The results of a survey on the 2011 changes to the liturgy have reopened debate in Australia about the suitability of some parts of the English translation spoken at Mass, writes Mark Brolly.
A recent meeting of the National Liturgical Council discussed the results of the National Centre for Pastoral Research document, Mass Attenders’ Attitudes to the English Translation of the Mass, which found that while 45 per cent of respondents agreed or strongly agreed that the new translation was better than the old one, 21 per cent disagreed and one in three Mass attenders were “neutral”. Dr Paul Taylor, executive secretary of the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, said some respondents who preferred the new translation found some of the language awkward and distracting. “The discussion suggested that the survey results perhaps reflected that the changes to the Roman Missal [2010] translation were not as significant for the people as they were for the priests – especially the orations, which require preparation and pauses to foster comprehension,” Dr Taylor said. Ballarat’s Bishop Paul Bird, a commission member, said: “The 1974 translation was easy to understand, but sometimes oversimplified. The 2011 translation is richer in content, but sometimes convoluted in expression.
19 December 2018, The Tablet
Survey of liturgy changes reopens debate on Mass translation
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