Liturgy Newsletter — September 2008

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  • Mount Street Jesuit Centre
    Liturgy Course
    Thursday 29 January –12 March 2009

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Order of Mass receives recognitio from Holy See

The Congregation of Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has granted recognitio for the text of the Order of Mass from the Roman Missal. The Grey book of the Order of Mass was approved by the Bishops of England and Wales at their Easter 2006 meeting and submitted to the Holy See in June 2006. This is now the final text of the Order of Mass and is referred to as the ‘White book’.

In the letter from Cardinal Arinze he noted that the Congregation ‘has no little satisfaction in arriving at this juncture’. He add that the ‘Congregation does not intend that these texts should be put into liturgical use immediately. The Cardinal stressed two reasons for granting of recognitio at this stage: to provide time for formation and catechesis of clergy and laity; to facilitate the preparation of musical settings using the new approved texts. The work of the ‘Leeds Group’ on formation materials is noted below. The Department is working on a revised version of Roman Missal: a guide to composers including the new translations. The US Bishops’ Conference has published the text of the White Book on the website of the Committee for Divine Worship.

Significant stages in translation of Missal

Following their approval of the Order of Mass II at the Easter meeting the bishops have been reviewing three Grey books in preparation for the November meeting. They will be voting on Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children, Ritual Mass and Masses for Various Needs and Intentions. Work on the translation of the Roman Missal has been divided by ICEL into 12 segments and following November the bishops will have 6 more Grey books to review and vote on.

The 11 Bishops of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy met in Vancouver in September. They reviewed the comments on the remaining 6 parts by bishops and the Congregation for Divine Worship and completed the translation which will now be sent to Bishops’ Conferences. A copy of the Press Release from the meeting can be found on page 4. Before the bishops’ meeting there was a meeting of the ‘Leeds Group’ a small international group brought together by Bishop Roche to prepare formation material to assist with the introduction of the Roman Missal, 3rd edition.