ICEL
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    http://www.fisheaters.com/frsomerville.html

    Forgive me if this has already been posted.
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    I am in shock reading this, and don't know how to take it. I knew that the traslation wasn't good, (but in the corner of my mind I also kept thinking how bad the traslation could be.)
    but this is really sad... all the damamges ...on our faith ... mass is the heart of our faith.

    Many grew up with the faith from the teachings of this kind of traslation.... I can only pray for the return of our true Catholic faith...soon.
    Could you tell me when this letter is written?
    Thanks
  • noel jones, aagonoel jones, aago
    Posts: 6,605
    2002
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    Sad to say, Fr. Somerville seems to have fallen out of good standing with the Church. His former colleagues at the magazine Catholic Insight say that he was enthusiastically reading books by schismatic sedevacantist authors in 2001, and was offering Mass in independent chapels. He was suspended in 2004 by the Archbishop of Toronto for continuing in such unauthorized independent activities. (article)

    It's sad, because much of what Fr. Somerville writes is true, but his judgment in some things seems to have lost balance.
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    it is painful to hear all these, ...but good to know. Thanks. I'll pray for him and our Holy Father who has to carry all the burdens of problems of our clergies as well as ours.
  • Jeffrey TuckerJeffrey Tucker
    Posts: 3,624
    Somehow the sede connection doesn't surprise me. "losing balance" is great way to describe this.
  • miacoyne
    Posts: 1,805
    I also hope that when the new translation comes out, the Church can help us by providing some sort of a book that explains the Church's prayers in the Mass (both OF and EF would be really helpful). This will be greatly appreciated by the average Catholics like me who want to understand the deeper meaning of the Church's prayers and the liturgy better. What Father Somerville explained in the article in Fisheater is just a few examples of the traslation, it helped me to understand the meanings of the prayers. (it's good to hear that we have a new chairman for ICEL, who is an expert in latin and traditional mass.)
  • Bruce E. Ford
    Posts: 429
    I concur with Somerville's criticism of the ICEL translations; but in other respects I think that he is "off the wall."

    He writes: "Now a few comments: To call God Father is not customary in the Liturgy, except Our Father in the Lord's prayer"

    Is he unfamiliar with "Te igitur clementissime Pater," "Vere dignum... Domine Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus," "Ipse tibi, quaesumus, Domine sancte, Pater omnipotens, aeterne Deus sacrificium nostrum reddat acceptum..." (Secret for Maundy Thursday in the Missal of Pius V)? I could page through the missal and find many other examples.

    He objects to "Help us..." Flipping a few pages from the Maundy Thursday sacred I found the Super populum prayer, "Adjuva nos, Deus salutaris noster..."

    In his virtual rejection of Vatican II he takes a position that does not appear to me to be consonant with an orthodox Roman Catholic understanding of "magisterium."
  • chonakchonak
    Posts: 9,160
    I also hope that when the new translation comes out, the Church can help us by providing some sort of a book that explains the Church's prayers in the Mass (both OF and EF would be really helpful).

    If Fr. Zuhlsdorf hasn't published a collection of his "What Does The Prayer Really Say?" columns yet, that would fit the bill!
  • francis
    Posts: 10,668
    Most of what he says is accurate.
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