Benedict Honors The Cardinal Wizard of OZ:

Australian Bishops and Pope Benedict gather to hear from the Cardinal Wizard of OZ as he dedicates Domus Australia

New Mass translation can help Catholics pray better, pope says

 Cindy Wooden - Catholic News Service - 10-20-2011
VATICAN CITY -- The new English translation of the Mass is the result of a long process of international cooperation and is meant to help Catholics pray better, Pope Benedict XVI told Australia's bishops. (Not according to this member of ICEL.)

The new translation, which most Australian dioceses began introducing in parishes on Pentecost in June, "is intended to enrich and deepen the sacrifice of praise offered to God by his people," the pope said Oct. 20. (I'd just like to point out Jesus said He didn't want sacrifices.)
 
The morning after joining the bishops for the inauguration of the Domus Australia, a pilgrim center in Rome, the pope welcomed the bishops to the apostolic palace for the main talk of the "ad limina" visits, which bishops make to report on the church in their dioceses. (Actually it's a 30 million dollar bed and breakfast.)
 
Pope Benedict said the new liturgical translation was "the fruit of a remarkable cooperation of the Holy See, the bishops and experts from all over the world."
He asked the bishops to help their priests appreciate the new text and help catechists and musicians do their part to make the Mass "a moment of greater grace and beauty, worthy of the Lord and spiritually enriching for everyone."

Australian Cardinal George Pell of Sydney is the chairman of the Vox Clara Commission, an international body established by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, to assist in the evaluation of English liturgical translations. ( Pell and his compatriots totally overrode ICEL at the behest of the Vatican--hence Pope Benedict showed up to 'bless' Pell's $30 million dollar Roman bed and breakfast.)
 
The cardinal told Catholic News Service Oct. 19, "I think a goodly percentage of the people didn't notice the difference" when he began using the new text at the Sydney cathedral. "There are pockets of dissatisfaction, but overwhelmingly the priests and people are happy and they will get used to it. The prayers are immensely richer and there's much less banality." (Perhaps everyone in the Cathedral was deaf, or more likely Pell is being willfully blind.)

Some critics have said the new translation has archaic language, clumsy sentence structure and a lack of sensitivity to inclusive language.
Cardinal Pell said some of the vocabulary in the new translation is a bit challenging. For example, the new translation of the creed describes Jesus as being "consubstantial with the Father." The cardinal said, "One gentleman wrote to me and said he didn't understand 'consubstantial,' and I wrote back to him and suggested that he find out." (How swimmingly pastoral of Cardinal Pell.)

"One comparison I like to make is that -- although it's a mature, adult English -- (the translation) is a tiny bit like children's literature, because in good children's literature, every couple of pages there's probably a word the children don't understand, that expands their knowledge, and they have to either gather the meaning from the context or enquire about the meaning," the cardinal said. (Mr. Pastoral must be confusing himself with Mr Rogers, but my goodness, how utterly condescending.)

In his speech to the bishops, Pope Benedict also spoke about the hurt and damage caused by the clerical sex abuse crisis and other failures of church members.
"Yours is a pastoral burden which has been made heavier by the past sins and mistakes of others, most regrettably including some clergy and religious," the pope told the bishops. "The task now falls to you to continue to repair the errors of the past with honesty and openness, in order to build, with humility and resolve, a better future for all concerned." (Sighhhhh, it's never ever ever Rome's or a bishop's fault. It's always those 'other lesser beings' victimizing bishops and piling on the burdens.)

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I wonder if this visit of Australian bishops to Vatican City is beginning to feel like a sort of coronation for the Archduke of Sydney, otherwise known as Cardinal Pell.  I've been reading a number of stories this morning about Benedict's visit to Domus Australia mentioned in the above article.  Basically it really is a sort of bed and breakfast for Australian pilgrims in the heart of Rome.  This latest incarnation of a building bought from the Marist brothers back in 2008 is rumored to have cost somewhere between 30 and 85 million dollars.  Even at the lower figure, Australian Catholics are wondering just where the money came from for this venture of Pell's, but those kinds of questions must be too burdensome for the man because he hasn't answered any questions about cost or payment.  Kind of like Cardinal Maida of Detroit about the John Paul II Center in DC.  No, actually, exactly like Cardinal Maida.

I am beginning to develop a lot of respect for the reporting of Cindy Wooden of CNS.  Her writing is sort of the antithesis of John Allen's.  She has some seriously choice quotes from Cardinal Pell in the above article and the way she has all this put together, given Pell's position with Vox Clara,  is priceless.  Pell comes across as an elitist member of some sort of nobility and maybe that's because that's his true opinion of himself.  It's sad to think he represents a true blue member of the Vatican's ruling elite.

In other news, here's a quote from Cardinal Peter Turkson President of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.  He made it in remarks about the coming ecumenical meeting in Assisi:
The 63-year-old Ghana native added that the search for truth is a condition to "defeat fanaticism and fundamentalism," which seeks to obtain peace by imposing "one's own convictions on others."  It seems to me Archbishop Neinstedt of Minneapolis could meditate on these words, since he is engaging the Catholic parishes of Minnesota in just such a campaign to impose his own fundamentalist convictions on others. 

Sometimes it's confusing to be a Catholic.  Maybe Cardinal Pell could suggest a good children's story for me to read.  For myself I would suggest Pell might try reading the Wizard of OZ.