Liturgy Votes Fall Short of Two-thirds

The U.S. Catholic bishops will have to poll members who were missing from their spring meeting in San Antonio before it's known whether they have approved liturgical prayers, special Masses and key sections of a new 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' meeting. With 244 Latin-rite bishops in the United States eligible to vote on the questions, the required two-thirds 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 present will be polled by mail on all five parts. That process is expected to take several weeks.