At the beginning of the liturgical year in November, American Catholics will celebrate the Mass in language much closer to that of the Latin rite that was displaced almost forty years ago, in the wake of the second Vatican council. Will the laity’s response be as skittish as the clergy’s has been?

“The first time I saw some of the texts, I was shocked,” said the Rev. Richard Hilgartner, who as executive director of the American bishops’ Secretariat of Divine Worship is overseeing the introduction of the new missal in the United States.

“But the more time I’ve spent with it, the more comfortable I became with it,” he said. “The new translation tries to be more faithful to the Scriptures, and a little more poetic and evocative in terms of imagery and metaphor.”

“But the more time I’ve spent with it, the more comfortable I became with it,” he said. “The new translation tries to be more faithful to the Scriptures, and a little more poetic and evocative in terms of imagery and metaphor.”

Father Hilgartner said, “We know that people aren’t going to understand it initially, and we’ll have to talk about it. I’ve said to priests, we will welcome and crave opportunities for people to come up and ask us about God. It’s a catechetical opportunity.”

In other reactionary news, “scholars are sifting” through the official condemnation of Quest for the Living God, by Fordham University theologian Sister Elizabeth A Johnson.

Drop me a line at rjk@dailyblague.com
This entry was posted on Tuesday, April 12th, 2011 at 10:30 am.