Scottish Catholic Observer

Cardinal Francis George has announced Vatican approval for the new English-language translation of the Roman Missal.

The new edition will be implemented in the US on the first Sunday of Advent 2011, November 27, with the aim of continuing the ‘ongoing renewal’ of the liturgy in parishes.

Cardinal George (right), who is President of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB), made the announcement last Friday in a proclamation, which reads: “From that date forward, no other edition of the Roman Missal may be used in the dioceses of the United States of America.

“We can now move forward and continue with our important catechetical efforts as we prepare the text for publication.”

British preview

People attending Pope Benedict XVI’s Masses in Scotland and England in September will get a chance to hear and sing a few of the newly translated Mass texts, according to the Pope’s chief Liturgist.

Mgr Guido Marini, Papal master of Liturgical ceremonies confirmed last week that the prayers sung in English at the Papal Masses in Britain will use the translations from the new Order of the Mass approved by the Vatican in 2008.

“The songs from the Order of the Mass—for example the Gloria—will be from the new translation,” he said.

The words for the rest of the Mass prayers ‘will be from the text currently in use,’ he said, because when the Papal Masses were being planned, the Vatican had not yet granted final approval to the bishops of Scotland, England and Wales for the complete English translation of the Roman Missal.

The new translation of the Mass was designed to follow more closely the text in the original Latin.

Support for new translation

Accompanying the announcement of the Vatican approval, was a letter from Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, celebrating the new text and encouraging its enthusiastic use when the time comes.

The introduction of the new edition, the third since the Second Vatican Council, was announced by Pope John Paul II in 2000, and the first Latin edition was published two years later. Since then, the text has undergone rigorous translation in preparation for being published in English, and the advanced date of implementation was specially chosen in order to allow publishers proper preparation and to permit parishes and dioceses time to ready parishioners for its introduction.

Support has also came from Bishop Arthur Serratelli, Chairman of the US Bishops’ Committee on Divine Worship.

“I am happy that after years of preparation, we now have a text that, when introduced late next year, will enable the ongoing renewal of the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy in our parishes,” he said.

Mgr Anthony Sherman, director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship, echoed the calls for proper preparation in parishes before the introduction next winter.

“A great effort to produce the new Roman Missal for the United States, along with the other necessary resources, has begun,” he said. “Even as that work is underway a full-scale Catechesis about the Liturgy and the new Roman Missal should be taking place in parishes, so that when the time comes, everyone will be ready.”