Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
December 5, 2001
Bishops' meeting highlights approaching liturgy changes
New General Instruction of the Roman Missal due before year's end
WASHINGTON (CNS) — Liturgy discussions and votes at the U.S. bishops' mid-November meeting highlighted several changes U.S. Catholics can expect to see in the liturgy in coming months.
A number of minor changes will come in connection with the Vatican's new General Instruction of the Roman Missal, which is to take effect immediately when the third edition of the Roman Missal comes out in Latin. The instruction itself has been public since July 2000.
The new edition of the Roman Missal now is supposed to appear before the end of the year, Archbishop Oscar H. Lipscomb of Mobile, Ala., chairman of the Committee on Liturgy, told the bishops during their Nov. 12-15 meeting.
At the meeting the bishops took steps to work with the Vatican to assure that U.S. adaptations to the new general instruction can take effect at the same time as the instruction.
Also coming up soon for American Catholics is use of the new weekday Lectionary for Mass — as an option in U.S. parishes beginning Feb. 13 and as a requirement beginning May 19.
Father James P. Moroney, executive director of the bishops' Secretariat for Liturgy, said he hopes that a better understanding of the liturgy will be "the biggest change that anyone would notice" as the changes are implemented.
"This latest edition of the Roman Missal is intended to provide us with an opportunity at the beginning of the new millennium to deepen our understanding, theologically and spiritually and ritually, of what has always been in the Roman Missal," he said.
"The changes (in actual liturgical practice) are few and far between," he added. "It's extraordinarily important that we not miss the forest for the trees."
The norms in the new instruction, as modified by U.S. adaptations, will involve few changes for most parishes.
One new norm calls on members of the assembly to act together in their gestures and posture as an expression of unity, asking individual worshipers to avoid "any appearance of individualism or division."
Another calls for processional crosses or fixed crosses at the altar to be crucifixes, not plain crosses.
One norm says standing is the norm for receiving Communion, but anyone who insists on kneeling should not be denied Communion for that reason.
The biggest concrete change in coming months will be the publication of the rest of the new Lectionary, the book of Scripture readings for Masses. But that change really will be noticed only by daily Mass-goers, not those who attend only on Sundays or holy days.
The bishops gave final approval for a new Lectionary for Sundays and some major feasts in 1997 and for three additional volumes, covering readings for weekdays, saints' feasts, votive Masses, ritual Masses and other occasions, in 1998.
The Sunday volume received Vatican approval and was published in 1998. It has been available for optional use in U.S. Catholic parishes since Advent of that year, and most parishes already have been using it for some time.
Earlier this year the other three volumes received Vatican approval. Parishes can begin using them Ash Wednesday, Feb. 13, 2002. Publishers are expected to have the new volumes available by the beginning of Feb.
As of Pentecost, May 19, 2002, use of the entire new Lectionary in four volumes will become mandatory, and any previous edition of the Lectionary can no longer be used.
The new Lectionary in English is based on the New American Bible.
Among volumes of Scripture texts for liturgical use, the ancient Book of the Gospels has been restored to prominence in recent years. On Sundays and other solemn occasions it is carried in the opening procession, placed on the altar until the Gospel, and then used for the Gospel reading. It also is used as part of the ordination rite of deacons and bishops.
A new volume of the Book of the Gospels was published and approved for use in U.S. parishes in 2000.
The new General Instruction of the Roman Missal says specifically that only the Book of the Gospels, not the Lectionary, is to be carried in the entrance procession. No book is carried out in the closing procession.
At the recent bishops' meeting, Archbishop Lipscomb said the Vatican was making special efforts to help coordinate the implementation of new general liturgy norms in the new general instruction with implementation of the American adaptations, so that both can take effect together.
Such coordination would minimize disruption of U.S. worship practices under the new general instruction, since the most notable adaptations are those designed to continue U.S. customs, such as kneeling throughout the eucharistic prayer, which differ from the universal norms.
Father Moroney told CNS no final word has been received yet on the bishops' requests for exceptions to the new general norms concerning the role of lay eucharistic ministers at Mass. Approval of such exceptions, called indults, requires a legal approach slightly different from that used for adaptations.
The bishops adopted those in June in a document, then titled "This Holy and Living Sacrifice," on the celebration and reception of Communion under both kinds. At the Vatican's request, since an earlier U.S. directory on Communion under both kinds had the same title, the new document has been retitled "One Bread, One Cup." But final Vatican approval of its norms has not yet been received.
One change U.S. liturgists had been looking forward to for several years has been delayed because of the imminent issuance of a new edition of the Roman Missal. In the 1990s the bishops of the United States and other English-speaking countries worked extensively on adopting a new Sacramentary — another name for the Roman Missal without the Lectionary readings — based on the second edition of the Roman Missal in Latin.
The U.S. version was sent to Rome for approval in 1998. With the issuance of a third edition of the Roman Missal in Latin and a new Vatican instruction on liturgical translations, however, Father Moroney said the revised Sacramentary will have to be delayed until it can be revised again to take those texts into account.
Contact Us
