Monsignor Richard Oswald, a former associate pastor at St. Joseph Church in Conway who now serves as Assistant Director of Vocations for Diocese of Little Rock, returned to St. Joseph September 25th to make a presentation on the subject of the revision of the Holy Roman Missal. A new English translation of the missal will go into effect at the start of the Advent season.
Monsignor Oswald explained that the Church has been using the present translation since 1975. He said English was first used in 1964 and was implemented because the Church wanted “ a fully conscious and active participation in the celebration of the Eucharist.” Prior to that, parishioners tended to passively watch the priest pray the mass in Latin.
“We’re not getting a new missal,” Monsignor Oswald said. “We’re getting a new translation. In the past, the prevailing philosophy regarding missal translation from Latin to English was known as dynamic equivalence.” That meant the Church hierarchy felt it needn’t be translated word for word, but in a way that would be easier to understand. However, in doing so certain imagery, rhythm and even direct scripture references were sometimes lost. Pope John Paul II later re-evaluated this and asked countries of the world to adopt a “formal equivalence” in its translations. That would get the missal much closer to what the original Latin had intended.
“What we do at mass won’t change,” Monsignor Oswald said. “Only the sound of it will.”