Praying It in English

When a Roman Catholic priest turns to address his congregation at Mass this fall, no longer will he mumble "Dominus vobiscum." Instead, he will pray it in English: "The Lord be with you." The historic language switch in the Mass, authorized by the Liturgical Constitution of last fall's session of the Vatican Council, is at last firmly set in the U.S. Enacted by the 245 Catholic bishops of the U.S., it has now been confirmed by the Holy See.

The revisions will put nearly half the Mass and all the sacraments, except holy orders, into English. In both low and solemn Masses, Latin will be retained for the beginning prayers at the foot of the altar and for the canon, the central prayer of the celebration. But the Epistle and Gospel and all the chants of the Mass -- the introit, gradual, offertory and communion verses --will be in English, and so will a number of prayers that will be recited by priest and congregation together: the Kyrie eleison (Lord, have mercy on us), the Gloria, the Creed, the Sanctus at the beginning of the canon, and the Lord's Prayer. Also in English will be a new Prayer of the Faithful, in which the congregation will be asked to pray for such causes as the church, the bishops, all Christians, and (by name) the sick and dead of the parish.

The amount of English approved by the bishops was considerably more than many lay Catholics expected; the quality of the language, however, will be considerably below what Episcopalians have in their stately Book of Common Prayer. All Bible readings will be taken from the still-incomplete Confraternity version, a reliable but sometimes leaden-footed translation begun in 1945 by scholars of the Catholic Biblical Association of America. Other parts of the Mass will be in a version that synthesizes various translations found in Catholic missals. The Gloria, for example, begins: "Glory to God in the highest. And on earth peace to men of good will. We praise you. We bless you. We worship you. We give you thanks for your great glory."

A few conservative bishops may try to stall off the switch to English as long as possible, but most U.S. dioceses will probably make the change on the first Sunday of Advent (Nov. 29), the beginning of the ecclesiastical year. Sweeping as the revisions seem, they are only the beginning. In Rome, the Vatican Council's Liturgical Commission is at work on a major revamping of the structure of the liturgy, which will prune off many rites and prayers that were added to the original Roman Mass, provide a greater variety of scriptural readings.

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