Praise for English Missal translators

The work of those who supervised the controversial English translation of the Mass that came into use in 2011 was praised this week by Pope Francis, writes Abigail Frymann Rouch.

Members of the Vox Clara committee, chaired by Australian Cardinal George Pell and including Birmingham auxiliary bishop David McGough, met last week in Rome. A press release noted that Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, conveyed to them a message from Pope Francis.

Cardinal Sarah said Francis was quick to state that “Vox Clara must remain because its work is very precious for the English-speaking conferences in the world. So tell them they must continue the work.”

One prominent American liturgist told The Tablet that the Pope’s comments appeared not to match his concern for subsidiarity, given that Vox Clara had “imposed” the new English Missal on bishops’ conferences.

Fr Mark Francis, president and professor of liturgy at the Chicago-based Catholic Theological Union, said: “Given what Pope Francis has written elsewhere, and the fact that English is not one of the Pope’s languages, it is hard for me to be confident that he is familiar with the work of Vox Clara.”