Roman Persecution

By Dr. Jeff Mirus ( bio - articles - email ) | Sep 27, 2011

I admit it. It did not improve my mood when I saw the news of Maryknoller William Grimm accusing the Vatican of persecution of the Japanese. And why? Well, it seems Fr. Grimm doesn’t like the new requirement that the Japanese liturgical texts be a faithful translation of the Latin.

Fr. Grimm wrote a long column decrying what he sees as the re-Italianization of the Vatican after a period of greater openness in the last century. He alleges many instances of this, among them being the inappropriateness for Japanese Christians of some Latin expressions in the Mass. For example, Fr. Grimm says there is no Japanese word for “spirit” that can be used to translate “et cum spiritu tuo”; moreover, in Japanese culture, he says it is considered a sign of insincerity to apologize three times. So “how will evangelization be served,” demands Fr. Grimm, “when Japanese who encounter the Church’s liturgy for the first time hear meaningless words or the apology mea culpa (through my fault) three times?”

Now the problem with Fr. Grimm’s diatribe is not that there may be trade-offs in the new translation requirements. There are sixteen dioceses in Japan, and the Japanese bishops can certainly raise these and other similar questions in Rome should they so desire. There are frequently compromises to be made between the desirability of respecting local cultural patterns and the desirability of ensuring that the universal Church celebrates one and the same Mass.

But when a particular decision does not go the way Fr. Grimm prefers, it betrays no great love of the Church for him to start ranting against Roman persecution (yes, persecution) of the Church in Japan by the Church in Rome. Now that those unfeeling Romans have turned away from the promise of the late 20th century, Fr. Grimm wonders, “How many centuries will it be this time before Roman persecution ends and we can openly express our Christianity through, with and in Asia?”

Though I worship in the United States, I’d like to go on record saying that I do not express my Christianity through, with and in America. One expects that Japanese Christians, even as various liturgical and administrative questions are discussed and debated, will think it well worth some mild cultural discomfort to be able to openly express, in any approved form, our common Christianity through, with and in Christ. Or does Fr. Grimm think that part of the Mass is just “meaningless words”, too?

Again, it is possible that Fr. Grimm has a point that could have been expressed in a more felicitous manner. But it does not help his cause that the particular things he dislikes about the new Japanese translation match exactly, text for text, what certain kinds of Modernist clerics so vehemently dislike about the new English translation: A renewed emphasis on the spiritual, and a heartfelt sorrow for offending God. Firmly believing that there is no such thing as a coincidence, I would suggest that Fr. William Grimm say a big mea culpa of his own.

He needs to say it three times. And he needs to mean it every time he says it.