The Liturgical Changes

by Sue Rakoczy · February 11, 2009

I have been in communication with a friend in the United States, Paul Turner a diocesan priest of the diocese of Kansas City-St Joseph, Missouri who is a liturgist and one of the secretaries of ICEL (International Committee on English in the Liturgy).

I have shared with Paul the consternation felt by many in South Africa over the liturgical changes which were implemented in December, 2008.

Paul wrote:

“The Order of Mass was issued for study purposes only, not for implementation until the entire missal is ready. The Vatican has asked the English-speaking conferences of bishops for their final comments on the rest of the translation by this November. Then the Vatican will approve the final text – having made many more changes, I’m sure. I think even the “final” Order of Mass that we have is not really “final”. There are a few discrepancies that need to be fixed. Bishop Hugh Slattery was at the meeting in January, but somehow I missed the information that this was already being used in South Africa.”

So why did the bishops move so quickly when we and the rest of the world�are only to implement the changes in about two years (from another of his emails)? What does the Church in�South Africa stand to gain from this? Perhaps our experience is a caution to the rest of the English-speaking world. But will the Vatican take note and learn from it?