Oh dear, oh dear... it would seem that the powers-that-be at ICEL are rather upset. The little kitty-cat of a translation which they had bagged up and hoped to dump quietly in a cupboard for a year or two seems to have clawed its way out of the bag, and made its presence known by yowling on the fence...
...not that the Hermeneutic of Continuity is guilty of sitting on the fence in any way. But it appears that Fr. Tim has received a letter from "The Management" at ICEL, demanding that he take down the draft texts of the new translation of the Mass, or be in breach of copyright.
The reason given for wanting to keep everything under wraps is that the texts are too difficult for us to accept (or understand) without suitable lengthy catechesis. No doubt they are thinking of the same sort of lengthy catechesis which already co-habiting couples are subjected to before they can be married in church, and which has led to the Sacrament of Confirmation becoming known as the "Sacrament of Leaving."
Presumably these are the same bunch of clowns who insult the intelligence of half the population by the assumption that they will not understand texts unless those difficult un-pc words such as "mankind" are translated...
Certainly, they do not believe that the People of God has enough intelligence to reach for a dictionary when they encounter a new word. So much for the Spirit of Vatican II making the Liturgy accessible...
I am intelligent enough to realise that the translation was a draft. I am also intelligent enough to view the delays in bringing out the final version with more than a little suspicion. Perhaps the hierarchy are hoping that someone will die, so they can fudge the matter for a bit longer, rather than face the fact that we have been cheated of our rightful Catholic heritage through the impoverishment of the language of the Liturgy.
I think that this is a clear sign for the Blogosphere: it's time to make our voices heard!
14 comments:
I suppose they're in a dire Catholic plot to overthrow the world by making dictionary sales plummet. My but those Catholics are crafty!
Just my luck. Right when I figure out what "the hermeneutic of continuity" means... the ICEL automatically assumes I don't know what "mankind" means!!
I'm not sure it's suspicious. It reads more like a managerial knee-jerk reaction to enforce copyright--these types of reactions I have generally viewed as inappropriate in spiritual endeavours. ("So what if someone's reproduced something for a good end? Is it hurting you? No; shut up then...", and so on... ;-)
Click my name and you will find what has been censored, I have broken copyright here.
Thanks for copying me in on this on my own site. Here is a copy of my response to your comment there.
'Thanks for this and bravo to your Fr Tim. His response is spot on. Since copying the text from his site (for sober perusal in my own good time)I have come across copies of the same draft text on a number of other sites. So, gentlemen (ladies?)of the ICEL the word is out and there ain't much you can do about it. King Canute and the waves come to mind!
You won't often find me citing the dear old C of E for doing something right but I'll make an exception here. In 2002 a 'preliminary edition' of Common Worship Daily Prayer was issued in a what Fr Tim would recognise as a cheap binding (paper back in this case)complete with a tear out questionnaire and blank pages for jotting down notes during use. The idea was to give the book - rather a good breviary of just under 900 pages incidentally - a dummy run for a couple of years before a definitive edition was published. This eventually came out in 2005 and, although it's far from perfect, I hope it will have an indefinite shelf life. Liturgies need time to settle down and here I'm not talking years and decades but generations.
Finally, why am I interested in the new ICEL translation? Quite simply because a lot of Anglican priests use the Roman Missal - it is, for instance, the rite used by 'my' community at Alton Abbey. However over and above that, churches and cathedrals which have daily eucharistic celebrations frequently use a copy of the Weekday Missal for its easy to use layout of the Propers.'
Constub---
Consum---
Con--- sub--- stant---ia--- t-i-o-n!
Yay, me!
"It reads more like a managerial knee-jerk reaction to enforce copyright"
Hm. Remember that the USCCB enforces copyright on the New Ambiguous , er, American Bible, while those who own the RSV (they're not all Catholics) let you use the RSV for nominal royalties. Not that I really mind.
Here's a stumper, Ma Beck:): what's the official name for the forgiving of sins by a priest in Confession? It starts with an "A."
Histor
Halp mee, ICEL - I is a Katlick!
:-p
Kudos to Fr. Tim for a smashingly executed response.
I think the phrase "the horse has bolted after the stable door has been closed" comes to mind. How many, like me, have downloaded the proposed texts?? Whether ICEL like it or not that are now in the public domain. So, some good may come out of the email!
fr paul harrison
I don't like it. Sorry.
You mean "locking the stable after the horse bolts?"
Well said, Mac!
And thank you, Father, for putting the text up in the first place. It was necessary for it to hit the blogosphere so we could see what ICEL were up to (or what they were pretending they weren't up to!)
I understand why you complied with the request to remove the text, but kitty is well and truly out of the bag now!
It took a while to come back to this post (I was interested in something else) so I'm sorry for the delay, but...
absolution, Histor.
:)
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