Gibbets, Part Three Hundred

Rocco Palmo at Whispers in the Loggia has a long post on the new translation of the Sacramentary, which had been discussed at the latest meeting of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which, oddly, received almost zero coverage in the national media. The media was either "poped out" after Benedict XVI’s triumphant visit, or failed to realize the symbolic meaning of some of the bishops’ discussions on the liturgy. Rocco’s post is under "Orlando Redux" here. One prediction: When the new Sacramentary is first distributed and used, there will, necessarily, be some time before the priests and faithful are, literally, "on the same page." That is, those who are used to praying without referring to the missalette might find themselves praying the wrong/old prayers out of habit; those who are following the correct/new missalette might find that some of their fellow parishioners aren’t following along as carefully as they should; and some priests used to saying the same words for decades might stumble on the new prayers, and perhaps even, out of habit, declaim the wrong/old ones. This should be temporary. Others have suggested to me, more darkly, that some priests might actually cling to their old Sacramentaries, which would, sadly, throw parishes into greater confusion. (That last possibility is one that I hope fails to materialize.) All this points out that the transition may be just as important as the translation. James Martin, SJ