Some Closing Notes from Rome

Posted on October 13, 2024 by Susan K. Roll

First, let me try your patience by sharing Notes from a Cranky Liturgist Who Just Attended Mass in Polish, the Only Language Out of the Eight in the Booklet that She Doesn’t Understand:
 
In 2011 a new English version of the Mass in English was promulgated from Rome with the rationale that it was a more accurate translation.  This is False.  Catholic liturgists have known this since about the year 2000 when the translation process was hijacked by highly conservative personages at the highest level in the Vatican.  If you listen, for example, you’ve heard the ditsy phrase “let your Spirit come upon these gifts like the dewfall” in the second Eucharistic Prayer.  First, dew doesn’t fall, it forms on the ground.  Second, no other modern language speaks of  “dewfall” — it’s only in the English.  This is just one small proof that the real issue was never a more accurate translation from the 2000 Latin edition.  The text was deliberately jigged.
 
Secondly, the male language is much worse in German than the other seven languages, but that has to do with the nature of German.  “Herr,” Lord, is the word for Mister in German. Every adult male is “Herr somebody.”  So every day, every German-speaking male is called the same word as “Lord.”  And the word for “adore” (in the English) also uses the word “herr.”  So the male-normative language is more obvious in the German, betraying its underlying presence and psychological effect in other modern languages.
 
Roman Catholic liturgists are not conspiracy theorists.  On the contrary, we know darned well when there’s a conspiracy, and who’s behind it.
 
OK, enough of the rant.
 
Some other thoughts as our two-week presence in Rome draws to a close:
 
On Thursday Rosemary and I enjoyed a wonderful, friendly, informal visit with Joyce Napier, Canada’s new Ambassador to the Holy See, who greeted us by immediately saying, “Call me Joyce.”  Yesterday I sent her a thank-you Email with the hot link to Jeanie’s interview with CBC Radio Calgary (Joyce is a longtime correspondent and bureau chief for both CBC and Radio-Canada, and later CTV.)  She was very pleased and said that our visit had “made her day.”  I think this may have been the highlight of our trip — to be so well-received and our message welcomed by a woman in her position.  And we’ve made a new friend.  All good.
 
Yesterday was the performance of a theatre piece, “Vaticanelle,” featuring women dressed as bishops debating whether men should be allowed to be ordained, reversing all the old tired arguments we’ve heard for years.  It was recorded to go up on YouTube.  
 
Today Sunday, Rosemary, Pat and I made our way to St. Peter’s for the 12 noon Angelus — 45 minutes of waiting in line and two security checkpoints.  Our friends from We Are Church had planned an action, but we didn’t see anything.  It turns out that they did manage to unfurl a very big yellow banner proclaiming “EQUALITY for women, LGBTQ…” etc. in St. Peter’s square.  Several of those involved were taken away, handcuffed and fingerprinted by police.
 
Here is an important point we learned this past week.  You know that this Synod meeting will not be dealing with a number of important issues that were delegated to ten Study Groups that are slated to report back in June 2025.  Study Group Five deals with women and the diaconate, among other things.  And, while the names of the members of the other nine Study Groups have been made public, Study Group Five’s members have not.
 
This is because there are no members.  Study Group 5 is, in effect, the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith.  It’s internal to the Vatican.
 
This is, to say the least, not promising.
 
CCRI — Catholic Church Reform International — and at least one member of the Wijngaards Institute, are now encouraging reform organizations like ours to undertake research and write reports to submit to the various Study Groups as input for their deliberations.  It’s a worthy undertaking only if there is openness on the part of a particular Study Group to taking such outside submissions into consideration.
 
It will clearly have no effect on Study Group Number Five.
 
This is still going to be an uphill struggle because of the ongoing intransigence toward opening any ministry to women that is not simply administrative or charitable in nature.  
 
Nonetheless, I refuse to give up hope.  Church history is replete with necessary reform that was held up for a long time, or even a short time.  It took 450 years for liturgical reforms on behalf of the full, active participation of the people to be set in policy at Vatican II.  But the period of time between when a clergyman or theologian could be silenced for advocating the Mass in the peoples’ languages, and the first Eucharistic celebrations in these languages, was between 1960 and 1965.  Sometimes it happens very fast.
 
One of my mottos in life is,
 
“Never let the bullies win.”
 
Rosemary and I are flying home tomorrow, Monday.  Heartfelt thanks to everyone for your interest and support these past two weeks in our reform work and presence here in Rome.