Catholic mass to undergo biggest change in 40 years

Are Roman Catholics ready for the biggest change in four decades in their mass?

Canada is one of 11 English-speaking countries in which tens of millions of Catholics will begin Sunday to adopt the Vatican’s English translation of the old Latin liturgy, altering what they will hear, recite, sing and do during their main church ritual.

The date, Nov. 27, marks the first day of Advent and the beginning of the Christian calendar.

The Vancouver archdiocese is among hundreds busily trying to educate the roughly 400,000 Catholics in the region about what to expect, including an English-language version of the penitential Latin “mea culpa.”

The revised mass is being praised by most Catholic leaders and traditional faithful as more “reverential” and “scriptural.” However, thousands of other Catholics, including some bishops in the U.S., Ireland and Australia, are criticizing it as “archaic” and “convoluted,” with some worrying the theology is too “exclusivist.”

Almost every line of the Catholic missal, the book of texts and prayers used in the mass, will be changed in some way from the English-language

vernacular liturgy adopted in the 1960s during the Church’s modernizing era, called Vatican II.

Most Catholic bishops are excited about the more “authentic” language of the newly translated English-language mass, which is closer to the liturgical Latin that was used for centuries. They have called it “more noble in tone” and “elegant.”

For instance, when the priest says to the congregation “The Lord be with you,” worshippers have for the past 40 years responded: “And also with you.” They will now be expected to say: “And with your spirit,” which aims to emphasize the priest’s role as a channel of God.

Instead of saying Jesus Christ is “one in Being” with the Father, worshippers will be asked to recite the more technical term; that he is “consubstantial” with the Supreme Being.

Although Vancouver Archbishop Michael Miller acknowledges the new translation “will entail a period of adjustment,” he is asking parishioners to pray that the new mass will bring all Catholics closer to God.

Despite widespread efforts to inform churchgoers, a public opinion survey by Georgetown University of Washington, D.C., in August found three-quarters of American Catholics did not know about the sweeping liturgical changes, which will also herald the return of formal terms such as “inviolate,” “ignominy” and “oblation.”

Among those Catholics who are aware of what is coming, one of the most talked-about elements is the return of the “mea culpa” practice of what was once called breast-beating.

Will Canadian Catholics – including those who attend church infrequently, or the many new immigrants from the Philippines and East Asia who are predominant in Metro Vancouver – embrace this vivid aspect of the old Latin past?

More than 50 years ago Catholics were expected to recite the confession of sins, “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa.” The new English translation now asks them to admit their sins by saying, “My fault, my fault, my most grievous fault,” while softly striking their chests with their fists.