Bishop Roche speaks on new Missal

Bishop Arthur Roche

The countdown to September has begun – this is when parishes in England and Wales will begin to use the new translation of the Roman Missal to celebrate Mass.

Bishop Arthur Roche, Bishop of Leeds, has been at the heart of the preparations as Chairman of the International Commission for English in the Liturgy (ICEL), and Chairman of the Bishops' Conference Department for Christian Life and Worship. In a new podcast on the Bishops Conference website, he says: “When these new prayers are assimilated I believe that the great gift that they will give to our people is that they will help them to pray scripturally, because the nuances are there very clearly in those new prayers.”

“I think that it certainly has a nobility of language and English is such a very fine language as we know...We’ve been able to recapture something of the deprecatory sense of prayer in these texts which of itself demands greater poetry, greater preciseness but also a certain humility which English itself, by its own language, is able to deliver in such a very lovely straightforward way.”

“It has been one of the most significant developments since the publication of the English version of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.”

When asked what he would wish for the Catholic community worshipping using the new translation, he said: “I would hope that they will realise that whenever they attend Mass there’s more than the physical congregation visibly around them there, that they’re entering into a reality which is taking place in Heaven as well as here on earth.”

In England and Wales, the main parts of the Mass will be said in all parishes using the new translation from September 2011, and from Advent 2011 all of the Mass will be said using the new translation.

To listen to the podcast click on: www.catholic-ew.org.uk/Catholic-Church/Media-Centre/Press-Releases/Press-Releases-2011/Bishop-Roche-on-the-New-Translation-of-the-Roman-Missal