Priests will adapt to new translation

[Nick Baty]

Interesting piece in the Catholic Herald with Martin Foster and Bishop Seamus Cunningham. Martin is indirectly quoted, saying that all the dioceses had held training days for clergy. (Find that hard to believe but stranger things have happened!)

[Southern Comfort]

Well, Alan Griffiths has been around a lot (but I don't think all) of the dioceses, warming up the clergy.

Martin Foster is quoted as saying that he thinks the clergy will adapt to the new translation. I think the situation is that they have seen some of the new texts of the Order of Mass, and perhaps EPs II and III, which are the easiest to 'manage', and therefore they are becoming more amenable because they do not yet know the whole truth.

What they have largely not yet seen are the 'orations' (collects, etc) and the more problematic EPs I and IV. They have also not seen the Prefaces, some of which are good but many of which appear to be impoverishments when set alongside the present Prefaces, nor the EPs for Reconciliation, which have also been disimproved. I think that when they finally do start coming to grips with those texts, especially the collects, the cumulative effect will help them to realize exactly what they are faced with, and they will start to react.

I think we will be in a position of having to pick up the pieces, and this will mean holding our priests' hands and giving them shoulders to cry on. In this part of the world, at least one diocese is already starting to plan actively for this eventuality.

[presbyter]

Well, Alan Griffiths has been around a lot (but I don't think all) of the dioceses, warming up the clergy.

Bruce Harbert too but on our clergy day on "The DVD", he didn't mention that it isn't a real DVD, meaning that it will not play in a DVD Player. It works, apparently, only using a computer.
Do all parishes have the peripheral hardware of projectors, screens and decent sound systems ?

Adapting to the new translation is going to mean preparation and practice.

[musicus]

... he didn't mention that it isn't a real DVD, meaning that it will not play in a DVD Player. It works, apparently, only using a computer.

This is true, and it is going to confuse countless people. I would seriously suggest that every one of these discs goes out with a sticker prominently affixed, pointing this out. Something along the lines of "Warning! Use a computer to play this disc, NOT a DVD player." (And a computer with a reasonably up-to-date CD/DVD drive and software too - but you can only get so much on to a label.) It's a great pity that the text on the disc itself repeatedly refers to "the DVD".

It does make you wonder how IT literate are the people who design this stuff.

[Nick Baty]

Can we presume it's a CD-Rom?

[John Ainslie]

There's a lot of good stuff on this CD-ROM (or whatever it is), though Mgr Paul McPartlan looks as if he's permanently resident in a greenhouse.

However, beware statements about the meaning of Latin which don't stand up. I refer to Mgr Irwin's assertion (in Exploring > Theological Reflections > Word and Table) that the Council documents do not say that the liturgy is the source and summit of Christian life, but 'taking part in the Eucharist' is that summit/source. The Council document shown in the pic is Lumen Gentium, para 11. The Latin text there says 'Sacrificium eucharisticum, totius vitae christianae fontem et culmen, participantes, divinam Victimam Deo offerunt atque seipsos cum Ea'. The 'fontem et culmen' is clearly a complement of 'sacrificium eucharisticum'. It is correctly translated by Abbott as 'Taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer...' I would also refer the good Monsignor to Sacrosanctum Concilium, para 10.

[Southern Comfort]

There's a lot of good stuff on this CD-ROM (or whatever it is), though Mgr Paul McPartlan looks as if he's permanently resident in a greenhouse.

However, beware statements about the meaning of Latin which don't stand up. I refer to Mgr Irwin's assertion (in Exploring > Theological Reflections > Word and Table) that the Council documents do not say that the liturgy is the source and summit of Christian life, but 'taking part in the Eucharist' is that summit/source. The Council document shown in the pic is Lumen Gentium, para 11. The Latin text there says 'Sacrificium eucharisticum, totius vitae christianae fontem et culmen, participantes, divinam Victimam Deo offerunt atque seipsos cum Ea'. The 'fontem et culmen' is clearly a complement of 'sacrificium eucharisticum'. It is correctly translated by Abbott as 'Taking part in the Eucharistic Sacrifice, which is the fount and apex of the whole Christian life, they offer...' I would also refer the good Monsignor to Sacrosanctum Concilium, para 10.

If only people would go back to the Abbott translation of the Council documents instead of Flannery, which is defective and inferior. The switch from Abbott happened because of marketing, not because of any inherent qualities in the two versions. The Dominicans outplayed the Jesuits on this one!

[Nick Baty]

The Dominicans outplayed the Jesuits on this one!

Isn't that in series 3 of Father Ted?