June 2010 

The Bishops welcomed the recent completion of the translation of the Third Edition of The Roman Missal and its approval by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.  The Bishops look forward to its final editing and its use at Masses in Ireland towards the end of 2011.

The Bishops will engage in diocesan and parish programmes to help our congregations to understand and appreciate the new translation of the Mass so that the changes will serve, in the words of the Holy Father, “as a spring board for a renewal and deepening of Eucharistic devotion all over the English speaking world.

Some background information was included:

A new edition of the Latin Missal was issued in 2002 and this new translation will replace the current Missal we have used since 1975.  Since 1975 there have been many additions to the Missal.  New feasts have been added to the Liturgical Calendar, new Eucharistic Prayers were issued and a new Calendar with many new prayers has been approved for Ireland .  All of these will be included in the new edition under preparation.

Over the past six years the bishops have been receiving the new translation in segments from the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, a commission representing eleven Bishops’ Conferences in the English-speaking world.  The most obvious difference will be the changes in translation since this has been done according to norms for translation issued in 2001.  These norms call for a fuller faithful translation of the Latin, capturing the biblical resonances of our prayers more clearly and the rich words and phrases of the prayers, many more than 1200 years old.