Why We Need a New Mass Translation

Many Catholics who regularly go to Mass seem to be unaware that the texts we use to worship God have been translated from Latin. For more than forty years, ever since the new rite of Mass (Novus Ordo) was introduced after the Second Vatican Council, we have used a translation prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

Next year, a new English translation of the 2002 Latin edition of the Missale Romanum, the Roman Missal, will be introduced. A new Lectionary will follow, no longer derived from the Jerusalem Bible. In the next few years, all the sacramental rites will appear in a new translation. But the first project is the Missal.