Mass Changes

The Catholic Church is considering changes to its Mass:

Roman Catholic bishops are considering the most sweeping changes to the Mass that American parishioners have seen in about four decades.

At the behest of the Vatican, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops is planning to vote Thursday on a new translation for the Order of the Mass that adheres more closely to the Latin version.

The changes would be the most significant to the Mass since parishioners first began worshipping in English instead of Latin in the wake of the Second Vatican Council.

The new translation would alter the wording of 12 of the 19 texts spoken by Catholics during worship, including the Nicene Creed, the Gloria, the Penitential Rite, the Sanctus and Communion.

Some bishops, however, worry that the new translation will alienate Catholics at a time when the church can least afford to do so. Mass attendance has been declining, the priest shortage has left a growing number of churches without a resident cleric, bishops and parishioners have been battling over the closure of old churches and schools, and the prelates have been trying to rebuild trust in their leadership after the clergy sex abuse crisis.

"My big concern is people are going to feel like they're being jerked around. They finally got used to the English translation and now they have to get used to another translation," said Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and a Jesuit priest.

"It's going to cause chaos and real problems and the people who are going to be at the brunt end of it are the poor priests in the parishes who don't need any more problems."

The Vatican recently issued updated guidelines for the translation of the Latin texts with the goal of arriving at a more accurate translation, as well as one that reflects "a deeper language that's more expressive and more poetic," said Monsignor James. P. Moroney, who leads the liturgy office for the bishops' conference.

Our tiny denomination can't make the changes it really needs to make, so who am I to criticize the Catholic Church. Still, making changes to the Mass seems less important than dealing with their really big problems, like the critical shortage of priests.