Online Edition:
February 2008
Vol. XIII, No. 10
News and Views
New Year, New Building for Monks | Vox Clara: Latest Missal Report | ICEL Progress Report: Revised Missal Translations Near Completion
New Year, New Building for Monks
On January 2, nine years after arriving in rural Oklahoma, the Benedictine monks of Our Lady of the Annunciation of Clear Creek began moving into their new residence building, the first permanent building of a complex that will include an 80 x 180-foot church with a 110-foot bell-tower, now under construction.
The monastery buildings were designed in a Romanesque style by architect Thomas Gordon Smith of Notre Dame, Indiana.
The four-story residence building, one side of which will face a cloistered garden courtyard, contains 36 cells for the monks. All but six rooms are filled. It also has accommodations for visiting men, a kitchen and dining area.
The idea of establishing a community of cloistered contemplative monks in the United States was the inspiration of a group of students from the University of Kansas who, in the 1970s, visited the Benedictine Abbey of Our Lady of Fontgombault, a monastery founded in 1091, and a member of the Congregation of Solesmes.
Among those students was Father Philip Anderson, prior of the Clear Creek monastery, who had spent 24 years at Fontgombault before establishing the monastery in the Diocese of Tulsa in 1999 with several fellow monks from Fontgombault.
“We wanted to build a community like the ancient monasteries, a place devoted to the contemplative life and prayer”, Father Anderson told Bill Sherman, religion reporter for the Tulsa World (January 12, “A Vision Appearing”).
The new residence will be dedicated on April 12.
Vox Clara: Latest Missal Report
The Vox Clara Committee, the group that advises the Congregation for Divine Worship on English-language liturgical translations, met for the fifteenth time from November 30-December 5, 2007.
According to a news release issued by Vox Clara on December 5, a major part of the work was devoted to a review of the ICEL Green Book (draft) translations for Masses for the Dead, Votive Masses, Proper of Saints II, and the Antiphons of the Roman Missal.
The members found the texts to be of a high quality, while providing the Congregation with a number of recommendations. Extensive studies of a number of terms were completed, including the use of mereor [lit., deserve, merit] throughout the Roman Missal.
The committee also carefully reviewed the ICEL Gray (revised) Book for the Proper of Seasons in light of recommendations by the Congregation following Vox Clara’s review of the ICEL Green Book version last year. This review was conducted in preparation for the submission of White Book (final) translations, following the canonical approval of these texts by the English-language episcopal conferences in the coming months, and the subsequent and concluding review by the Congregation in preparation for the granting of the recognitio.
Several other items were placed before the Vox Clara members by the Congregation concerning the confirmation of the Order of Mass, including the fine-tuning of several points of translation in the Eucharistic Prayers.
Cardinal Francis Arinze, Prefect, and Archbishop Malcolm Ranjith, Secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship, thanked Vox Clara members for their contribution in assisting the Congregation with the completion of the English-language edition of the Roman Missal. In particular, Cardinal Arinze expressed satisfaction that the completion of the project is in sight.
The Committee will meet again in September 2008.
ICEL Progress Report: Revised Missal Translations Near Completion
ICEL Press Release: January 18 – The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) met in Mumbai, India, from 14 to 18 January 2008. They revised translations of the texts for Ritual Masses and Masses for Various Needs and Intentions, as well as the Eucharistic Prayers for Masses with Children, all from the 2002 edition of the Missale Romanum.
These revisions were made in the light of comments received from Conferences of Bishops and from the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship.
The members of the Commission were joined for one day of their meeting by His Eminence Cardinal Oswald Gracias, Archbishop of Mumbai, who participated in the Commission’s discussions.
Being Vice-Chairman of the Vox Clara Committee, which advises the Congregation for Divine Worship on English-language texts, His Eminence observed that his Committee and the Commission have similar concerns and face similar challenges. The bishops of the Commission were delighted to have such an opportunity for direct collaboration with the Vox Clara Committee.
The eleven bishops who are members of the Commission [ICEL] concelebrated Mass with the Cardinal in Mumbai Cathedral and were subsequently entertained by him at dinner.
Also participating in the Commission’s discussions were Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Canberra, Australia, and Bishop Thomas Dabre of Vasai, India.
The Commission will next meet in Vancouver, Canada, in September 2008. It is expected that at that meeting the Commission’s revision of its entire draft translation of the Missale Romanum will be completed, so as to be submitted to Conferences of Bishops for further processing and for eventual publication.
[Editor’s Note: In mid-January, the US bishops received, for comment, ICEL’s final “Green Book” segment, the Missal’s Appendices, which includes chants for various occasions, Sprinkling rite, etc.]
1. Call our office to donate directly: (608) 521-0385, have your name, address and credit card number ready. If you would like automatic
donations to Adoremus
let us know what date(s) you would like to be billed on.
*
