On freedom in the liturgy

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Dec 15, 2004

In November the US bishops elected Bishop Donald Trautman to chair their Committee on Liturgy. That vote was an obvious slap at the Vatican; Bishop Trautman has publicly criticized the Holy See's "interference" in liturgical matters.

Writing in America magazine, Bishop Trautman charged that the Vatican's approach to liturgical translation runs counter to the teachings of Vatican II. What do you suppose would happen if a priest in his Erie diocese expressed the same sort of public disapproval of Bishop Trautman's liturgical theories?

Contrary to Vatican directives, Bishop Trautman continues to promote "dynamically equivalent" translation: a discredited method of changing the meaning of liturgical texts. How long would a priest of the Erie diocese remain in good standing if he dared to translate Bishop Trautman's administrative decrees into practice, using the same "dynamically equivalent" method?