:: Catholic Daily ::
Mass Wording Changes Back: Vatican Approves Retranslation of American English Version Closer to Official Text
Aug. 4, 2008
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, www.usccb.org, has confirmed that the Vatican has approved a new English-language translation of the Mass, i.e., the Mass in the vernacular most commonly used in American Parishes.
As of the July 25, 2008, the Bishops' news release indicated, "At this time, no date is available as to when the entire translation of the Roman Missal will be released," but according to the Bishops' news release, some of the instances in which the text will return to a closer translation to the original include the following:
- "and also with you" becomes "and with your spirit," a more direct translation of the Latin "et cum Spiritu tuo"
- the first line of the Sanctus ("Holy, Holy, Holy Lord ..." ) will now be “Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Hosts”
- the Confiteor ("I confess to Almighty God ...") will include the statement “through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault”
- in the Preface dialogue the translation of “Dignum et justum est” is “It is right and just”
- the Gloria will have a different structure and different wording
- the Ecce Agnus Dei "Lord, I am not worthy to receive You ..." prayer will go back to the closer tranlation of "Lord, I am not worthy that You should enter under my roof, but only say the Word and my Soul shall be healed"
Recall that the official text of the Mass, from the Roman Missal, is in Latin, and the question has been how to translate that text into American English. That is, regardless of whether one attends Mass in Latin itself, for the Mass in the vernacular, the official text on which the vernacular language translations are based and from which they are derived, is Latin. The question, again,has been how the translating is done. The Vatican has approved a re-translation that is closer to the Latin original official text.
Additional Reading:
USCCB News Release 08-108, July 26, 2008, http://www.usccb.org/comm/archives/2008/08-108.shtml
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