The Lord be with you… And with your spirit

There has been a lot in the Catholic press recently about the new translation of the Roman Missal; a number of articles have questioned why we will be adopting this translation in the next couple of years and why we need to change at all. It is worthwhile examining how the current English translation came about and how the new translation was developed.

This article is the first of a series on how this new translation has come about.

Vatican II and the Mass

When the Second Vatican Council was announced by Pope John XXIII in 1959, it was welcomed by those who were involved with the renewal of the liturgical life of the Church. This movement to renew the liturgical life of the Church can be traced back to the 19^th century and to the work of Abbot Prosper Gueranger of the Benedictine abbey at Solesmes. In 1903, Pope Pius X described sacred music and liturgy as not something belonging to a restricted circle of experts but belonging to all the people of God. In particular he encouraged “active participation in the sacred mysteries and in the public and solemn prayer of the Church”.

In 1955, Pope Pius XII reformed the rites of Holy Week and the Easter Vigil to underline the Paschal Mystery as the centre of all Christian life. At this time, the Mass was still essentially the same Mass formalised by the Council of Trent in the 16^th century; sometimes known as the Old Latin Mass, the Tridentine Mass, and since Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 Motu Proprio “Summorum Pontificum”, the Extraordinary Form of the Mass.

One of the key documents of Vatican II was the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy. This document addressed the desire of the bishops participating in the Council to reform the liturgy including the Mass.

“In order that the Christian people may more certainly derive an abundance of graces from the sacred liturgy, holy Mother Church desires to undertake with great care a general restoration of the liturgy itself. For the liturgy is made up of immutable elements divinely instituted, and of elements subject to change. These not only may but ought to be changed with the passage of time if they have suffered from the intrusion of anything out of harmony with the inner nature of the liturgy or have become unsuited to it.”

The document goes on to state what the revised Mass should be like

“The rites should be distinguished by a noble simplicity; they should be short, clear, and unencumbered by useless repetitions; they should be within the people’s powers of comprehension, and normally should not require much explanation.”

The document also allowed particular parts to be spoken in the people’s “mother tongue” instead of Latin.

The revised Mass was not created during the Council but by a body known as the Consilium which was led by Fr Annibale Bugnini and consisted of an international body of experts known as “periti”. This body worked on a simplification of the Mass, often referring to very early texts of prayers and rites used in the early Church. The revised Mass was approved by Pope Paul VI in 1968 and a new Missal promulgated in 1970. The Missal of 1970 was in Latin and it acts as the master copy for all translations into other languages.

The new Mass is referred to as the Mass of Paul VI, the Novus Ordo or the Ordinary Form of the Mass. When Roman Catholics refer to the Mass, this is the Mass that they are referring to. This new Mass was simpler than the Mass that preceded it and fostered participation by the people in responses and by being able to hear most of the prayers of the priest. New Eucharistic Prayers were introduced to serve a variety of needs. The new Mass allowed for the celebration of the Mass by more than one priest. Accompanying the new Missal was a revised Lectionary that placed a much greater emphasis on the role of sacred scripture, especially the Old Testament in the life of the faithful.

This new Mass was eagerly awaited by all those who wanted to transform the life of the Church.

The next article in this series will be on how the current English translation of the 1970 Missal came about.