Update on the USCCB

[benedictgal]

The USCCB sent a tweet on twitter concerning the revised translation settings and when these could be used. Evidently, the USCCB has given the green light for earlier implementation.

I sent the USCCB a facebook question and this the response they gave me:

Just to clairfy - your diocesan bishop will decide on the matter of implementing musical settings early. Check with your diocese in the coming weeks to stay up to speed with what will be happening in your area.

I would suggest getting the choirs ready just in case your local Ordinaries may want to use these sooner than November.

 

[CatholicZ09]

I’m just wondering when we’re even going to be told about the new translations.

 

[Newbie2]

USCCB is tweeting??

 

[benedictgal]

USCCB is tweeting??

Yes, as am I.

 

[joanofarc2008]

I’m just wondering when we’re even going to be told about the new translations.

Many of the new translations have been out and have been being lectured about in at least adult formation classes in my diocese since shortly after this past Advent. They are available on the internet but I think I will leave it up to benedictgal to supply the most reliable links.

 

[Corki]

I’m almost certain that our diocese won’t be given the “go ahead” for early implementation.

Our DRE’s have been told that the responsibility to educate the parish will fall to them using materials that are still being developed. Since Religious Ed is on summer break, we are going to be crunched even with the First Sunday of Advent date.

We have a neat counter on the diocisan web page though.

 

[Joannm]

I am surprised that many dioceses and parishes are still keeping people in the dark. We have been preparing our people for over a year. I have already given 4 workshops on the new translation and will be doing another next week and have some dates for the fall from some parishes. Our diocesan music committee has had nine workshops for musicians and priests. Our bishop wrote a pastoral letter on it. No one will be unprepared.

 

[Corki]

I am surprised that many dioceses and parishes are still keeping people in the dark. We have been preparing our people for over a year. I have already given 4 workshops on the new translation and will be doing another next week and have some dates for the fall from some parishes. Our diocesan music committee has had nine workshops for musicians and priests. Our bishop wrote a pastoral letter on it. No one will be unprepared.

There was a workshop for priests about a year ago but it was several hours away from our parish so I don’t think our pastor attended. We have had a series of columns in the diocisan newspaper but they have been focused primarily on the history behind individual responses. I appreciate what they are doing but it is hard to understand seeing the phrases out of context with the whole prayers. For example, one column was about one line of the Gloria. If you are a liturgy geek, like me, it’s good stuff but not really a good way to teach the regular Mass goers (most of whom don’t subscribe to the paper anyway).

Now that you mention it, though, we may be “out of the loop” since we are currently without a music director. I haven’t heard anything at any of the other parishes I have attended recently either. Maybe they just think it will be easier to teach when everyone is reading along in the missalettes.

 

[KCT]

I was just hired as a DRE in a local parish. The pastor mentioned in the interview that he wanted to start preparing kids in religious ed.

 

[quiet52]

I’m almost certain that our diocese won’t be given the “go ahead” for early implementation.

**Our DRE’s have been told that the responsibility to educate the parish will fall to them using materials that are still being developed. ** Since Religious Ed is on summer break, we are going to be crunched even with the First Sunday of Advent date.

We have a neat counter on the diocisan web page though.

In the workshops that have been offered by our diocese, DREs and catechists weren’t even encouraged to attend. It seems that the diocese doesn’t consider it important to provide any kind of teaching on the revised liturgy to our children. However there is a diocesan plan for parishes to include specific teaching on the changes during the summer by means of bulletin flyers.

 

[Joannm]

I was just hired as a DRE in a local parish. The pastor mentioned in the interview that he wanted to start preparing kids in religious ed.

The kids aren’t going to be difficult to prepare. I would suggest having a session with the catechists and the parents. All the catechetical books are going to include the revised texts. LTP also has a nice booklet for kids about the revisions. They are about $150 each.

What I am suggesting to catechists around here is in the fall during class to just take one of the prayers and go over it. Depending on the ages of the kids some will get a deeper explanation. Little ones don’t need much as they are like sponges and will easily learn the new texts since most of them don’t have the current ones memorized. Also we find that most of our religious ed kids don’t come to Mass anyway so focusing a lot of time on the Mass parts might be a waste of time that takes away from the more doctrinal content of the classes. I say focus on the adults and that will trickle down to the kids. Show the parents how to prepare their kids for Mass. Give them materials that they can speak to their kids about. Kids imitate their parents. If the parents know the new texts the kids will pick them up in no time.

 

[Brendan]

The USCCB sent a tweet on twitter concerning the revised translation settings and when these could be used. Evidently, the USCCB has given the green light for earlier implementation.

Really, once a Synod approves the text and it recieves the recognito, any Ordinary is within his rights to implement earlier.

He would not need USCCB approval to do so.

 

[Corki]

The kids aren’t going to be difficult to prepare. I would suggest having a session with the catechists and the parents. All the catechetical books are going to include the revised texts. LTP also has a nice booklet for kids about the revisions. **They are about $150 each. **

I really hope there’s a decimal missing!

 

[benedictgal]

Really, once a Synod approves the text and it recieves the recognito, any Ordinary is within his rights to implement earlier.

He would not need USCCB approval to do so.

Interestingly enough, when the question was posed at our local level a few weeks ago, the new priest in charge of liturgy said that the bishop did not want to go against what the USCCB had said. Go figure.

Thus, when the USCCB tweeted this yesterday, I was quite happy. I just hope that we will be able to use it sooner than November down here, now that the proverbial (though unnecessary) green light has been given.

 

[puzzleannie]

a parish that orders new seasonal missalettes and catechetical books for CCD/RE is not really going to have a problem and will not have any additional expense, as all seaonal and annual materials have already been revised or will have addenda included at no cost with textbooks shipments.

It will only take one or at most two CCD sessions to acquaint children with the changes, and parents can be educated during the required sacramental meetings.

all the pastor really has to do is remind people to read the prayers and responses from the missalette until they become familiar with the changes, and explain one Sunday from the pulpit, with a short explanatory article in the bulletin over a couple of weeks the reasons for the changes. Some parishes may order laminated pew cards (these tend to disappear in our parish as people seem to consider anything put out free for the taking).

The USCCB has had the educational materials and texts available on their website for months, and I know of no diocesan website that does not have them or has not offered training for priests, DREs, liturgy people etc. yet or will throughout the summer. There is really no excuse for any lay person involved in parish ministry not to know the score by now. The people I feel sorry for are the ones who won’t show up at church until Christmas, or until one of their relatives makes first communion, they are really going to be out of the loop.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

I am surprised that many dioceses and parishes are still keeping people in the dark. We have been preparing our people for over a year. I have already given 4 workshops on the new translation and will be doing another next week and have some dates for the fall from some parishes. Our diocesan music committee has had nine workshops for musicians and priests. Our bishop wrote a pastoral letter on it. No one will be unprepared.

I am surprised at how much ado is being made over this by some. Its simply a translation change. As long as people have some warning (a few months probably) and there’s some kind of booklet in the pews for them, what’s the big deal?

Going over the theology and reasons for the changes is nice, but the average parishioner isn’t going to care.

 

[Brendan]

Interestingly enough, when the question was posed at our local level a few weeks ago, the new priest in charge of liturgy said that the bishop did not want to go against what the USCCB had said. Go figure. :shrug:n.

That is certainly his perogative to wait. My point was more along the lines that an Ordinary would need no permission from the USCCB to implement earlier if he so desired.

 

[Newbie2]

I am surprised at how much ado is being made over this by some. Its simply a translation change. As long as people have some warning (a few months probably) and there’s some kind of booklet in the pews for them, what’s the big deal?

Going over the theology and reasons for the changes is nice, but the average parishioner isn’t going to care.

I agree. In the Archdiocese of Detroit, they had an informational meeting at our seminary which our Deacon and I attended. It was good, however, there were a few people there who were hand-wringing that the “people” wouldn’t understand the depth and the meaning of the new wording.

We just shook our heads.

Like NewEngland says, it’s a translation change, not a big deal. Joe Average Catholic will get with the program in a couple of months. What’s the big ado about starting early? What possible difference would it make? People who couldn’t care less learning the words a month earlier than in other parishes?

I’m not dispariging the changes, just the consternation whether or not people will “get it” and “appreciate it”.

 

[ProVobis]

Really, once a Synod approves the text and it recieves the recognito, any Ordinary is within his rights to implement earlier.

He would not need USCCB approval to do so.

I’m sure that there are copyright issues involved but I don’t know the details. I wouldn’t try to second guess any authority on this matter. If they say to wait, then so be it. Current text is still valid and legitimate; the new text will be just as valid and legitimate when the time comes.

 

[Elizium23]

It seems to me that the “view from the bottom” can often be of a Church heirarchy that imposes restrictions and novelties and dogmas from above, "BECAUSE WE SAID SO!"

Now, the new translation obviously went through rigorous vetting and scholarship by people who knew what they were doing, and those people were necessarily part of the heiarchy rather than the rank-and-file laity in the Church. Therefore, the time for the laity to participate in this decision has come. It is time for catechesis on the meanings of the prayers and the meaning of the Mass. I attended a Newman Center where the pastor, a Dominican, gave a series of seminars on the meaning of the Mass. He recited each prayer and each line of dialogue in the Mass and explained the theology and symbolism behind it. He was very thorough and it was very useful to us, especially the college students. It is not every week or in every parish you will get a chance to hear catechesis such as this in the homily. If people are introduced slowly to the new translation, and told why we are changing it after forty years of saying the same same things in English, then many misgivings will be assuaged and we won’t feel that this is just being dropped on our heads because we are mushrooms (keep us in the dark and feed us bull.)

I promise you that you will find a marked difference in acceptance between parishes that announced this after Christmas, and passed out pamphlets and gave opportunities for catechesis, and parishes that announce this one week before Advent 2011 begins and everyone gets dropped into a cold shower.