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Saturday 15 January 2011

New Roman Missal for Canada-I

On this same day when we welcome to the Church, four former Anglican Bishops as Catholic Priests for the Our Lady of Walsingham Ordinariate, I note on The Chant Blog that Westminster Cathedral in London will be hosting a "Training Day" on the Revised Roman Missal with the corrected translation for the Ordinary Form of the Roman Rite.

In the United States of America, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops has long had this web page, "Welcoming the Third Typical Edition of the Roman Missal." They have been publishing materials and catechetical programs are being implemented.

On the web page of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, the last update is from September 3, 2010. Msgr. Powers is quoted, "The CCCB has now received recognitio for the standard texts of the Roman Missal that will be used by all the other English-speaking countries, but has not yet received recognitio for any adaptations for Canada, nor for the proposed Proper Liturgical Calendar for the Dioceses of Canada." The standard text is the dialogue of the Ordinary of the Mass. Monsignor is referring here to the "Proper" for Canada. This would contain certain feasts relative to Canada that would not be in the Missal for England as example, Blessed Laval. But what "adaptations" could the Canadian bishops have possibly asked for and what is holding up the approval or rejection by the Congregation of Divine Worship and Discipline of the Sacraments? As Monsignor states, "The Bishops of Canada cannot select a date for the implementation of the Missal in Canada until all the approved texts, including the adaptations, have been received and the necessary amount of time ascertained for the Canadian Missal to be printed and published. In addition, it is not CCCB practice to release liturgical translations in advance before the official liturgical books have been published."

There is also this little tidbit from a web page updated December 8, 2010 on The Revised Roman Missal "The National Liturgy Office of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops (CCCB) is currently working on the revised Roman Missal. It is expected to be implemented in Fall 2011." If this is the case, it does not inspire confidence that the corrected translation will be definitively implemented on Advent I 2011.

My Canadian Catholic readers. You need to wake up on this matter and start asking questions!

I have sent today to Msgr. Patrick Powers, P.H., General Secretary of the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops the following letter:

Dear Monsignor,

Can you please confirm whether, along with Great Britain, Australia and the United States of America, Canadians will reap the fruit of the corrected translation of the Roman Missal on Advent 2011?

Sincerely in Christ,

Vox Cantoris
Toronto

You may also write to Monsignor Patrick Powers, P.H., here or to the Assistant General Secretary, Mr. Bede Hubbard, here. You may also write to the Apostolic Nuncio in Canada at 1-613-746-4914 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting 1-613-746-4914 end_of_the_skype_highlighting as I am not certain that this email, nunciature@rogers.com still functions. Ottawa Archbishop, His Grace, Terence Prendergast, S.J. was Canada's representative on the Vox Clara Commission charged by the Holy See with overseeing the translation. The email for His Grace easily available from the website for the Archdiocese of Ottawa is archbishop@archottawa.ca.

Leave comments received back on this blog.

3 comments:

missal.ca said...

On my own initiative as a faithful layperson, I've just set up missal.ca as a non-commercial landing page for this issue, to help direct people to the latest information available, and perhaps to help Google page ranking in response to likely queries. Please email questions, ideas and anything you may demonstrate from an authoritative source to info@missal.ca

missal.ca said...

I'll also be looking for qualified content contributors who wish to volunteer as they are able. If you wish, please volunteer to info@missal.ca

Anonymous said...

I live just outside Montreal, and we have not heard a peep about the new Translation. No surprises, however: heard nothing of Summorum Pontificum, or of the Year of the Priest. My parish priest has said (and I heard him)that "whenever anything comes from Rome, we [meaning himself, I guess']close our eyes". Our parish has been in existence for 100+ years, and in that time has not had a single ordination to the priesthood. With attitudes like that of our pastor's, I can understand why. Alas, I'm not hopeful that any major change will happen any time soon. It would require a miracle...(For obvious reasons, I cannot sign my name)...