Online Edition – Vol. V, No. 3: May 1999

BCL Director Named Consulter to Vatican Worship Congregation

Father James Moroney, director of the secretariat for the US bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy (BCL), was recently named a Consulter to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments (CDW).

The CDW, along with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, is responsible for approving liturgical texts, including the revision of the Roman Missal, (Sacramentary) proposed by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL). The ICEL text was submitted to the Holy See early this year, and the review may take many months.

Father Moroney will be the only American on the panel of consulters. Two American bishops are members of the CDW, Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston and Cardinal Francis George of Chicago.

Before his appointment to the BCL in 1996, Father Moroney was president of the Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions (FDLC). From 1978 to 1980, he worked for ICEL in Rome. He was head of the Diocese of Worcester’s Liturgical Commission, and served several years as a parish priest in Worcester. He holds a licentiate in sacred theology from the Catholic University of America.

"I am deeply honored by the Holy Father’s appointment of me to the Congregation", said Father Moroney. "Nothing in life is more important than the praise of God through Christ".

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