US Bishop Donald W. Trautman urged fellow bishops to reject at least one of four segments of a new US English translation of the Roman Missal, to avoid new Mass prayers full of grammatical errors and unproclaimable texts. The bishops are set to approve the last four segments of the new translation at their annual fall meeting November 16-19, said the National Catholic Reporter.
There's simply no doubt that the bad grammar he declaims is there in prayers already approved by the US bishops, or subsequently modified by Rome, which the priest or people are expected to pray during Mass, the report says.
Which start, like this sentence, with a relative pronoun, making the entire sentence a subordinate clause. Which, he says, is no way to try to make people pray. And entire sentences, like this one, with no subject or verb.
The three non-sentences in the preceding paragraph exemplify what Trautman, a former scripture professor, finds typical of one of the most disturbing issues in the new missal translation facing English speaking Catholics around the world: a lack of plain, everyday English grammar in liturgical prayers with which Catholics are supposed to express their worship of God.
He is known for his opposition to the more literal translation of Latin texts, the news report said.
"The Latin text is not inspired," Trautman said in a lecture last month to an audience at the Catholic University of America.
"It is a human text, reflecting a certain mindset, theology and worldview. There are good Latin texts, balanced, carefully crafted; and there are bad Latin texts, convoluted, lengthy, complicated, abstract; that become a translator's herculean task. Because of literal translation in the new missal, complicated Latin wording has become complicated English wording."
"If a translated text, no matter how exact and faithful to the original Latin, does not communicate in the living language of the worshiping assembly, it fails pastorally; it fails to dispose God's people to participate fully, consciously and actively in the Eucharist," he has reportedly said.
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