Catholic priests have stopped saying "good morning" to their congregations over concerns that their services had become too informal.Clergy attended a meeting last month to hear about the work of The International Commission of English in the Liturgy, which is producing a new English translation of the Latin mass which will be used in churches next year.
Priests at the meeting, held in the Diocese of Leeds, were told to question whether it was appropriate to say "good morning" once the priest was on the altar and had made the sign of the cross.
Following the meeting, some priests in the diocese told their congregations that they would no longer greet them in an informal manner at the start of services.
A spokesman for the diocese said: "The review of the liturgy is looking at whether there are elements of the service that have become a bit too distracting.
"People might argue that if you go in to a house, you say 'hi', but the priest is not going in to a house. He is going in to a sacred service. We need to emphasise that the priest is president of the community and is presiding at the service.
"It is a debate that has been going on in the Church for a long time – are we doing a cabaret or are we actually celebrating the Eucharist?
"The fear is that if some guidance is not given and general decisions are not put down, the interpretation of the liturgy leads to unsuitable things, like strobe lights and girls in hotpants. The aim of the new translation is to bring more dignity to the service."
Arguments have long raged within the Catholic church about the current translation of the Roman Missal. Some believe the translations that came out of the Second Vatican Council, in the 1960s, were too quickly done and failed to capture important nuances.
The Vatican has approved a new English translation for the most commonly used text of the mass but its full contents have yet to be revealed.
Changes that have emerged so far include; when the priest says "The Lord be with you", the faithful will now respond "And with our spirit", rather than "And also with you", as they do now.
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(Source: TTUK)