By now I am sure that you have heard that
the US bishops rejected the
proposed translation of Roman Missal. I do have an
exclusive
thought. The bishops have sent along some guidance to the
International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) as to what
would be acceptable. The following are some actual example pages shown.
Along with some rubrics for the GIRM.
Bishop Trautman called the sample changes “Great for both John and Mary
Catholic and Dick and Jane Catholic.” Catholic blogger Father Z called these proposals ineffable and that he would rather be strung up on a gibbet than use this translation for Mass.
20 comments
OMG!
You hit that one out of the park!
Well I guess we don’t need to ask, “Just how dumb do they think we are?”
LOL! Perfect — just perfect!
You poor lay-people. I’m sorry that you are so stupid. But thank God you have advocates like Bishop Trautman defending your simple minds among the over-educated in the bishops’ conference. Good for him. Fr. Philip, OP
It is funny how this is what the Bishops decide to get excited about… I wish they would get more fired up about evangelization and vocations!
Padre Steve,
Funny you should say that since just minutes before I tweeted “If only some of our bishops fought as hard against abortion as they do the new translation.”
Well this is no surprise from the people belonging to the country that can spell words like colour, humour, pay cheque, and spawned the dynamic duo Haggin and Hass. But then our bishops wrote the The Winnipeg Statement so many years ago and most recently our Governor General awared a baby killer with the highest honour (note the spelling) our nation may give to a civilian. At least our bishops aren’t buying that.
I dont know what to make of this. I dont know how the new translation reads so I cant say if this is a good thing or a bad thing ? The USCCB ( I am assuming that this is who rejected the translation) has an on again/off again track record. So, again, good? bad ? cant say.
Perfect, Jeff!
Padre Steve-your comment was on the money, too!
So, let me get this straight. If the Bishop’s don’t vote the way you think they should, they’re idiots?
While I agree with you in theory…that most of us could “handle” and “understand” the more exact translation, I disagree with Jeff’s overall tone in this post as well as those commenting. Now, given it is his blog….he has a right to post with whatever tone he wants and you all have a right to comment as such.
I mean, it think it’s fine to disagree but I’m not so sure ridiculing is the way to go. I percieve a very condescending attitude. Just keep in mind that our Lord has willed it that those very men are in those positions and while they are far from perfect, I think we owe them more respect here.
This is how we get the pew complainers…you know, the ones that complain about absolutely everything because they somehow think they have a right to dictate what pastors (and bishops) do things.
Incidentally, contrary to what you might be thinking….I am not a pew complainer.
Sorry Nancy, but the whole point of the parody is that they are mocking us. They must think that we are so stupid that we do not know or can not learn words as part of the English language. So many of them prefer the inept translation that we currently use and are willing to sabotage the new translation in any way they can.
We are not dictating anything. On the contrary we are showing are objection to the reaction of what is a very good translation of the Latin. No translation is perfect, but the nit-picky way they have attacked it deserves comments. Especially since the very Bishops against it almost always allow all kinds of oddities in the liturgies in their own diocese.
I echo what Jeff just said in his last comment. And I hear it from people of that ilk all the time; whenever a change is coming that brings us as the faithful back towards what is accurate, there’s a section that argues people are stupid.
That’s the gist of the argument; people are stupid. My argument is that modernists are stupid and just because they are too lazy to learn the Truth doesn’t mean that the rest of us should be deprived of the opportunity.
We have a lot of big words in Catholic theology; guess what? God gave us the ability to understand it, and even if we don’t, the Holy Spirit can come along and infuse knowledge. We have a myriad of Saints who were not educated but have given us amazing writings with huge theological accuracy in line with the greatest minds and those with the greatest education.
So…even if people are stupid, the Bishops need to do a better job of trusting God and entrusting we as the faithful to God…and just get on with an accurate translation. Let God figure out how to teach us the big words we won’t otherwise understand; he’s been at it much longer than the current college of bishops!
I hear you Jeff…and I hear you Julie…
but I still say your “parody” is a little harsh. It’s more about how you’re saying it than actually what you’re saying. All of you sound a little “nit-picky” yourselves and yes Julie, they should trust God more. However, maybe we should do a little more of that too in this situation. Like it or not, the current translation is VALID. Does it get more valid if the translation is closer to the exact Latin?
I do not think they are mocking us. And even if they were, why does this bother you? I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Sometimes Jeff, it actually sounds like you do a bit of posturing yourself to show your intelligence and knowlege of all things Roman. I highly respect you and your blog but I don’t consider myself some kind of ingrate or mindless idiot because it doesn’t matter to me what translation we use. As long as I can go to mass and partake of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…I’m good.
I agree that our Bishops should be concerning themselves with more important issues…but…shouldn’t we be doing the same?
The bottom line is that THEY get to make the decision. Not us. And by the way, it was about a 2/3’rds vote wasn’t it? I would have thought by some of the posts/comments that Bishop Galeone was the only one.
I hear you Jeff…and I hear you Julie…
but I still say your “parody” is a little harsh. It’s more about how you’re saying it than actually what you’re saying. All of you sound a little “nit-picky” yourselves and yes Julie, they should trust God more. However, maybe we should do a little more of that too in this situation. Like it or not, the current translation is VALID. Does it get more valid if the translation is closer to the exact Latin?
I do not think they are mocking us. And even if they were, why does this bother you? I think that’s a bit of a stretch. Sometimes Jeff, it actually sounds like you do a bit of posturing yourself to show your intelligence and knowlege of all things Roman. I highly respect you and your blog but I don’t consider myself some kind of ingrate or mindless idiot because it doesn’t matter to me what translation we use. As long as I can go to mass and partake of the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ…I’m good.
I agree that our Bishops should be concerning themselves with more important issues…but…shouldn’t we be doing the same?
The bottom line is that THEY get to make the decision. Not us. And by the way, it was about a 2/3’rds vote wasn’t it? I would have thought by some of the posts/comments that Bishop Galeone was the only one.
I agree with Nancy. This parody was not only harsh, it is not accurate. Bishop Trautman is not mocking us.
The problem he sees is that the translation is bad because it is overly complicated. His critcism goes far beyond disagreeing with a few archaice words. He is pointing out the poor structure of the translation. For example, he sites one prayer that is written as a single sentence, presented as 12 lines, and composed of three separate clauses. Speaking as a technical writer here, that is just not comprehensible writing. Even with a master’s degree, I wouldn’t want to have to muddle through that kind of presentation.
As with Nancy, I enjoy your blog, but you are off base with this parody.
In the same article I posted above Bishop Trautman clearly states his objection:
He’s right.
I’m no Bishop Trautman fan but John and Mary Catholic really ARE stupid. Read the forums and Catholic Answers and you’d be appalled. Of course it is the fault of the bishops that our people are so dumb– the old excuse is poor catechesis– but after being fed the usual pap we get at Mass I’m not sure that the average Catholic could handle ineffable. Sorry.
I am not inclined to favor Bishop Trautman’s argument if he thinks that we can’t understand words like wrought, ineffable, and gibbet – and especially in context. As for the 12-line sentence… It’s broken up into three clauses, right? Presumably each clause can be taken as individual and thus understood. And it’s not like we’ll hear the prayer once and never again; we are going to be at Mass (at least) once a week and will have many chances to grow in understanding.
St. Paul wrote some stuff that’s tough to understand in translation, but nobody’s dumbing down the letter to the Colossians. It’s just unhealthy for the Bishops to be pitching the lowest common denominator to the faithful.
And BTW – the “boo-boos of the world” prayer is 200-proof genius.
Thanks, Jeff. I just knew I wanted to go to bed with a big laugh that I am now tortured to keep down since everyone here has gone to bed hours ago.
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