VERNACULAR RITUAL BUT NOT MASS

Difference of opinion
IN view of the Holy Father's pronouncement last week to .4the delegates who attended the Pastoral Liturgical Congress in Assisi and of statements made by two Cardinals, any changes in the language of the Mass — in other than missionary lands, at least — seem to be further away than many people have hitherto thought.
The Holy Father, as reported last week said: " The Church has grave motives for firmly insisting on the absolute obligation of the priest celebrating Mass to use Latin, and, also when Gregorian chant accompanies the Holy Sacrifice, that this be done in the Church's tongue."
Cardinal Ruffini of Palermo. as reported below, visiting the United States, advised seminary students to be on guard against the introduction of the vernacular — the mother tongue — into the Divine Liturgy.
And, reporting On the Maki Conference, an American liturgical specialist, Fr. Gerald Ellard, S.J., Professor of Liturgical Theology at St. Mary's, Kansas, now says that no report could fail to mention the difference of opinion between Cardinal Cicognani and his hearers.
Fr. Ellard says that in the last part of his opening address the Cardinal "stated clearly that the Papal policy was for retaining Latin in the entire Mass."
Cardinal Cicognani is the Prefect of the Sacred Congregation of Rites, which watches over the rites and ceremonies of the Latin Rite. Fr. Ellard writes: Some years ago it came home to mc that individual American priests fall into three groups with respect to the vernacular in the liturgy.
Hardly any want the vernacular in the Mass.
Most, but by no means all, want the vernacular in the ritual of Baptism and other rituals, " as much as possible."
But, on asceticsl and pastoral grounds, practically all would hail the day they were given the option of using the vernacular in the breviary. Priests do not think in Latin and cannot easily pray in that medium.
In the intervening years many liturgical developments have taken place, but I do not think there has been much shifting in these three clerical positions.
Any report on the vernacular in the papers read at Assisi and on the Papal allocution delivered to the meeting must make the following statement at the outset: "Rome would welcome requests for a vernacular ritual."
First in time and importance of the liturgical documents of the past ten years was the great Encyclical on the liturgy, Mediator Dei. issued in 1947. While it castigated priests who, on their own authority, departed from the Latin at Mass, it said that many rites would be highly advantageous in the mother tongue.
That very same year French Catholics were permitted to use a bilingual ritual. which has since been enlarged, as well as having been extended to French-speaking people in other countries, such as Belgium, northern Italy and Canada.
German Bishops were informed in 1943 that the Holy See would welcome a united appeal from them for a bilingual ritual, such as Austria had been given in 1935 by Pope Pius Xl. They followed this suggestion, drew up their book and in 1950 secured approbation for it for all of Germany.
IN MISSIONS
Meanwhile, in the mission countries, in virtue of a permissionand-mandate so to say, in every Large area local clergy were to arrange such rituals. which could then be approved locally for ten years' use before being referred to Rome.
Three small rituals for different parts of India are now in print. Many others are in preparation.
The request formulated in the United States for substantially the same ritual that had been granted Germany was quickly approved. first for the United States in 1954 and then, in quick succession, for Canada, Australia, New Zealand and
I India, a,
the Burma, English-speaking ng li hC. sepyeln Ceylon nagn d Malaya lea yoaf d in 1955.
I India, a,
the Burma, English-speaking ng li hC. sepyeln Ceylon nagn d Malaya lea yoaf d in 1955.
Thus, the ritual situation at the present is this:
In the missions a bilingual ritual has In beheonmoerdcTdun'tries, any nation knows it can get such a ritual by asking Rome for it.
Often enough, especially in press reports from far-off mission areas, there is mention of a Mass celebrated, by Papal permission, in which the Gloria and other parts are sung in the language of the people. And there was passing note of a grant given in 1949 for the preparation of a missal for China, with Mandarin Chinese for all except the Canon of the Mass.
THE FUTURE
Impressions have grown in liturgical circles that the Holy See might adopt. in the missions or in home countries some form of the Mass in which, while the Canon is kept in Latin, other parts might be in the language of the people.
suppose it is safe to say that most of those attending the congress at Assisi desired that permission be given to have the Epistle tis.tle and Gospel in the language of the people without the Latin fi r
The vernacular in the Mass was given small encouragement in the
Pope's hataddwraesss.
once described as
"gradual 'and controlled . concession" in further extending the use of the vernacular in the liturgy is clearly the Holy Father's programme,
A CARDINAL COUNSELS CAUTION
CARDINAL Ruffin' of Palermo.
paying his first visit to the United States. urged caution against the extended use of the mother tongue in the liturgy.
Addressing students at St. Charles Borromeo's Seminary in Philadelphia, the Cardinal advised them to study Latin more intensively and quoted Pope Pius XI to the affect that Latin is " the Catholic language of the world."
He also remarked that Latin is the language of ecumenical councils — the meetings of the Bishops of the whole world — and the language usually used by the Holy Father in his pronouncements.
Cardinal Ruftini warned the seminary students to be on guard against those who would try to substitute the vernacular for the official language of the Church in the Divine Liturgy. This is quite unnecessary and undesirable. he said, for it always possible to have side by side with the liturgical text a translation in the mother tongue for those who do not understand Latin.