Online Edition:
August 2011
Vol. XVII, No. 5
News and Views
US Bishops Decide New Mass Music May Be Used in September | Australia Introduces New Mass Translation | Irish Bishops on New Missal Texts | St. Louis Eucharistic Congress and Corpus Christi Celebration | Pope to Hear Confessions at World Youth Day | Conference on Council and Continuity | New Liturgical Music Institute to Honor Cardinal Newman
US Bishops Decide New Mass Music May Be Used in September
At the June meeting of the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) near Seattle, it was announced that musical settings of new Roman Missal may be introduced in parishes in September.
Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship (BCDW), announced during the June 16 session that diocesan bishops may permit the gradual introduction of the musical settings of the people’s parts of the Mass from the new Roman Missal in September.
The decision, which modifies the initial decision to introduce the new texts all at once on the first Sunday of Advent (November 27), is intended to help people learn the new parts and ease implementation.
The early date was authorized by USCCB president Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York in order to allow parish communities to learn the various parts of the new translation “in a timely fashion and an even pace”. The decision responded to requests from several bishops, and the National Advisory Council, a consulting group to the US bishops’ conference.
“I ask you to encourage this as a means of preparing our people and helping them embrace the new translation”, Archbishop Aymond told the bishops.
Australia Introduces New Mass Translation
Many parishes in Australia began to use the new English translation of the Missal on Pentecost Sunday.
Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney, said the first Masses in the new translation had gone smoothly at Saint Mary’s Cathedral in Sydney, and he had good feedback from parishes. “People are quietly appreciative”, he said, as reported June 13 in The Australian Catholic newspaper.
Cardinal Pell also heads Vox Clara, the international group of bishops and other liturgical experts that aids the Holy See’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in overseeing the English-language liturgical translations.
Australia, like most other English-speaking countries, will make the full transition to the new Missal translation on the first Sunday of Advent this year.
Irish Bishops on New Missal Texts
Text changes for the new Missal will begin to be introduced in many dioceses in Ireland starting Sunday, September 11, the Irish Catholic Bishops Conference announced. Full implementation of the new English translation of the Missal will take place on the First Sunday of Advent.
“Over the ten weeks from 11 September, all the changes in the prayers and responses of the congregation will be used at Mass, for example: the greeting, ‘The Lord be with you’ and response, ‘And with your spirit’; the Apostles Creed; the Nicene Creed; and, the acclamations of the Eucharistic Prayer” the statement said.
“From 27 November 2011, the First Sunday of Advent, the new edition of the Missal will be used in its entirety for the prayers of the Mass throughout the country and the English-speaking world.
“Missalette publishers and parish bulletins will include the changes by way of explanatory inserts”.
Resources are available on the web at catholicbishops.ie and liturgy-ireland.ie.
St. Louis Eucharistic Congress and Corpus Christi Celebration
Cardinal Raymond Burke was the principal celebrant and homilist at a Mass on the Solemnity of Corpus Christi held at the St. Louis Cathedral Basilica on Sunday, June 26. The cathedral was filled to capacity with more than 1000 worshippers. Archbishop Robert Carlson, Bishop Robert Hermann and Bishop Edward Rice were concelebrants.
The Eucharistic Congress for Corpus Christi began Friday, June 24, with an evening Benediction celebrated by Archbishop George Lucas of Omaha. The congress included a day of worship and talks on Saturday held at St. Louis University High School, which also featured activities for families and children.
The weekend celebration concluded with an evening Mass, followed by a solemn Corpus Christi procession led by Archbishop Carlson, with Bishops Herman and Rice, accompanied by priests and seminarians.
“The Holy Eucharist is food for the journey” of life, said Archbishop Carlson. “Jesus knocks at the door of our hearts and asks us to make space for Him” not just now, but always. Archbishop Carlson said that it was his hope that during the events of the Eucharistic Congress, “everyone would feel invited to renew our faith in the Real Presence of Jesus — in His Body and Blood”.
Pope to Hear Confessions at World Youth Day
Pope Benedict XVI will administer the sacrament of confession in public for an hour before celebrating Mass on the morning of August 20 for the 26th World Youth Day. The Mass will take place at the Madrid cathedral.
Hearing young people’s confessions during World Youth Day has been part of the program since 2000. The event was held in Rome that year, and confessions were held at the Circus Maximus. But until now, a pope has never administered the sacrament in person to young people during a World Youth Day celebration.
An earlier innovation of Pope Benedict at World Youth Day was in Cologne, in the summer of 2005. At the culmination of the night vigil, Pope Benedict knelt in silence before the consecrated host. Since then, the pope’s silent Eucharistic adoration has become a feature of other large gatherings, such the vigil in Hyde Park in London, on September 18, 2010.
Conference on Council and Continuity
“Council and Continuity: The Interim Missals and the Immediate Post-Conciliar Liturgical Reform” is the title of a symposium to be held October 3-4, 2011, at the Pastoral Center of the Diocese of Phoenix.
The symposium will begin with four general sessions that will provide a historical overview of liturgical development up to the time of the Second Vatican Council and from then to the present, and the reform of the Mass in light of the Latin-English interim Missals. These “interim Missals”, the first to incorporate vernacular liturgical texts, can provide valuable insights into the intention of the Council Fathers concerning liturgical reform.
The second day will feature several break-out sessions including, among other topics, the Latin-German and Latin-Polish interim Missals, Church architecture, the Lectionary, and the principle of sacred language as applied to the Liturgy. It will conclude with a keynote presentation by Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne on the pastoral relevance of further liturgical renewal vis-à-vis a proper hermeneutic of the Council.
Speakers who will address the Council and Continuity symposium, in addition to Bishop Thomas Olmsted of Phoenix, Bishop Salvatore Cordileone of Oakland, and Bishop Peter Elliott, include liturgical historian Dr. Hans-Jürgen Feulner, University of Vienna; Father Douglas Martis and Dr. Denis McNamara, of the Liturgical Institute, Mundelein Seminary, Chicago; Dr. Helmut Hoping, University of Freiburg; Monsignor Michael Magee, St. Charles Borromeo Seminary, Philadelphia; Father C. Frank Phillips, St. John Cantius, Chicago; Father Christopher Phillips, Our Lady of the Atonement, San Antonio; and others.
For information about the Council and Continuity symposium and registration, visit: councilandcontinuity.com.
New Liturgical Music Institute to Honor Cardinal Newman
The Blessed John Henry Newman Institute of Liturgical Music is being organized by the Oratory Fathers of Birmingham, England, in association with the Maryvale Institute, under the joint patronage of Archbishop Bernard Longley of Birmingham and well-known Catholic composer James McMillan.
The goal of the institute is “to provide a general formation in liturgical music, so that the Sunday liturgy in parishes may benefit from a doctrinal, liturgical and musical formation”, according to the announcement on its new web site, oratorymusic.org.uk.
The institute will be officially opened on Saturday, September 17, at the Oratory, Birmingham, to mark the first anniversary of the beatification of Blessed John Henry Newman, and to inaugurate a term of study mornings and evenings particularly designed to promote the music associated with the new translation of the Mass, which will come into effect at Advent.
The Saturday sessions will include practical instruction on singing the Mass, theological and historical background to Church music, and the celebration of the sung Blessed John Henry Newman Pilgrim Mass. The plan also includes evening sessions with clergy, and formation of a new choir for children.
(For more information about the Birmingham Oratory, see “John Henry Newman’s Maryvale” by Joanna Bogle, in the Pentecost issue of Voices, our “sister” publication: wf-f.org/11-2-Bogle.html).
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