Australia: Translation implementation schedule

The Permanent Committee of the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference has announced:

Parishes, communities and schools can begin singing (not saying) the new texts for the parts of the Ordinary of the Mass from January 1, 2011. This means that the revised English chants prepared by ICEL (International Commission on English in the Liturgy) can be used from the beginning of next year, as also can other musical settings of the new texts.

Aside from endorsing the use of the chant setting as contained in the Missal, the following are recommended for use from January 2011: Mass of St Francis by Paul Taylor; Mass of Our Lady, Help of Christians by Richard Connolly; Missa Magis by Christopher Willcock; Mass of Christ the Redeemer by Bernard Kirkpatrick; and Mass of Glory and Praise by Paul Mason.

Priests’ invitations and people’s responses for the spoken Ordinary of the Mass are to be made available on a card and be introduced either in full or gradually from June 14 (Pentecost) and will be mandatory from November 1, 2011.

When the new Missal is available it will be introduced immediately and become mandatory from a date to be set.

More here.

Editor

Katharine E. Harmon, Ph.D., edits the blog, Pray Tell: Worship, Wit & Wisdom.

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Comments

9 responses to “Australia: Translation implementation schedule”

  1. Jeffrey Herbert

    This seems like a very sensible and logical solution. I like that they have been bold enough to specify settings that can be used. Now if only they had said “approved for use” rather than “recommended for use”…. 🙂

    Reply
  2. C Henry Edwards

    Wonderful! Sounds like the new springtime will arrive earlier there than here. Summer down under, anyone?

    Reply
  3. Jeremy Stevens

    “The New Springtime” will become Winter in a hurry once this stuff shows up:
    O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has value, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure. Through our Lord.
    And
    It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, at all times to acclaim you, O Lord, but (on this night / on this day / in this time) above all to laud you yet more gloriously, when Christ our Passover has been sacrificed.
    And so, overcome with paschal joy, every land, every people exults in your praise and even the heavenly Powers, with the angelic hosts, sing together the unending hymn of your glory as they acclaim:
    Are you defending the mistakes in translation from the Latin and even the simple English mistakes that seem to have got past or got written by Vox Clara?

    Reply
  4. Kevin Keil

    This is a great way to phase in the changes. By the time the bulk of the spoken changes begin, the assembly will be comfortable with the sung changes. It’s interesting that they recommend specific mass settings for use. Is this common practice in Australia?

    Reply
  5. Jeff Burton

    This is a great idea, especially for parishes with a strong congregational singing tradition. It allows them to get comfortable and embrace the changes at a reasonable pace. Hopefully we’ll be able to do the same here.

    Reply
  6. Robert Barden

    I don’t believe specific Mass settings have been recommended here previously, but there has been a concern to encourage local composition. The main motivation is to hopefully build some common repertoire, particularly for when people gather for diocesan celebrations at their cathedral, etc. The next challenge is to get the message out to parishes so that these settings get used. Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart announced these settings at the recent launch of the Become One Body, One Spirit in Christ DVD, and also announced the recommendation of another, a rework by Paul Mason of Mass Shalom by the Late Br Colin smith cfc. Mass Shalom is very popular here in Australia and I think many parishes will use it as a way to ease themselves into using the new texts.

    Reply
  7. Gregg Smith

    O God, protector of those who hope in you, without whom nothing has value, nothing is holy, bestow in abundance your mercy upon us and grant that, with you as our ruler and guide, we may use the good things that pass in such a way as to hold fast even now to those that ever endure. Through our Lord.

    (Is this prayer for real or made up? If it’s real, I’m suddenly -very- concerned. It’s rubbish…I can hardly recite or understand it.)

    Reply
  8. Jeremy Stevens

    Didn’t you read Xaveir Rinfleish’s article? It’s the featured article on the Pray Tell main page with a bunch of the 2010 prayers. What is strange is that the 2008 prayers are really carefully prepared it looks like. Then someone Vox Clara maybe changed them for some reason and made mistakes in translation and in English style along with violating the vatican instructions. Check out the article.

    Reply
  9. Joe O'Leary

    The “nothing is holy” prayer is not bad to my ears (admittedly old-fashioned) except for the mistranslation of validum as “having value”.

    Generally, the argument against the new translations is a win/win argument. I have never argued a case that felt so completely right, with one exception. Every time I try to give the villains of the pieces, and those on whose credulity and trust they have imposed, the benefit of the doubt, they immediately add some other brazen absurdity. They are so hardened in obstinacy that it has made them blind and deaf.

    The “exception” I mentioned above is the 2003 invasion of Iraq, where a similar dynamic of blind obstinacy prevailed.

    Reply

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