{"id":12484,"date":"2011-12-01T05:26:25","date_gmt":"2011-12-01T11:26:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/?p=12484"},"modified":"2011-12-02T10:37:44","modified_gmt":"2011-12-02T16:37:44","slug":"the-truth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/01\/the-truth\/","title":{"rendered":"The Truth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Michele Somerville is the author of a December 1 article in the Huffington Post, \u201cThe Truth Behind the Godawful New (Old) Roman Catholic Missal<\/a>.”\u00a0She writes her \u201cTruth\u201d in a \u201ccynical\u201d style, which is a drawback for the good comments she does give. She is sarcastic, as for instance calling the translation a \u201ctasty treat for the lockstep sheep and papist throwbacks.\u201d She talks about the \u201cboys in the Vatican\u201d wanting our money, and about \u201cbishop-facilitated child-rape.\u201d Priests are made out to be \u201cmarionettes,\u201d with \u201cevery Catholic in the U. S. dutifully holding \u201cpew cards.\u201d Serious readers may agree with the nugget of some points, but casting them in stand-up comic language does not help point us to the truth.<\/p>\n

There are factual errors of which Somerville seems blithely unaware. I am no linguist but examine Somerville\u2019s statement that since \u201cCatullus was a contemporary of Caesar Augustine, the Latin in which he wrote would have been about the same as that used by Romans during the time Jesus lived on earth\u201d. Even though this author is herself a poet she does not seem able to distinguish between poetic speech and everyday talk. It is hard to imagine ordinary Romans speaking in hendecasyllabic or elegiac couplets. And are we suggesting that Jesus spoke Latin?<\/p>\n

Somerville alleges that the \u201cEucharistic Prayer may not be a poem in a technical sense, but it functions as one.\u201d There may be a good point buried here, but what kind of poetic function is she talking about? I would have thought that the EP should instead consist of a ritual language, i.e., one that expresses (repetitively) truths that are already deep within the assembly\u2014which includes the people in the pews, and therefore must \u201ccome across the footlights\u201d, as the theater world say. As far as I can see this form is therefore quite different than most poetry.<\/p>\n

That said, I do agree with some main points of Somerville. The new language does seem \u201cstiff and unwieldy,\u201d as she says. And I think it is silly for Church to say that, in the United States, the word \u201cmen\u201d today still means men and women. This is quickly becoming a dead usage, and it certainly is out of place in a time when women are at last being recognized as equals to genetic \u201cmen\u201d. I would agree that \u201cchalice\u201d is an awkward substitution for \u201ccup.\u201d It caters too much to the monarchical phase of the Church. And finally, I believe that the reversion to \u201cfor you and for many\u201d is simply trouble-making. Again, I am no scholar in this, but those who pleaded with the Pope to allow at least \u201cthe<\/em> many\u201d as making good and proper sense in English were right. Somerville unfortunately labors the obvious but unthinkable interpretation that Jesus died for one group of people but not for any others. If anyone sees a valid reason for such wording, I hope we hear from them below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Michele Somerville is the author of a December 1 article in the Huffington Post, \u201cThe Truth Behind the Godawful New (Old) Roman Catholic Missal\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,30,24],"tags":[719,106,61,127],"class_list":["post-12484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mass","category-reform-of-the-reform","category-translation-new-missal","tag-comparing-translations","tag-liturgiam-authenticam","tag-prayer","tag-vox-clara"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Truth? - Home<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/praytellblog.com\/index.php\/2011\/12\/01\/the-truth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Truth? 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