New Mass translation approved, will debut in Advent next year

August 20, 2010

The Vatican has given final approval for a new English-language translation of the Roman Missal. The new translation will introduced in the US beginning in Advent of 2011.

“From that date forward, no other edition of the Roman Missal may be used in the dioceses of the United States of America,” announced Cardinal Francis George of Chicago, the president of the US bishops’ conference.

Formal Vatican approval came in a June 23 letter from Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, the prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship. The translation had already won approval from the US bishops, after a long and lively debate.

The publication of a revised English translation concludes a lengthy and often controversial process that saw numerous clashes between proponents of differing approaches to translation. Critics of the new translation continue to complain that it contains obscure language, while its defenders note that the revisions eliminate errors and ambiguities in the liturgical translation that is now in use.

The US bishops’ conference now faces the challenge of producing the new Missal—which will be over 1,000 pages in length—in time for its introduction at the start of the 2012 liturgical year (which begins with Advent at the end of the previous calendar year). Msgr. Anthony Sherman, who heads the staff of the US bishops’ committee on worship, said: “There is a tremendous, tremendous, tremendous amount of work still ahead of us.”

 

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Further information:

• Cardinal George announces Vatican approval of new Roman Missal (CNA)
• New US Catholic missal to debut in November 2011 (AP)
• 'Tremendous amount of work' ahead before new US missal is published (CNS)