Bishop Richard J. Sklba

To be a member of the pilgrimage that accompanied Archbishop Listecki last week to Rome for the reception of his pallium was a privilege and a delight. Visiting the major ancient basilicas for the daily celebration of the Eucharist was also an opportunity to think about the forthcoming English translation of the new edition of the Roman Missal. After 40 years of experience with liturgy in the vernacular throughout the world we now pause to reaffirm our commitment to full active participation of all of God’s people in the celebration of the sacred mysteries.

Those who shaped the Mass formulas which we call the Novus Ordo in the late 1960s and early 1970s were faithful scholars who knew the church’s long liturgical tradition very well, and who knew what worship should be. We need to be profoundly grateful to them and their scholarly predecessors over the past centuries for restoring and preserving the church’s heritage of communal praise and prayer. I reject any idea of “reforming the reform” as a complete revamping or dismantling of what we now know and love. Make no mistake about it, I like what we experience today and I cherish the way in which the eucharistic liturgy of the Catholic Church is celebrated in the best of our parishes every week across the country.

At the same time, I know the theoretical debate about the art of translation which has also occurred, sometimes in the background, during those same decades. The issue remains the quest for the right balance between the linguistic forms of the original language (Latin) and those of what we call the “receptor” language (English or other vernacular tongues).