CATH NEWS REPORT: Priests will be the key teachers and explainers of the newly translated parts of the Mass in Australian parishes, Perth Auxiliary Bishop Donald Sproxton told the Record.
Bishop Sproxton, who heads Perth's Archdiocesan Implementation Committee, said that while most of the changes are perfectly understandable, with some "elevated language" priests must help the faithful understand the theology behind the new texts.
For example, when the congregation says that Jesus Christ is "consubstantial with the Father" rather than "of one being" with the Father in the Nicene Creed, "that's up to the priest to give a catechesis on that word".
The Bishop dismissed notions that such phrases are unnecessary as they are not "the language of the street".
"Instead of that idea - that theological point - being lost, here's an opportunity now for it to be explained.""[Consubstantial] is a difficult term but it is a theological term; so it's not a question of English, it's a question of theology," he said.
"I'm quite happy for priests to express reservations about certain aspects of the translations, because even those who were involved in the project had some reservations about some decisions that were made. But that doesn't mean it's a bad thing," he said.
"I can't think of anyone who will dig in his heels and say 'I'm not going to do it'. That hasn't been voiced here. I'm confident that they'll just do the best for the sake of their people, that they'll want their people to experience this in a seamless way.
"Even before the project began when I was a priest, I noticed that when you compare the (pre-1974 Latin Mass) to the English there's an awful lot not in that English prayer, and I thought that was selling us short.
"We weren't getting that whole content of what that Latin was giving, so I think it's great we've got a text which is much closer to that Latin - not because it's Latin but because of the nature of the prayer, the theological and spiritual content of the prayer, which is now accessible to us through this translation."
A new website, www.romanmissal.org.au, will be launched by March to help parishes, communities and individuals implement the new translations.
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