ready for the confusion and emotional reactions which will accompany a change in liturgy two years from now.
These snobs have the same view of the laity as John Kerry does for the military. "Halp us Fawther Turnr - We r knot able to adapt 2 littergikal chainges."
Dear Bish Trautmann,
Will all due respect to your title, you, very nearly Most Reverend, are CLUELESS. Only the apostate would leave anyway. There is an open invitation for them in Vicky Gene's church.
The correct translation can be found in the 1962 Missal on the page opposite the Latin translation.
The "all vs many" translation.... Christ himself said that not ALL who call my name... your get out of purgatory/hell card is up to you and personal choices you make each day.
Pretty funny. I took this seriously and started reading it as if it was legit. LoL.
What makes this funny is how close it parodies the truth.
"AJF: Well uncle di we here at livermore believe that language like is a dynamic and not a static reality so when you try to make it sacred or sacral it doesn't speak to my own experience as a mature educated adult and a person of gender"
Wow, talk about no longer reflecting understandable English usage. . . .
**Pretty funny. I took this seriously and started reading it as if it was legit. LoL.**
Me too. Now I have to put on my party hat and go back and re-read it.
You know, when I started in on this and saw the first picture, and not the second, I thought "My God, that looks like MICKEY MOUSE EARS!" and thought just as bad about myself as I do whenever I think that awful little thing that flits through my mind whenever I see the candle in the red jar indicating the presence of the consecrated host.
And then I saw Annette (ah, lovely Annette...) wearing her ears, and realized that I was not being irreverent for seeing Mickey Mouse ears in the tabernacle.
But I'm still disturbed, because there's some Church somewhere that really has that thing. And every time I went into THAT church, and saw that contraption with the little red candle I would think "The Savior is...IN" ... and he's wearing Mickey Mouse ears, and I would be damned twice.
LOL! Excellent analysis!
Bishop Trautman confirmed me, which frequently causes me dilemmas about the validity. LOL. Perhaps he didn't have the Church's proper intent when he confirmed me.
What a dilemma :-).
LOL, well not all of us subject to Trautman are knuckle-dragging hothouse flowers, just his yes-men. Yes, I imagine that the lefties who love his changes are aghast, as per usual, with the latest from Rome. And, as you all may have heard me say, Rome is always said with a sneer by that crowd. I've stopped trying to keep up with the pronouncements from the diocese. We kneel, we don't kneel, we can kneel but we need to be obedient to him and not kneel anyway - that's just one example of the madness and inconsistencies from a year or 2 ago that occurred over a few months during the 'kneeling during Communion' controversy.
LOL, exactly!!!
If he feels comfortable run for your life and attend a different Mass. Dale is exactly right on this form of criticism. The argument would imply that all the centuries of the Latin Mass that nobody understood this theological point or for that any any current translation in any language that does not use a form of all.
OH, heavens, I have heard people from the diocese, a nun, a speaker or 2, his people, say just this. That for hundreds of years people didn't understand on this or that, but blindly, and with fear (yes, fear) obeyed. And our diocese is here to change that. They believe it as solidly as any of Kerry's supporters believe him and wait on baited breath for his next pronouncement.
We are hearing the push now for the Orans position (yes, they drag that out every so many years). As a sign of union and community. Which is what standing during Holy Communion was supposed to do. Never mind that Holy Communion itself is our sign of union and community. And so it goes...
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