Posted on by Jeffrey Tucker

Excitement Over Missal Leads to Early Adoption in England and Wales

The new translation of the Roman Missal can be used as early as September in England and Wales, say reports. The official webpage is fine but not nearly as elegant as the USCCB’s own site.

15 Replies to “Excitement Over Missal Leads to Early Adoption in England and Wales”

  1. Yes… it seems that this "overwhelming resistance" to the New Translation is just breaking out all over, doesn't it?

    I'm kidding of course… it looks like the new translation will get it's debut in early Fall for Leeds, and if my predictions are right, it will be achange for the good and will cause little if any problems.

    Why? Because their Bishop is firmly behind it. Where that happens, and my guess is that will be most places, it will go well. Sure, there will be the isolated cases of intransigence (as there are anyway… not just for the translation issue), but in most places, it will be a new book, new words and new music.

  2. I am so eager to get this thing rolling in my parish, I can almost taste it and I hope the same thing happens in our country. It would be great to implement this gradually rather than all at one time. Start with the greetings that change in March, move to the Gloria during Easter, then the Creed in the summer, then the Sanctus and mystery of faith acclamation in the fall. I think the prayers that the priest prays could be implemented almost immediately if the priests have studied them and are ready which believe me I am! But I will contain myself.

  4. South Africa started using it at least two years ago, and there have already been adjustments to the text since then. And the acclamation "Christ has died …" has been removed. There's a lesson here somewhere. Anybody get it?

  5. Note the oddity, though, of a permission process for publication of Mass settings, which first have to be approved by the Bishops' Conference. If this is designed to preserve textual fidelity, it's overkill: a clear instruction to priests and parishes would suffice.

    If musical style and competence are to be criteria, I'd suggest that's difficult and dangerous territory, as this is an area where it's easier to state principles than implement them in a process that achieves something while remaining fair and transparent. The same consideration applies to the principle of active participation, which is discussed in the guidelines in a way that might be considered contentious.

    The other interesting thing is that the guidelines' focus on material published in England & Wales suggest its authors don't understand the impact of the internet and open-source licences on religious music publication and distribution.

    It will be interesting to see how this runs.

  6. Chironomo wrote:

    "it looks like the new translation will get it's debut in early Fall for Leeds, and if my predictions are right, it will be achange for the good and will cause little if any problems."

    that should be "its" in the first line
    chalking up the achange to typo,
    it should be "will cause few if any problems."

    Do you work for Vox Clara?

  9. Yes, of course it's not as smart as the US bishops' site, but it does have a link to this page, which has way more material on it than last time I looked:
    http://www.icelweb.org/musicfolder/openmusic.php
    I am particularly impressed with the new Exultet (both the translation and the setting), and with the fact that some chants (Ecce lignus, Lumen ad revelationem, &c) are given in Latin, with English versions offered as an alternative. I hope all these chants find their way into the handsome Missal that the CTS is printing.

    By the way, does anyone know when Scotland will get a chance to pray the new translation?

  11. "Other settings of the new translation may be published after Easter 2011 and the Department for Christian Life and Worship has permitted that may be used from then."

    So presumably if they are from an approved mass setting, musical versions of the ordinary can be used after Easter and before September.

  14. Someone told me that the Chant Cafe people will be providing some of the new music for the Missal in Gregorian notation.

    That, to me, is one of the unfortunate decisions: not to use Gregorian notation in the official Altar Missal. Does Jeffrey know why they went with modern music?

    At our Cathedral, where Polish Mass is celebrated every week, the (relatively new) Polish Altar Missal uses Gregorian notation exclusively.

  15. Note the oddity, though, of a permission process for publication of Mass settings, which first have to be approved by the Bishops' Conference. If this is designed to preserve textual fidelity, it's overkill: a clear instruction to parishes that paraphrases are forbidden would suffice.

    If musical style and competence are to be criteria, I'd suggest that's difficult and dangerous territory: it's an area where it's easy to state principles but more difficult to implement them in a process that wishes to achieve something while remaining fair, efficient and transparent.

    The other interesting thing about the process as published is that it tells us the Bishops' Conference just dosn't get the impact of the internet and open-source licences on religious music distribution, which isn't acknowledged, let alone allowed for. I suppose that isn't surprising, given that one Diocesan director of liturgy notoriously operates his traditional commercial music publishing business from the Diocesan offices; but it is dissapointing.

    it will be interesting to see how this one runs.

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