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A New Zealand liturgical theologian is sad the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference National Synodal Synthesis is calling for a new English translation of the Roman Missal.
Dr Joe Grayland makes the comment in a comment and analysis piece in today’s CathNews.
The National synodal synthesis calls for “liturgical language that is welcoming, inclusive, less misogynistic, and hierarchical, and more consonant with contemporary theology, language that includes, builds up, heals wounds and affirms.”
The synthesis describes the language of the current translation of the Roman Missal as “flat”.
It’s a point not lost on New Zealand’s bishops.
In a 2015 letter to The Tablet, theologian and Emeritus Bishop of Palmerston North called for an overhaul of the English missal.
He called it “clunky, awkward and a too literal translation of the Latin original”.
However, writing in today’s CathNews, Grayland says recent changes by Pope Francis mean the ball is in the NZ Bishops’ court; that changing the language in the Roman Missal is already possible.
“Synodal feedback calls for reworking the current Roman Missal to provide better, more straightforward and accessible liturgical language. Sadly, this request reads as if this change were not already possible,” Grayland writes.
He says that straightforward and accessible liturgical language has been available since Pope Francis published Magnum Principium (The Great Principle).
He says the Pope has already given individual Bishops’ conferences permission to work on and issue modifications to liturgical texts.
“In Magnum Principium, Francis shifted the responsibility and the authority for translating liturgical texts to the episcopal conferences by modifying clauses two and three of canon 838 of the 1983 Code of Canon Law.
“He also redefined and limited the role of the then Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, now the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments,” writes Grayland.
Asked if he found it strange that the NZ Bishops would make a synodal recommendation when they already have the delegated authority to act, Grayland says that it is important to see the recommendation in the context of a whole New Zealand church synodal response.
However, he says Pope Francis has put the onus on local bishops.
Grayland says this work can be done only by a team of professional liturgical theologians and assisted by other professionals and the work will probably not be undertaken without these resources because New Zealand is such a small country.
In the meantime, Grayland suggests the NZ Bishops’ conference permit using the ICEL 1998 “presidential prayers and propers”.
He says it will bring a higher standard of written and proclamatory English into the Mass and other sacraments again.
In light of Pope Francis’ Magnum Principium and that priests, unhappy with the new literal translation, the NZ Catholic Bishops Conference asked ICEL in 2017 to review its 1998 draft Roman Missal translation.
The then President of the NZ Bishops’ conference, Patrick Dunn, said the New Zealand bishops acknowledged they could work independently but, for the sake of unity, were not inclined to.
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News category: New Zealand, Top Story.
