Liturgy: S. Africa protest over new Catholic Mass translation
There is a new translation of the Mass into English that will debut soon. From the large portions I've read, it is excellent: better and more faithful to the authoritative Latin text than our current translation.

Dissidents of the Church do not like it. To them, it represents "turning back the clock on Vatican II", or similar nonsense. In fact, it has been the intention of the Church since the Council that any translation into the vernacular should be faithful to the original Latin.

This Associated Press article is a preview of the resistance we can expect to the new translation:

A new translation of the Roman Catholic Mass that is to be introduced worldwide in a few years is getting an accidental trial run in South Africa, where some parishioners are complaining it's too hard to understand.

The controversy comes as Pope Benedict XVI travels Tuesday to Cameroon on his first papal pilgrimage to the continent that has the fastest growing congregation of Catholics.

Critics say the new, more literal word-for-word translation is part of an attempt to roll back the progress made decades ago when the church halted its insistence on Latin.

Before Communion, for example, the prayer "Lord, I am not worthy to receive you" becomes "Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof." "One in being with the Father" becomes "consubstantial with the Father" in the Nicene creed.

And the congregation's response to the greeting that opens Mass with the priest saying "The Lord be with you," changes from "And also with you" to "And with your spirit."

In a misunderstanding, some South African church leaders started using the new version prematurely in some parishes, even though the English-language prayers won't be approved for global use for at least a couple of years. But instead of pulling back in the face of their mistake, they are continuing to use the liturgy.

Distribution of the prayers has fueled debate over whether the new translation — meant to more closely follow the original Latin text — will help deepen parishioners' prayer life or alienate them from the church.

"I think the church has been very lucky that the South Africans jumped the gun because it's showing the Vatican that there is going to be a worldwide problem when these new translations are put into effect," said Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University.

"Once again the Vatican isn't listening to the critics, and we're going to have another major embarrassment to the pope when these translations are put into effect and are forced on the people in the pews," he said.

For the record - every one of those changes is for the good. People should not have such a short memory when it comes to these things, just because the new translation takes a little getting used to should not mean we should never, as a universal Church, return to the beauty of the traditional prayer of the Church, which is older than a generation.
Resist dissenters like Fr. Reese - reclaim the beauty that is ours as sons and daughters of the Church!