NCR is reporting that Bishop Donald W. Trautman is encouraging the U.S. bishops to adopt a last-minute measure to reject the new Mass translations. Trautman, who served as chairman of the USCCB Committee on Liturgy, has long opposed the new translations, as you can see from his article, from 2007, in America. Here are two snippets from the NCR piece, as reported by Jerry Filteau.
Last-ditch effort to dump Mass translations
WASHINGTON -- Bishop Donald W. Trautman is calling for a last-minute measure by the U.S. bishops this month to save American Catholics from new Mass prayers full of grammatical errors and unproclaimable texts.
The bishops are set to approve the last four segments of a new U.S. English translation of the Roman Missal at their annual fall meeting Nov. 16-19.
Trautman, the bishop of Erie, Pa., is urging the bishops to reject at least one of these segments, he told NCR Oct. 30.
Trautman said he thinks the only procedural way the bishops can halt the process and gain a new review of texts they have already approved (including Vatican reversals of many of their amendments to earlier texts) is to vote down at least one of the final segments up for review and form a committee to go to Rome and consult with the Vatican on what he considers the questionable texts approved by the Holy See.
There’s simply no doubt that the bad grammar he declaims is there in prayers already approved by the U.S. bishops, or subsequently modified by Rome, which the priest or people are expected to pray during Mass. Which start, like this sentence, with a relative pronoun, making the entire sentence a subordinate clause. Which, he says, is no way to try to make people pray. And entire sentences, like this one, with no subject or verb.
....
“Our liturgy needs not a ‘sacred language’ but a pastoral language that will fulfill the mandate of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy for full, conscious and active participation,” Trautman said. “The noble simplicity recommended by the Council Fathers needs to be emphasized.”
He said amendments made by the U.S. bishops to the new translations done by the Vatican-approved scholars of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy have resulted in a text that “is vastly improved but not mature at this point for the worship life of the church.” And, as he noted by phone later, in the texts so far approved by the Vatican, it has overturned many of the U.S. amendments, changing the text back to the commission’s original version.
At its present stage the new translation “does not have a pastoral style” that would lead American Catholics to “own the prayer text, its vocabulary, its style, its idiom, its cadence,” he said.
“If the Roman Missal does not speak to our culture, the church in the United States will suffer,” he said.
If one hears Mass in, say, Spanish (or Portuguese, French, Italian, etc.) and then English this "jarringness" becomes absolutely unavoidable. Why English should suffer from such an appalling translation while other languages do not has never been explained, let alone explained satisfactorily.
Now, I'm not particularly exercised by the usage of "ineffable" or "incarnate" and I suspect that a dash of catechesis - remember that? - might go a long way to alleviate any transitional discomfort.
AMDG,
I've sometimes thought that it might be a good idea to have an extraordinary form of the Mass in which feminine language is used for God (e.g., "In the name of the Mother, and of the Son (maybe even "Daughter"), and of the Holy Spirit," etc.). I mean that seriously, actually - although I think we need to keep "Father/Son/Holy Spirit" and certain other such formulations as the norm, I'm all for people complementing masculine language for God with feminine language in their own prayers, speech, writings, etc., and I think we could perhaps really have some extraordinary litrugical form that would use feminine language. Of course, that's not going to happen anytime soon, but perhaps eventually.
On a related note: I've known for a while about the strand of theology and mysticism that speaks of Christ as Mother, but recently I stumbled upon something Scott Hahn mentioned (obviously I doubt he would agree with the suggestions I've made here) about the Holy Spirit being addressed as Mother. Among other things, he mentions "the Syriac rite of pre-baptismal anointing," in which "the Holy Spirit is called upon,'Come, Mother of the seven houses.'" (See http://socrates58.blogspot.com/2009/10/scott-hahn-clarifies-about-femininity.html or http://unamsanctamcatholicam.blogspot.com/2009/10/scott-hahns-response.html )
The delightful things you can find in Catholicism's attic! (By the way, this is what I meant about being both liberal and traditional - on the one hand, I like archaic "thou/thee" language, and on the other hand, I like the whole God as Mother thing. To those of you in our Catholic community who tend to be more conservative on this issue, I hope you won't think ill of me!)
I'd also like to have them use ''archaic'' forms like ''thee''; I'm disappointed they're not doing that - I don't really like ''thou'' too much, but ''thou'' is worth it to have ''thee,'' which is just so beautiful. The intimate, breath-like quality of ''thee'' is especially apparent in ''And let my cry come unto Thee,'' for example, or in the Anima Christi's more traditional translation. Below is the traditional translation of the Anima Christi, and later a contemporary translation; comparing them you can see how the ''elevated,'' ''poetic'' langauge creates this breath-like intimacy that's wrecked in the contemporary translation by the switch from ''thou/thee'' to ''you'' and the rewording of things. The same principle applies in various ways to the Mass translations too:
Soul of Christ, sanctify me.
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, strengthen me.
O good Jesus, hear me;
Within thy wounds hide me;
Suffer me not to be separated from Thee;
From the malignant enemy defend me;
In the hour of my death call me,
And bid me come to Thee,
That with thy saints I may praise Thee
Forever and ever, Amen.
Now, compare that to this monstrosity that I came across:
Soul of Christ, make me holy. [THUD!!!]
Body of Christ, save me.
Blood of Christ, inebriate me.
Water from the side of Christ, wash me.
Passion of Christ, make me strong. [THUD!]
O good Jesus, hear me.
Hide me within Your wounds. [THUD!]
Let me never be separated from You. [KERPLUNK!]
Deliver me from the wicked enemy. [CLUNKETY CLUNK]
Call me at the hour of my death, [''Give me a call...'']
And tell me to come to You, [''Tell me''?!]
That with Your saints I may praise You
Forever. Amen. [did we have to lose ''and ever''?]
Anyway, just some thoughts, ramblings, etc.