A prominent Catholic pastor in Seattle is “letting go” of his campaign against a new Latinized translation of the church liturgy, but not his convictions in starting it.
“It is the people who will have the last word on the new missal once it is introduced,” Fr. Michael Ryan, pastor of St. James Cathedral, said in a Sunday morning homily.
Ryan caused a national stir, among Catholic priests, bishops and scholars, when he wrote a critical 2009 article for the Jesuit magazine America.
He launched a campaign entitled “What if we said ‘Wait’?” aimed at taking a second look — involving the laity — at liturgical handiwork of the Vatican’s powerful, insular Congregation for Divine Worship.
The new translations demonstrate that precise translation of Latin texts into English can result in language that is “awkward, arcane, clumsy and in many cases far removed from the way people speak,” in Ryan’s words.
The texts will have Catholics using such phrases as “consubstantial with the Father,” “serene and kindly countenance,” “Joseph, spouse of the same virgin,” and “send down your spirit like the dewfall.”
Such language, Ryan told his congregation Sunday, is “a step away from the spirit of the Second Vatican Council on the renewal of the liturgy,” and the Council’s stress on an enhanced decision-making role for the world’s bishops.
As a young priest, Ryan stood in St. Peter’s Square as Pope Paul VI proclaimed reforms in the church. Bishop Raymond Hunthausen of Helena, Montana — a future Seattle archbishop — was one of the youngest bishops at the global gathering.
But the Vaitcan isn’t waiting, and a majority of American bishops support the new translations, which “stacks the deck” against those urging a more deliberate approach, Ryan said Sunday.
“As the saying goes, they’re coming soon to a church near you,” Ryan added. (Use of the new texts will start in the pre-Christmas season of Advent, which is the beginning of the church year.”
With the Vatican set on the texts, “It would be hard to put forth a case for worrying,” Ryan said, and personal views must yield to a larger faith that God’s work will be done.
Still, acceptance has not come easily. Nor has Ryan stepped back from his view that the people of God deserve a say, and to have their response heard, in language of their worship. He noted Sunday that it was lay Catholics who “spoke up and told the awful truth” in making the church face up to clerical sex abuse.
“Trusting in God is not passive acquiescence,” Ryan said.
His homily was greeted by a prolonged ovation from worshipers at St. James.
The Seattle cathedral is known for traditional, and often beautiful liturgies. Ryan shared his reservations about awkward and arcane language at a service where selections from the Missa de angelis were sung, and Communion music was the Agnus Dei from Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis.
And, unlike many cathedrals of Europe, St. James was packed for Sunday mass.
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