Online Edition – July-August 2006
Vol. XII, No. 5

A Proclamation

One hundred and three years after Pope Pius X called for liturgical reform,
and “actual participation” of the people at Mass, in Tra le sollecitudini;

Forty-three years after the Fathers of the Second Vatican Council approved the Constitution on the Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, which permitted use of vernacular languages at Mass;

Forty-three years after the establishment of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy to provide unified translations for English-speaking churches;

Thirty-seven years after Pope Paul VI promulgated the first post-conciliar edition of the Missale Romanum;

Thirty-three years after the present ICEL translation of the Mass came into use;

Eighteen years after Pope John Paul II, on the twenty-fifth anniversary of Sacrosanctum Concilium, called for a reassessment of the liturgical changes that followed the Second Vatican Council;

Thirteen years after a proposed revision of the ICEL “Sacramentary” was presented to the English-speaking bishops’ conferences;

Ten years after Jorge Arturo Cardinal Medina Estévez became prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;

Seven years after the Holy See called for the “thoroughgoing restructure” of ICEL;

Six years after the Holy See announced the third typical edition of the Missale Romanum;

Five years after the Holy See issued the Fifth Instruction on the Implementation of Sacrosanctum Concilium, Liturgiam authenticam, providing principles to assure accurate and faithful liturgical translations;

Five years after the Holy See rejected the revised ICEL “Sacramentary”;

Four years after the new Missale Romanum was published in Latin, its General Instruction was released in English, and Vox Clara was formed to aid the Holy See with English translations;

Four years after Francis Cardinal Arinze was made prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments;

Three years after Pope John Paul II’s fourteenth and final encyclical, Ecclesia de Eucharistia;

Three years after new ICEL Statutes were approved by the Holy See;

Two years after the release of Redemptionis Sacramentum, the disciplinary Instruction on the liturgy called for by Pope John Paul’s encyclical;

Two years after the first ICEL draft translations of the Order of Mass following the principles of Liturgiam authenticam were sent to the English-speaking bishops;

Eight months after the Synod on the Eucharist at the close of the Year of the Eucharist;

In the sixth year of the third millennium,

In the second year of the reign of Pope Benedict XVI,

The bishops of the United States of America and other English-speaking churches voted to adopt an authentic translation of the Mass, according to the text.

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