A small change poses big questions in new Catholic liturgy – Louisville Courier

Debates over language can be some of the most heated because so much meaning can be packed into a slight change in words. Such is the case with the revised liturgy of the Roman Catholic English-language Mass, which takes effect this weekend in the United States and other English-speaking churches.

As we wrote here earlier this fall, the revisions are the biggest and most controversial since they began having Mass in local languages rather than Latin decades ago.

Controversies range from the content — including the introduction of more technical theological vocabulary and the revival of symbolic penitential breast-beating — to the Vatican process that critics said overrode years of work by an English-language commission.

One of the issues drawing the most attention is a change from one small word to another. Is it also a change in theology, narrowing the extent to which Jesus saved sinners? Bishops, the official teaching authorities of the church, say no. Opponents of the liturgical change, already distrustful of the top-down process that led to the revisions, aren’t so sure.

The revised Roman Missal, which contains the language used in the Mass, follows the official Latin version in more of a word-for-word approach than the previous version that Catholics have used for years. The previous version relied on the concept of dynamic equivalence — trying to capture the idea of the original language rather than the literal phrasing.

In one section, as the priest recalls Jesus’ words at the Last Supper, he says:

“Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
this is the cup of my blood,
the blood of the new and everlasting covenant.
It will be shed for you and for all
so that sins may be forgiven.”

The new version:

“Take this, all of you, and drink from it:
for this is the chalice of my Blood,
the Blood of the new and eternal covenant,
which will be poured out for you and for many
for the forgiveness of sins.”

Why the change?

At issue is the Latin phrase, “pro multis”

Michael Diebold of the Louisville Liturgy Forum, which has opposed the changes, said there’s no question “multis” means “many.” But Diebold, a former priest, said the new translation misses what “many” meant in its Latin context.

“That meant for the whole crowd,” he said in a recent interview. “When you translate it into English it should mean ‘all.’”

The new translation, he said, “means that some of them didn’t get redeemed, so who’s the some that didn’t get redeemed?”

The question relates to one that has preoccupied Christian theologians for centuries: how to reconcile passages that say Jesus died for all with those that say some will reject salvation and face eternal damnation.

Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz said there’s no change in church doctrine. He said in an interview earlier this year that “for many” is more faithful both to Jesus’ words at the Last Supper and to Catholic dogma.

“Just as Scripture very clearly supports both the universal call to salvation as well as for the individual to freely receive and embrace that call, so there is a need for conversion. Salvation is never forced on someone. There has to be some act of freedom to receive.

“Theologians have written tomes and tomes about the interplay between freedom and grace, but one thing in Catholic theology is very clear: There is a need to both advance the priority of grace in our lives but also the true gift of freedom as being the greatest gift God has given us.”

Does that also mean that not everyone would necessarily accept it?

 ”We wouldn’t even go that far,” Kurtz said. “That’s the Providence of God to decide who has and who has not accepted it. … I don’t think there is anyone who is seriously seeing this as a change in Catholic theology.”

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has a Web page dedicated just to the questions surrounding the “pro multis” issue. “It is a dogmatic teaching of the Church that Christ died on the Cross for all men and women,” it says.

As we have noted in our coverage, most Catholics surveyed this summer weren’t even aware of the impending changes, although awareness was higher among regular Mass attenders. Ready or not, they’ll be aware of it beginning this weekend.