27 January 2023

The Liturgical Revolution that wasn't (2)

 Time was, when, out of reverence, it was forbidden to print, in books of devotion intended for lay Catholics, a translation into profane, vernacular, languages, of the Canon of the Mass. Those days had manifestly passed when on 10 September 1948, the Vicar General of Westminster, E Morrogh Bernard, issued an Imprimatur to Messrs Burns Oates and Washbourne Ltd, Publishers to the Holy See, for The Missal in Latin and English Being the text of the Missale Romanum with English rubrics and a new translation. (Further editions were to follow in 1957; 1958; 1960; and 1962.)

This was a lavish edition, for lay hands, of the Roman Missal. I write 'lavish'; for example it printed in full the orders for Low and for High Mass; it contained all the proper masses for the dioceses of England, Wales, and Scotland. And the Appendix pro aliquibus locis. But more: "The translation of the ... scriptural passages throughout the volume is by the Right Reverend Mgr R. A. Knox."

Of course, those vernacular passages were not intended for public use in public worship. This massive show-case for 'the Knox Bible' was to foster private devotion among those literate in their mother tongue, but not up to the Latin of the Missal. It was to assist in enabling an educated public to appropriate and appreciate the riches of the (traditional) Roman Rite. A very 'forties' and very laudable project! But, in an age when 'the Liturgical Movement' had put the 'Vernacular question' onto the agenda, this was surely also a strong pointer in a certain direction.

Incidentally, the prayers were translated by the Reverend J. O'Connell, M.A., and H. P. R. Finberg, M.A., F.R.Hist.S. (1900-1974). The involvement of Fr O'Connell, Editor (of edition after edition) of The Ceremonies of the Roman Rite Described, suggested the semi-establishment appearance of the venture. But neither man was to be a fundamentalist traditionalist; Finberg, a lay Catholic greatsman with wide academic interests, was to work for ICEL. His influence there was conservative: he felt that "if the liturgy uses expressions that run or seem to run counter to the spirit of the age, we should let it teach us to modify our sometimes callow notions, rather than remodel it, under the pretext of translation, to suit the fashion of the day ... the truth is that, consciously or unconsciously, the translators have bowed to the influence of critics who find much of the Roman Canon repugnant to the contemporary mind."

Anglia non est totus orbis. In 1952, a volume entitled The Little Breviary was published in Dutch. It consisted of an abbreviated form of the Breviary Office, in the vernacular. It came with fruity Vatican encouragement: "I hasten to inform you that the Sovereign Pontiff considers the book entitled 'The Little Breviary' which you have brought out in dutch deserving of the highest praise. A long-cherished hope has now been realised in a most excellent fashion ... outstanding ... His Holiness is delighted and congratulates you on having contributed by a work of this kind to the wider spread of devotion to the liturgy ... His Holiness is heartily in favour of the use of 'The Little Breviary' both by religious communities whose established way of life allows of it and by the laity ..."

This encomium is signed Jo Bapt. Montini Subst.  Who he? you all cry.

In 1957, this work appeared in English (Burns and Oates) with a Birmingham Imprimatur. Cardinal Griffin contributed a Foreward which frankly reveals the cultural back-ground: "The growing interest in the Sacred Liturgy ... warm approval of the Holy See .... high praise from the Holy Father, Pope Pius XII.  This Breviary meets a great need  ... knowledge of Latin will be scanty or lacking altogether ... "

A preface by a Redemptorist superior adds that the Office as abbreviated is "Yet no longer than the Little Office of our Lady." I gloss this as meaning that those lay communities which are not canonically bound to the full Breviary Office, and have hitherto used the Officium Parvum BMV, would do very well to adopt The Little Breviary instead.

The Foreword to the English Edition makes clear that this office-book follows the The Roman Missal in using Mgr Knox's translation of the Bible; and the translations of prayer-texts by O'Connell and Finberg.

Thus: the English Catholic Church was well equipped for a liturgical evolution in which Tradition would have been respected and treated gently; and home-grown scholarship from the pen and in the style of Mgr Knox would have been dominant.

I regard this as an opportunity most sadly missed. The policies which were, instead, folowed have left us in our current disastrous situation. The 1940s were a better decade than the 1960s! Was the eventual Vatican preference for doing business with world-wide language-groups really in accord with the principle of Subsidiarity?

3 comments:

  1. Fascinating. I wonder if you retrieved the Finberg quotations from this Adoremus article: https://adoremus.org/1996/07/icels-translation-of-the-roman-canon/#Anchor-35882
    It seems to provide even more insight into the translation debacle swirling about under ICEL.

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  2. My copy of that excellent hand missal gives a first publication of 1949, with the second impression in 1950 and third in 1952. The one fault is there are some printing blunders, for instance where the red heading text indicating Feast rank and particular proper is either too close to the paragraph of the proper or over it. The proper headings for today, for St Peter Nolasco, are particularly blundered. Yet otherwise it is a model of efficient and elegant layout. It even has Psalm 129 after Low Mass, whose recital after Low Mass was Irish custom until Nov 1960. Once one Sunday the SSPX priest recited De Profundis after Low Mass one Sunday.

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  3. ...We have believed and have approached, and now we seal ♰ and break this oblation, the heavenly bread, the Body of the Word, who is the living God.

    (He dips the small piece into the chalice in the form of a cross:)

    We sign this cup of salvation and thanksgiving with the forgiving ember which glows with heavenly mysteries:

    (He dips the Body in the Blood three times and continues:)

    ...

    You have united, O Lord, your divinity with our humanity and our humanity with your divinity; your life with our mortality and our mortality with your life. You have assumed what is ours and you have given us what is yours, for the life and salvation of our souls. To you be glory for ever.

    All: O Lord, you are the pleasing Oblation, who offered yourself for us. You are the forgiving Sacrifice, who offered yourself to your Father. You are the High Priest, who offered yourself as the Lamb. Through your mercy, may our prayer rise like incense which we offer to your Father through you. To you be glory forever.

    ...

    (Bow your heads before the God of mercy, before his forgiving altar, and before the Body and Blood of our Savior, who gives life to those who partake of him, and receive the blessing from the Lord.)


    (extending his hands)
    O Lord, may your graces, your blessings, and all your divine gifts descend in abundance on your Church, your parishes, monasteries, and convents, that we may raise glory to you, now and forever.
    Amen.

    (blessing the Congregation)

    ♰ The grace of the most Holy Trinity, eternal and consubstantial, be with you, my brothers and sisters, for ever.
    (And with your spirit.)

    Let each one of us look to God with reverence and humility, and ask him for mercy and compassion.

    Invitation to Communion

    Celeb: (elevating the paten in his right hand and the chalice in his left) Holy Gifts for the holy, with perfection, purity, and sanctity.

    Cong: One Holy Father, one Holy Son, one Holy Spirit. Blessed be the name of the Lord, for he is one in heaven and on earth; to him be glory, for ever.

    All: (with extended hands)

    Make us worthy, O Lord God, so that our bodies may be sanctified by your holy Body, and our souls purified by your forgiving Blood. May our communion be for the forgiveness of our sins and for new life. O Lord our God, to you be glory, forever.
    Communion

    Cong sinhing : The Hosts of angels Have come to stand with us At the holy altar. They sing in chorus And carry Christ, the Lamb, Sacrificed before us. O come, receive him, The saving Lamb of God Who will grant forgiveness. Alleluia!

    ...
    +++++++++++++++++++++++

    Part of The Anaphora of Pope Sixtus heard today in the Divine LIturgy of Mary Mother of the Light Maronite Church in Tequesta, Florida.

    Pope Paul could have chosen this anaphora after he blowed-up the Roman Canon instead of substituting various eucharistic prayers .

    But he didn't and I think it obvious why this anaphora was not chosen and, instead, a jewish meal prayer from The Talmud was chosen

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