Attitudes to the new Missal

From the letters page of the Tablet (UK Catholic paper)

I share strongly the many objections to the new translation of the Missal (Letters, 27 August) but I made a decision a good while ago that I intended to be thoroughly obedi- ent to its implementation. The alternative is division in the Church, and that is the last thing the Church needs, especially now.
I have shared some of this with my people. I have no stomach for the doublespeak that attempts to present this translation as the best thing since sliced bread. I have seen nothing in it which backs up the assertion, for instance, that this will make the Mass more prayerful, something which I desire and have worked on for 34 years of priesthood.
Prayerfulness is not brought about by the words, so much as the intention of the heart. The new translation on its own will not make the Mass more prayerful. For a while at least it will probably make the Mass more irritable. Perhaps the new words here and there will trip people up and slow them down, and perhaps then they will think about what they are saying, but that is just an accident wait- ing to happen. The Mass will become more prayerful when bishops, priests and people become more prayerful.
(Fr) Michael Briody
Moodiesburn, North Lanarkshire


I have followed the articles inThe Tablet about the new translation of the Missal as best I can. But after all that effort, I find the prospect of having to implement the new translation of the Missal is making me ill. I have felt at home in the present translation so that for me it has become a deeply personal, truthful and intimate voicing of my relationship with the Lord. This new translation I find totally unnecessary, clumsy and off-putting. The manner of its imposition is also, in my opinion, unworthy of people who profess to follow Christ. I am 71 years old and want to die as I have tried to live, as a Roman Catholic. I find now I am being asked to be a Vatican Catholic. Breaking point cannot be far off. (Fr) Val Farrell
Blackpool, Lancashire

The new translation is causing so much anx- iety and anger, both unChristlike but human and, maybe, justified. From this weekend, all dissenters need to do is to remain silent dur- ing the responses and any other “unEnglish” parts of the Mass and just “offer it up” as penance for our “rebellion”.
Ann Thorp
Ryde, Isle of Wight

Might I report on three months’ experience of the use of the new Missal’s common parts
of the Mass in one parish in Melbourne? The parish priest, despite strong personal misgivings, has made strenuous efforts to promote the new translation. He exhorted us to use the expensive plasticised sheets distributed by the archdiocese. What has been the result? Well, after an initial compliance, the faithful have “voted with their voices”. At the principal Sunday Masses over the last three weeks I have hardly heard one “And with your spirit”. Overall the level of responses by the congre- gation has dropped off significantly. There is almost an angry silence from a large portion of the people.
Eugene Ahern
Melbourne, Australia