Missal “fixes” appear awkward

The samples of the changes proposed for the Roman Missal (CR, July 8 and 15) are disturbing. Just look at proposed changes for the Collect Prayer, Ninth Sunday, Ordinary time. The 1970 text reads “Father, your love never fails.” The proposed text reads “Oh, God, whose providence never fails … ”

The Roman Missal’s International Committee on English in the Liturgy, Inc., doesn’t want to offend anyone by keeping the reference to our Creator as “Father.” So it substitutes a perfectly good word – one that Jesus Himself used repeatedly – for a non-gender evoking one. Political correctness, nothing else. Again, does the committee really believe “providence” is a far better word than “love?” Love is the basic message of Jesus! God created the universe and everything in it out of love! Worse, your heading gushingly says “translations bring more poetic language.” Really? The strong simple words of the 1970 text not only are easier to recite aloud in prayer, especially with others, but they echo the strong simple language of the Bible, whose text is a classic masterpiece.

The committee is falling over backwards trying to improve on the wording, with questionable success. In brief: “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it!”

Catholic Review

The Catholic Review is the official publication of the Archdiocese of Baltimore.