RNSdigest_04_28

RNS Digest
© 2010 Religion News Service

Pope urges ‘sensitivity’ as mass changes are introduced

By Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Pope Benedict XVI warned that a forthcoming new English translation of the Catholic mass could provoke “confusion or bewilderment” among worshipers if not “introduced with due sensitivity.”

Benedict made his remarks on April 28 during lunch with a committee of English-speaking bishops from five continents, who have worked for nearly a decade with the Vatican’s liturgy office on preparing the new translation.

“Many will find it hard to adjust to unfamiliar texts after nearly 40 years of continuous use of the previous translation,” the pope said. “The change will need to be introduced with due sensitivity, and the opportunity for catechesis that it presents will need to be firmly grasped.”

The pope said the changes, if handled correctly, will help prevent “ any risk of confusion or bewilderment” in the most sweeping changes to Catholic worship since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.

Benedict did not specify a release date, saying only that the text “will soon be ready for publication.” Australia’s Cardinal George Pell, chair of the advisory committee, told the National Catholic Register the translation will not be available for use in churches before 2011 at the earliest.

Catholic churches around the world replaced Latin for local vernacular languages in the wake of modernizing reforms of the 1960s. The Vatican ordered changes in 2001 of the translation used in English-speaking countries to make it conform more closely to the Latin original. The process has been fraught with controversy. Some clergy and lay people have objected to phrasing and vocabulary they find awkward or clunky. Others have argued a more faithful translation produces language of greater solemnity.

In the current version of the mass in English, for instance, a priest prays over the bread and wine for communion by saying: “Let your Spirit come upon these gifts, to make them holy.”

In the revised version, he will instead say: “Make holy, therefore, these gifts, we pray, by sending down your Spirit upon them like the dewfall.”

Vatican to assume control of troubled Legion of Christ
By Francis X. Rocca

VATICAN CITY (RNS) — Members of the Legion of Christ are waiting for Pope Benedict XVI to name officials who will supervise reform of their conservative Catholic movement, following the Vatican’s repudiation of its late founder.

In a statement on Saturday (May 1), the Vatican announced the conclusion of an investigation into the Legion, also known as the Legionaries of Christ, which began last July.

The investigation was prompted by revelations that the movement’s founder, the late Rev. Marcial Maciel, had fathered at least one illegitimate child and sexually abused minors.

“The serious and objectively immoral behaviour of Father Maciel, supported by incontrovertible evidence, at times constitutes real crimes, and manifests a life devoid of scruples and of genuine religious feeling,” the Vatican’s statement said.

Noting that Maciel’s legacy calls for a “journey of profound re-evaluation,” the Vatican said the pope would “soon” name a delegate and a commission to study the movement’s constitution, with an eye to redefining its mission and power structure.

Benedict will appoint another official, called a visitor, to oversee reforms at the Legion’s affiliated lay movement, Regnum Christi, the Vatican said.

The Vatican promised that the reform process would entail “sincere confrontation with all those who, inside and outside the Legion, were victims of sexual abuse and of the power system devised by the founder.”

Controversy around Maciel dates at least as far back as 1997, when nine former Legionaries accused him of sexual abuse decades earlier, while they were studying to become priests under his authority.

Maciel, who died in 2008, was not disciplined during the reign of Pope John Paul II, when the Legion rose to its greatest prominence. But in 2006, under Benedict, the Vatican announced that Maciel had been ordered to lead a “life reserved to prayer and penitence, renouncing all public ministry.”

The Legion continued to honour Maciel in its official literature and to deny the allegations against him until last year.

Earlier this year, two Mexican men also stepped forward to claim Maciel was their father.

The Legion claims to have 800 priests and more than 2,500 seminarians in 22 countries, including the United States. Regnum Christi claims 70,000 lay members in more than 30 countries.

A statement posted on the Legion’s Website said the “Legionaries thank the Holy Father (for the Vatican’s announcement) and embrace his provisions with faith and obedience.”

Belgium poised to ban Muslim veil

By Elizabeth Bryant

PARIS (RNS) — Belgium is poised to become Europe’s first country to ban the face-covering Islamic veil, after lawmakers approved such a measure Thursday (April 29) — just a week after the French President Nicolas Sarkozy ordered similar legislation in France.

Deputies in Belgium’s lower house of Parliament voted almost unanimously for banning the face veil, known in Afghanistan as the burqa and in the Arab world as the niqab. The measure must still be passed by the Belgian Senate before becoming law, and some critics suggest it may face legal obstacles.

The law would ban the face veil in many public spaces. Violators could be fined up to $34 dollars or face short jail sentences.

Human rights groups swiftly condemned the measure as violating freedom of expression.

“Clearly this is not a welcoming message,” said John Dalhuisen, Amnesty International’s expert on discrimination in Europe. “It’s an attempt by certain parts of the population, certain political parties, to draw a line in the sand as it were — and say, ‘beyond this point, we shan’t be accepting your cultural or religious practices.”’

Belgium is not the only European country to consider a veil ban, reflecting widespread uneasiness about the continent’s booming Muslim community. Politicians in Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and Switzerland have all pushed for some kind of law — but none have gone as far as Belgium.

In France, Sarkozy wants to submit a face-veil ban bill to parliament in May, following lengthy debate on the subject.

In Belgium, a ban has drawn widespread political support, as advocates argue that it is critical to uphold women’s rights and as a security measure against extremists. It is also critical for social integration, says the bill’s chief sponsor, deputy Daniel Bacquelaine of the liberal Reformist Movement party.

“We think that this measure is essential to promote living together in our society. And if we live together, we have to be recognized — that’s not possible if I can’t see the other’s face,” he said.

But critics in France and Belgium argue such a ban is unnecessary, since so few Muslim women actually wear a face veil. The issue has also divided Muslims, who feel unfairly targeted.

“Even in that part of the Muslim community in which there is no support for the niqab and burqa, the reaction is quite negative toward the law because it’s seen as additional stigmatization,” said Marco Martiniello, an immigration expert at the University of Liege, in Belgium.

In Belgium as in France, a veil ban law may also face legal hurdles. France’s State Council, the country’s highest administrative body, has warned it might be unconstitutional. Others say the legislation may violate the European Convention on Human Rights.

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