Tuesday, July 21, 2009

"And with spirit your..."

Not having the votes necessary at their San Antonio meeting, the US bishops have since ratified new(?) translations for various liturgical texts. These texts are a step back from ordinary English language in deference to more literal teanslations of traditional Latin texts.

John Allen reported that Bishop Trautman led a small group of bishops advocating a more contemporary style. “I say yes to translations faithful to the Latin,” Trautman said, “but I say no to incomplete sentences, no to thirteen lines in one sentence, no to archaic phrases and texts that aren’t proclaimable, intelligible, or pastorally sensitive to our people.”
http://ncronline.org/blogs/ncr-today/bishops-liturgy-debate-ends-whimper-rather-bang


But many bishops (including those most recently named by the Pope) fell in line with approving the texts - because that's what Rome wants. I guess real English-speaking people aren't really given a consideration.

I wonder if American priests can keep using the current translations, even if they are suppressed? After all, as B16 stated in reviving the use of the Latin Mass, ""What earlier generations held as sacred remains sacred and great for us too, and it cannot be all of a sudden entirely forbidden or even considered harmful."

Oh, and the post title is my most literal translation of "Et cum spiritu tuo."

No comments:

Post a Comment