Thursday, June 18, 2009

Bishops fail to pass proposal to update the English translation of the Mass

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  • The U.S. bishops will have to poll members missing from their meeting in San Antonio before it's known whether they are approving liturgical prayers, special Masses and key sections of an English translation of the order of the Mass.

    Five texts being prepared for use in English-speaking countries failed to get the necessary two-thirds votes of the Latin-rite U.S. bishops during the June 18 session of the bishops' summer meeting.

    With 244 Latin-rite bishops in the United States eligible to vote on the questions, the required two-thirds votes in favor of each of the sections would be 163. With 189 eligible bishops attending the meeting, only 134 voted to accept the first section, Masses and prayers for various needs and intentions.

    On four subsequent translations, the votes also failed to reach two-thirds, meaning the 55 bishops not in attendance will be polled by mail for their votes on all five parts. That process was expected to take about two weeks. . . . Catholic Spirit

It is appalling that 65 bishops don't want to remove the atrocious translation of Latin into English that was hastily done after the Second Vatican Council. I don't have high hopes that 28 of the 55 absentees will vote for it if they did not care to attend the meeting at all.

The bishop of Erie, Penn., has led the resistance to the change in translations for many years. He believes that most Catholics are not educated well enough to understand the new translation.

Well, it was because of our bishops that catechesis virtually has ceased since the Council after Confirmation. Children are confirmed in grade school. Therefore, the vast majority of Catholics have a grade school education in their faith. No wonder they vote their pocketbooks rather than their salvation. They don't know anything about their salvation.




I believe that it is the practice of the USCCB that voting is by secret ballot.

2 comments:

Adrienne said...

Ray - I can hardly stand to read this stuff anymore. I have become so discouraged with the poor leadership of our bishops.

Grade school education? No way. My grade school education puts to shame 99% of "Catholics"

Unknown said...

You make an interesting point, Adrienne. I have read that much religious education given in recent years is awful. Much of it happens during a 30 minute period when children from 5-10 are dismissed from Mass for catechism class.

I can't imagine how much can be taught in that short a period.

Read John Allen's report on the Bishops' conference in San Antonio that I posted earlier today. You will still be depressed, but it is good to know what is going on.

Hopefully, your own parish is better. That's about all that most of us can hope for.