I found a link (via Father Z.) to this particular piece of epic dumbness at the Tablet. Epic.
New Missal translation – rated 18
Posted by Melanie Lately, guest contributor , 1 July 2011, 9:00At Mass we have cards in the pews so we can follow the revised translation of the Mass. The options for different parts are there. This week our parish priest used the homily to speak about it. When he read out the words of the Confiteor, with the changes in bold, he was greeted with gales of laughter and even he had to smile.
I confess to almighty God
and to you, my brothers and sisters,
that I have greatly sinned
in my thoughts and in my words,
in what I have done
and in what I have failed to do,
[All strike their breast]
through my fault, through my fault,
through my most grievous fault;No-one today in their right mind – unless perhaps they have just murdered someone – is going to harp on about “my fault, my fault, my own most grievous fault” while beating their breast, especially if they are reflecting on ordinary everyday thoughts or words that most Mass-goers might be expected to have. The picture the words give of breast-beating illiterate peasants with cloth caps and mud-clotted boots is like something out of Monty Python.
I really cannot believe that a publication, even one as facile as the Tablet, would publish such nonsense. I mean, even Michael Sean Winters would think this is dumb, even Anthony Stevens-Arroyo would think… Well, maybe not Stevens-Arroyo, but this is plenty dumb.
But. But I say. It gets worse. Dumb squared.
She compares teaching children to strike their breast and acknowledge their sin to child abuse. I am not kidding.
Among consenting adults at Mass it matters little. But it is completely different when it comes to the children. As an educator with children in Catholic schools I wonder if Vox Clara group who came up with this translation have thought about the educational side.
Imagine what would happen if the Government of Britain or the US, Canada or Australia were to bring something like this into state schools with little or no public consultation, and have children learn such words by heart and repeat them over and over for 12 years – there would be a public outcry. And yet the equivalent of this is being foisted on Catholic children in English-speaking lands. Surely if Catholic children are cajoled by teachers at the behest of the Catholic hierarchy to beat their breasts on regular solemn occasions and pronounce themselves inwardly filthy, we should be shown the psychological impact study they carried out. Or did they not do one?
Father Z. succinctly exposes the absurdity of this nonsense much better than I ever could. He says “Reflect on the suggestion that the liturgical beating of one’s breast is tantamount to child abuse. I wonder what she thinks of showing children a piece of wood with a man nailed to it.”
I wonder.
July 7, 2011 at 2:59 am
The key phrase seems to me to be:
"No-one today in their right mind …"
It's just not up-to-date, you see! We're not like that any longer.
And we don't use singular third-person pronouns to refer to singular antecedents, either!
God help us if we are not!
jj
July 7, 2011 at 3:03 am
"Surely if Catholic children are cajoled by teachers at the behest of the Catholic hierarchy to beat their breasts on regular solemn occasions and pronounce themselves inwardly filthy…"
…and pronounce themselves inwardly CONTRITE…. Someone needs help and it is not the Catholic children but the writer who cannot fathom acknowledging herself as a person in need of God's grace and is therefore a disgrace, and further in her contempt for God the writer refuses to ask God for His Mercy. I suspect the writer will not fail to blame God for all of her misery or maybe you or me. If one has ever seen a picture of the devil sheathed in scales of armor akin to the dragon, one is reminded of the impervious callousness of the unrepentant sinner.
Mary De Voe
July 7, 2011 at 3:17 am
@Patrick Archbold: I like the phrase: "dumb squared" If I may use your concept and add exponentially. I hope it is not dumb squared eternally, because that is what exponentially would infer. They read and write and vote and live among us. Some have even gotten to the White House. If I post this, forgive me. if I do not post this, excuse me.
July 7, 2011 at 3:35 am
I think the dumbest part is that she claims the new translation is rated 18. In the UK, 18 is the film rating equivalent to NC-17. According to IMDB, some films with an 18 rating are:
The Hangover
Pulp Fiction
Requiem for a Dream
Goodfellas
Watchmen
American Beauty
A Clockwork Orange
The Shining
According to Wikipedia, "These films may contain extreme gore/violence and/or sexually explicit content."
So, she claims the new Mass translation is similar to these films, containing extreme violence and/or explicit sexual content. Needless to add, children are not allowed into 18 rated films, so she apparently thinks children should be banned from Mass.
July 7, 2011 at 3:53 am
Logical fallacy:
Imagine what would happen if the Government of Britain or the US, Canada or Australia were to bring something like this into state schools with little or no public consultation, and have children learn such words by heart and repeat them over and over for 12 years
Religious upbringing is voluntary sweetheart. Your entire argument hinges on a straw man…
July 7, 2011 at 4:35 am
Isn't this just what we used to say in Latin, "mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa" Has she never heard this before?
July 7, 2011 at 12:36 pm
The Catholic Mass is not the only service to include breast beating. As part of the Jewish Yom Kippur service (Day of Repentance) the congregation beats their breasts while reciting a list of sins. It's a long list, and each sin is expressed as a collective sin. "We abuse." "We steal." "We lie" etc. I don't recall feeling abused as a child doing this even though some of the sins didn't apply to me personally. Just FYI from a Jewish convert.
July 7, 2011 at 12:38 pm
"The picture the words give of breast-beating illiterate peasants with cloth caps and mud-clotted boots is like something out of Monty Python."
She thinks she's better than those peasants. Reminds me of the rich man asking Lazarus for water.
July 7, 2011 at 1:27 pm
The boots are mud-clotted from honest work, and the role model for honest work is St. Joseph.
July 7, 2011 at 2:14 pm
"Imagine what would happen if the Government of Britain or the US, Canada or Australia were to bring something like this into state schools with little or no public consultation, and have children learn such words by heart and repeat them over and over for 12 years – there would be a public outcry."
Umm… like we teach kids to say the Pledge of Allegiance?
July 7, 2011 at 2:40 pm
Swallow is the only word I can think of to describe this foolishness! Scotju
July 7, 2011 at 2:47 pm
This whole "beating the breast" thing. She's acting as if we are being asked to beat our breast as if we were a bunch of angry gorillas. Why would a child think they were "filthy" unless they were led to that belief, or left to persist in that belief, by a grossly misinformed adult? All a child needs to hear is that "Yep, we sin, we mess up. Admit it, acknowledge it, apologize and receive mercy and forgiveness…and then move on happily! For goodness sake, some people really lack common sense….and decent, basic catechesis.
July 7, 2011 at 4:15 pm
An ignorant, but progressive woman with her faulty rationale wrote this. Notice how many of these "sinless" people shun confession, since they have nothing to confess–and pop another birth control pill in their mouth,as they sit in front of the TV watching the parade of garbage on it–promoting a godless/pagan existence. Her musings then are no surprise.
July 7, 2011 at 4:55 pm
This person needs to read Jesus' parable of the Pharisee and the publican. Spoiler alert–the guy who was all like "thank God I'm not like that idiot beating his breast" is not the one who went away justified.
July 7, 2011 at 4:57 pm
@Jonathan 9:14: "Like the Pledge of Allegiance" Patriotism, humility, virginity, honesty, integrity, decency, modesty, charity, courage. Virtues are formulae to approach God, Who aleady knows what we need and is waiting for us to realize what we need. Melanie Lately needs Virtue Timely.
Mary De Voe
July 7, 2011 at 8:19 pm
As an educator……
And we "wonder" why our society is in free fall, as well as the Catholic Church itself?
Karl
July 7, 2011 at 9:03 pm
She was speaking for all Cafeteria Catholics like Cumo, Pelosi, Kerry and the Kennedys…
July 8, 2011 at 3:52 am
I swear sometimes that folks at the NCReporter and Tablet have a contest to see who can write the silliest thing and get people to believe it or agree with it.
July 12, 2011 at 12:23 am
And this woman is an "educator"? Someone needs to get her away from any children at once. Note how her first instinct is to wonder what a country's government would think instead of what Almighty God thinks. She is entirely of the world and corrupted by it. Really epic stupidity.
July 12, 2011 at 2:44 pm
Until we understand that sin is the beginning of the joy of our Salvation in the incomprehensible act of Love that is the Cross, we cannot make sense of this gesture in the "new" liturgical tradition. That involves something that has nothing to do with "today" or "the past" in the Church, not even with the truth of our fallen nature, but with the Truth of our being quite impossibly loved unconditionally and saved from our own selves. The problem is age-old, forgetting John 3:16 ourselves, and failing to live it and make it real to our brothers and sisters.