Some hail Pope Francis’ decree on Mass translations

Discretion given to local languages

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

The bride-to-be had regularly attended Catholic Mass, but her fiance had dropped out of church for a while, in part because he found the liturgy barely comprehensible.

Hebegan worshipping regularly again with his fiancee, and when they came to the Rev. Lou Vallone to prepare for their wedding, the priest recalled his saying: “Father, I like to go to your Mass. I can almost understand what you’resaying.”

That’s because Father Vallone, who finds the current Mass liturgy to be awkwardly phrased, enunciates the words slowly and carefully.

So the longtime priest was delighted with news Saturday that Pope Francis had decreed a shift in the process that had produced the current version of the English liturgy.

The pope’s decree marked the latest turn in a long-running struggle over how Catholics worship, and who decides, since the Second Vatican Council. That council, in 1963, altered the ancient standard of Latin-language worship by authorizing translations of liturgies into local languages.

After the council, responsibility for translations went first to national bishops conferences, then later to the Vatican.

Pope Francis’ decree put much of the responsibility back to national bishops conferences, with final approval from the Vatican.

The pope’s decree also gives national conferences greater authority in deciding whether to use literal, word-for-word Latin translations — or to vary the wording if that works better in the local language without altering the meaning.

“Is it a positive thing? I certainly think it is, even though most probably I won’t see the effect in my lifetime,” said Father Vallone, pastor of St. John of God Parish in McKees Rocks and St. Catherine of Siena Parish in Crescent.

That’s because such papal decrees take a long time to make an impact in the pews.

The Second Vatican Council, in calling for locallanguage worship, said the faithful should not be “silent spectators” but “fully conscious and active” participants.

Early translations after the council were overseen by national bishops conferences and allowed for more flexibility in word choice.

Then, under Pope John Paul II, the Vatican assumed a more centralized authority for handling translations and put a premium on hewing close to the Latin phrasing. Supporters saw this as part of a “reform of the reform,” or curbing innovations that went beyond the mandate of the Second Vatican Council.

After the Vatican nixed a previous translation approved by U.S. bishops, it approved a new one that took effect in 2011 and is still used in English-speaking countries.

Some hailed the 2011 missal as more reverent and faithful to the original. Others lamented what they saw as wooden language, with lengthy sentences that don’t work in English as well as they do in Latin.

The new missal uses technical theological terms — using “oblation” instead of “offering,” or describing Jesus as “consubstantial” with God the Father, replacing “one in being.”

Bishop David Zubik welcomed Pope Francis’ decree as part of the pontiff’s wider philosophy of giving local decision makers more authority.

“It’s pretty much reflective of the mind and heart of Pope Francis,” he said. “He’s recognizing the importance of episcopal conferences.”

Worshipers as a whole have adapted to the new missal, Bishop Zubik said, and he doesn’t expect the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops will start another revision in the near future.

The bishops may “engage in discussions, but we also have to be sensitive to folks in the pews,” he said. “Are we going to want to make changes so soon?”

Bishop Emeritus Donald Trautman of Erie, who formerly chaired the national bishops’ committee on liturgy when the Vatican had turned down a proposed translation, said he was “overjoyed” with Pope Francis’ decision.

“I see it as an affirmation of all our efforts” to live up to the Vatican II mandate, he said.

He said the goal of “fully conscious and active participation” isn’t met by merely translating liturgy from Latin to English words that are hard to understand.

“I would hope the American bishops would rise to the occasion and examine these texts,” he said.

The Rev. Edward Mazich, rector of Saint Vincent Seminary in Latrobe, said via email that he would be surprised if the bishops did so. A new translation involves a “long and difficult process … simply owing to the massive size of such books and the ever-present challenge of rendering an (ancient) language accurately and smoothly in a modern language.”

He said that although the liturgies “follow a more formal style now, and there are a few new turns of phrase to memorize,” his sense is that most Catholic worshippers are happy to worship with fellow believers and are not caught up in the controversies that are aired in Catholic media and blogs.

Although Englishspeaking worshippers may be using the 2011 missal for a while, liturgies in several other major languages haven’t been translated in a while. Bishops in countries where such languages are spoken can follow Pope Francis’ new guidelines when they do translations.

Father Vallone, who has a T-shirt calling for a “reform of the reform of the reform,” said he believes that a liturgy with stilted language is partly to blame for declines in Mass attendance, particularly among the young.

“You have people with master’s degrees that don’t recognize those words,” he said. “How’s your fifthgrader going to recognize them?”