Catholic Church prepares for changes to mass translations at start of Advent
Catholic churches worldwide will modify common phrases and responses during masses at the beginning of the 2011 Advent season in November.
St. Mary’s University Parish, 1405 S. Washington St., is prepared.
Pastoral associate Jeremy Priest said the change is because of the translation of Bible issues varying from language to language.
“This change is partially about the international character of the church,” he said.
Priest said Pope John Paul II set the changes in motion. He discovered many translations of the Bible were different from one another as he traveled the world.
The same ideas were not being communicated during mass, Priest said.
The new change will focus on translating certain prayers, responses and sayings directly from the Latin texts. Certain excerpts from the Latin texts were not even translated.
“Some countries have no real connection with any of the Romance languages,” Priest said. “Latin is much more poetic, and that way I think more beautiful.”
Priest said the masses will continue to be structured the same. He said Latin makes Biblical connections clearer during mass.
The new translations will make Biblical allusions more recognizable, Priest said.
Janet Saraino, owner of The Rosary Catholic Store, 981 Craig Hill Road, said the changes are needed and that she is embracing them.
“There are going to be people who fight against it because they’re used to having a watered-down mass and not getting the true meaning of the mass,” Saraino said. “It’s like the translations took God out of some of it — put it to a human level in some way.”
Priest said the changes will require a bit of adjustment for people who attend mass regularly.
"I haven’t been to church in a while but, I know they made changes in the early 2000s and the older, more traditional crowd wasn’t too thrilled about it," said Alpena junior Gary Pikula. "But they got used to it and I’m sure the same thing will happen again this time. I don’t really see the need to change anything during the Catholic mass, and don’t understand why they feel they have to. "
St. Mary’s will offer pamphlets with the new phrases so parishioners know how to respond.
Priest said this is a great opportunity for people to recognize what they are saying during mass and why they are saying it.
“I think it’ll be good, but hard at first for people trying to get used to it,” Priest said. “People are used to the translations that they know.”
