THE CHURCH IN THE WORLD
Barcelona Mass ‘captures essence of this pontificate’
Robert Mickens In Barcelona
IN A WEEKEND visit to two vastly different Spanish cities, one a medieval pilgrimage shrine town and the other a fun-loving and modernised metropolis, Pope Benedict XVI has made his latest attempt to convince people of an increasingly secularised Europe that they need God at the centre of their lives and societies. The most powerful symbol of the Pope’s
efforts came on Sunday in the Mediterranean tourist hotspot of Barcelona where he con- secrated Antoni Gaudí’s Church of the Sagrada Família. It was one of the most evocative litur- gies of his pontificate and showcased the ongoing construction of a 128-year-old avant- garde church as a sacred space in the heart of one of Europe’s most secular cities. “I consider the dedication of this Church of the Sagrada Familia to be an event of great importance, at a time when man claims to be able to build his life without God, as if God had nothing to say to him,” the Pope said at the dedication Mass. “In this masterpiece, Gaudí shows us that God is the true measure of man; that the secret of authentic originality consists, as he himself said, in returning to one’s origin which is God,” he added. The Pope said the newly dedicated church, with its towering tree-like columns and daz- zling stained-glass windows, was a reminder of humanity’s need for beauty. “Beauty also reveals God because, like him, a work of beauty is pure gratuity; it calls us to freedom and draws us away from selfishness,” he said. The Vatican spokesman, Fr Federico
Lombardi SJ, told reporters afterwards that the Mass was “a unique moment in the litur- gical activities” of Pope Benedict and a “very emotional experience”. He said the weekend visit, lasting a little over 30 hours in all, “really seemed to capture the central point” and entire programme of the pontificate – to highlight “the priority of God and the Church’s duty to proclaim Jesus Christ who reveals him”. Pope Benedict scored points by speaking
several times in Catalan, the language of the fiercely proud people of the autonomous region of Catalonia of which Barcelona is the capital. He also visited a home for disabled children, run by the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart, saying, “The followers of Christ must multiply concrete gestures of effective and constant solidarity, thus showing that charity is the hallmark of our Christian life.” The 83-year-old Pope began the trip last Saturday by going as “just another pilgrim” to Santiago de Compostela, which is conclud- ing a special Holy Year. During a Mass outside the twelfth-century cathedral believed to hold the remains of the Apostle St James the Greater, the Pope lamented that Europe was trying to relegate religion to “the private
■Pope Benedict XVI has invited all the world’s cardinals to a 19 November summit at the Vatican to discuss a number of urgent topics in the Church, including religious freedom around the world and the handling of clerical sex-abuse cases. The “day of
The Pope leads the Angelus prayer outside the Sagrada Família in Barcelona after consecrating the church on Sunday. Photo: CNS/Albert Gea, Reuters
sphere” and banish it to the shadows. “Europe must open itself to God, must come to meet him without fear,” he said. Before arriving in Spain, Pope Benedict told journalists on his plane that the country in a “strong sense” was one of the Western nations most in need of a new evangelisation. But he raised eyebrows by suggesting that “anticlericalism and a strong and aggressive secularism, as we saw in the 1930s, can be seen again today in Spain”. He said it was thus important to have “an encounter, not a clash” between faith and secularism.
reflection and prayer” precedes the Pope’s third public consistory on 20 November, when he is to create 24 new cardinals. The cardinals-designate will join the 179 existing cardinals for the summit. Other topics include “Liturgy in the life of
Missal revisions said to violate Vatican translation rules
A SCATHING new report has produced extensive evidence that last-minute changes were made to the English translation of the Roman Missal without the knowledge or approval of the competent bishops’ conferences and in violation of the Vatican’s own translation rules, writes Robert Mickens. The report compares the 2008 Missal translation, done by the International
Commission on English in the Liturgy (Icel) and approved by
the episcopal conferences, with what is known as the “received text” or the 2010 Missal. This still unpublished text includes the last-minute contested changes. The Congregation for Divine Worship (CDW) gave the text its recognitio (approval) on 25 March and presented bound copies to Pope Benedict XVI and members of the Vox Clara committee at a 28 April luncheon. This committee of 12 senior English-speaking bishops and several advisers
was created by the CDW in 2001, effectively to gain greater control over Icel. It is believed the last-minute changes cited in the new report were made by Vox Clara. “There are 13 areas of
difficulty identified in the light of Liturgiam Authenticam or the Ratio Translationis,” begins the anonymous 36-page report, citing guideline documents issued in 2001 and 2007 by the CDW. The author or authors, obviously trained
experts in the field, say difficulties include instances of: a “change of meaning of the original text”; a “mistranslation of the Latin”; additions or omissions; “the introduction of a theological problem”, and “difficulty with English grammar or usage”. The critique was sent last week to the 11 English-speaking episcopal conferences that are sponsor members of Icel, fuelling speculation it was produced by Icel officials.
13 November 2010 | THE TABLET | 31
the Church today”; “10 years since Dominus Iesus”, the 2000 Instruction on the Catholic Church as the one true Church of Christ; and the constitution Anglicanorum Coetibus, that provides for Anglican communities wishing to join the Catholic Church.
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