Priest details new language for worship

The director of the Office of Liturgy and Worship for the Salina Diocese came to the Nazareth Motherhouse Friday (May 13) to explain the new English translation of the Roman Missal to Sisters of St. Joseph.

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But Father Frank Coady, who is also the priest supervisor at St. Elizabeth Ann Seton parish in Salina, also discussed the meaning of much of the symbolism of Catholic worship.

Almost a year ago, the Vatican formally approved the new translation, which will change some of the words Catholics have used in their worship for the past 40 years. The Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments has written that the new missal — which will be in use beginning with the first Sunday in Advent (Nov. 27) — “is not so much a work of creative innovation as it is of rendering the original texts faithfully and accurately into the vernacular language.”

Coady told the sisters that while it seems unfamiliar to them now, it is a more literal and more accurate translation of Latin to English.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has created a website to help parishioners become more familiar with the new translation. It is http://www.usccb.org/romanmissal/