The Chairman of the IV Fota International Liturgical Conference,
which was held in Cork City last Friday, has criticised the absence of
any member of the Association of Catholic Priests at the event.
Fr Vincent Twomey, SVD, said it would have provided them with a
platform to put their criticisms of the new translation of the Roman
Missal to three members of Vox Clara who attended the conference.
The
theme of Fota IV was The New English Translation of the Missale Romanum.
Fr Twomey told ciNews that ACP members were free to attend
the conference but that “not one of them turned up.”
He expressed
disappointment that “none of those who criticised the translation had
the courage to come and enter into honest debate with those responsible
for the new English translation.”
The three members of Vox Clara who made presentations at the second
session of Fota IV included its Chairman, Cardinal George Pell of
Sydney, as well as Bishop Arthur Sarretelli of New Jersey and Mgr James
Moroney of the Diocese of Worcester in Massachusetts.
Asked if he took the ACP’s criticisms of the new translation of the
missal seriously, the Professor Emeritus of moral theology in Maynooth
said, “I take their criticisms very seriously because they reflect the
disturbingly low level of theological knowledge in Ireland about the
liturgy.”
Fr Twomey, who is a member Pope Benedict’s annual gathering of former
doctoral students that now takes place in Castel Gandolfo, rejected
claims that the new translation had been imposed by Rome.
“There is no
imposition – this is the work of English-speaking Bishops throughout the
world (representing 11 Episcopal Conferences, including Ireland) and
their various theological advisers working over several decades on
translating the Latin of the ordinary rite, which itself had been
revised twice since the Novus Ordo was first published", he explained.
"They were working on a richer Latin text with the object of finding a
translation that would be both more beautiful and more in tune with the
theological richness of the new prayers in the Ordinary Rite,” he
stated.
Asked if he was anticipating any problems in the pews when the Church
begins to informally introduce the new translation from September and
officially from the first Sunday of Advent, Fr Twomey told ciNews,
“I am a bit nervous because the Irish Church, as far as I can see, has
failed – yet again – to do what Pope Benedict XVI asked all the
English-speaking conferences of the world to do – namely to introduce
the new text with due sensitivity and with proper catechesis."
The Divine Word Missionary added, "After all we have all become fond
of the old text (myself included) and don’t like change in the liturgy. As the Pope has said, many, including many priests, will find it hard
to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly 40 years of continuous use of
the previous one.”
Fr Twomey added that the Irish Church had “failed in this golden
opportunity to use the new translation for a deepening of our spiritual
experience at Mass, as hoped for by the Pope.”
He also rejected calls
by the ACP for the postponement of next year’s International Eucharistic
Congress that is due to take place in Dublin from June 10-17.
“The Eucharistic Congress is an opportunity for actually
rediscovering for ourselves the wonderful mystery that is the
Eucharistic sacrifice of the Mass,” Fr Twomey said.
He added that the “real problem is not the new translation but the
impoverished theology of the Eucharist that has crept in to the Irish
Church. Very often we have reduced the Mass effectively to, at best, a
private devotion. The main object of the priest is to make sure it is
not boring – now that means that something has gone radically wrong,” he
said.
But he was upbeat about the possibility of eucharistic renewal,
stating, “I am quite convinced that once the Church as a whole begins
seriously to prepare for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress in
Dublin next year, our ancient tradition of genuine Irish liturgical
piety will come to the fore. I am also convinced that the liturgy
itself, and especially the new translation of the new missal, will help
us in Ireland to regain something of the awe and the wonder that is the
Eucharist – the source of our joy.”