Over the weekend I had a chance to talk about the new missal with some priests and sisters in parish ministry in the New Ulm diocese in southern Minnesota. This is farming country. The towns and parishes are small. Priests have care of three or four parishes.<\/p>\n
I was in my hometown for the annual Catfish Days celebration. Alas, the parish wasn\u2019t able to secure a polka band for the Mass this year. Usually the timing is just right: I teach a Gregorian Chant class at Saint John\u2019s School of Theology\u00b7Seminary summer session, right after which I go to Franklin to celebrate the Polka Mass!<\/p>\n
I asked about the new translation. Will the people accept it? Of course, what else would they do? It\u2019s what the Church says. Will any priests resist or refuse to use the new missal? Heavens no, what priest would pull a thing like that? A while back there was one loose cannon priest who might have rebelled, but he\u2019s retired by now. And it\u2019d be hard to tell which missal he\u2019s using or refusing anyway, since he made up his own Eucharistic Prayer and orations.<\/p>\n
Not everyone likes the change, not by any means. I noted that my friendly interlocutors were rolling their eyes at \u201cnew translation\u201d even before my question was fully formed. They\u2019re disappointed in Church leadership and frustrated at the poor pastoral sense of the Vatican and the bishops.\u00a0The US\u00a0bishops don’t stand up for anything – maybe the Canadian bishops can still stop this thing?<\/p>\n
Priests and ministers will do their very best, but the whole thing is a mistake. It\u2019s a waste of time and money. There\u2019s no good reason for it. Will farmers and town folk struggle to pronounce \u201cconsubstantial,\u201d much less make some sense of it? Will they get less out of the Eucharistic Prayer? Then this from a priest: The orations such as the collect won\u2019t be a problem because people don\u2019t pay attention to them anyway.<\/p>\n
Will any folks make a connection to the scandals? (\u201cThe pope should take care of his real problems and not waste time on this.\u201d) Oh yes, some might come around to that, especially at first when they\u2019re frustrated by the unfamiliar responses. But it won\u2019t last, especially among the older, more traditional folks. (As I heard my father say maybe a thousand times when growing up, \u201cWe\u2019re not ones to go against what the Church says.\u201d) Not a lot of philosophizing about the exercise of authority or the meaning of Vatican II from these people. It will be a practical issue: this is a hassle and we don\u2019t like, but we\u2019ll get used to it. And that will be that.<\/p>\n
awr<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Will the people accept the new translation? Of course, what else would they do? It\u2019s what the Church says. Will any priests resist or refuse to use the new missal? Heavens no, what priest would pull a thing like that? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[24],"tags":[436],"class_list":["post-3335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-translation-new-missal","tag-missal-implementation"],"yoast_head":"\n