Priests criticise new missal for its ‘bad English’

THE Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has hit out at the decision by bishops to press ahead with the introduction of a new translation of the missal which it described as “unnecessary” and “unusable”.

Last month, members of the ACP met the bishops’ Episcopal Commission of Worship, Pastoral Renewal and Faith Development to express their concerns over the new text, due to be implemented in November.

Fr Seán McDonagh of the ACP yesterday said the commission had failed to take on board any of the concerns raised at the meeting.

“We presented them with a range of extremely well researched concerns on a range of theological, linguistic and pastoral issues,” Fr McDonagh said.

“However, not a single substantive issue was taken on board. We’d have loved to see them engage but you come with serious critiques and it’s like playing handball against a haystack.”

He said a word-for-word literal translation of Latin texts has produced a text that was not only archaic, elitist and obscure but also contained numerous examples of “bad English”, which would only serve to alienate people from the Church.

“We would be giving people a liturgy that alienates them rather than includes,” Fr McDonagh claimed. “For example, I was talking in a secondary school today. Now, if pupils were to use some of the English used in the new text at Mass, their teacher would tell them that it’s poor English and not to write that way as they would be docked marks in their exams.”

Some clergy in the US and Australia will boycott the new missal over similar concerns. The ACP will organise a meeting in June to consider its response.