Translation – Part 3

This past weekend was not only the first Sunday of Advent, it was also the introduction of the “new” Mass translation in the Catholic Church – at least the English-speaking Catholic Churches. I think this is the 3d edition of the Mass translated into English and its use is apparently mandatory. I suspect that most Catholics long ago memorized their lines – and even though I’m a relative newbie, I pretty much had mine down…

At my age, my memorization skills are not what they once were – if I’m any where near normal, plenty of people will probably be using the cheat cards in the pews for a long time to come.

Except for the homilies, priests don’t ever call an “audible” during Mass – the same lines are just repeated over and over. There’s a certain amount of comfort in that because no matter where you go to church, you know what to say and do and don’t have to learn a new routine based on the location or personnel involved.

But this weekend, what American English-speaking Catholics knew by heart, changed. Apparently the new language is a more faithful translation of the Latin. Actually, the changes aren’t that big a deal – the words are changed just enough to mess everyone up periodically. To me the changes fall more into the category of tinkering, rather than fixing something that was broken – it would seem the church should have more important things to do than tinker…

The one change that is especially annoying to me is the use of the word consubstantial instead of ‘of one being.’ I didn’t even know what the word meant – had to look it up. Every source that I checked, indicates that they mean the same – so why use the long word – it doesn’t make the meaning any clearer. Maybe it just sounds more like Latin.

Some people are indifferent to the change, some like it, some don’t. I guess I fall into the category of indifferent  There’s always a good number that don’t like change and are not bashful about voicing their displeasure; often times those people just have to voice an opinion because they want to say something and be heard. When a change like this, dictated from the top, comes along – if you don’t like what the church is doing, don’t go – or – find another church. Most people go to church because they have a strong faith in God and their religion.
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