Wisdom has been God’s “delight day by day” since it was established, the Sunday reading from the Book of Proverbs tells us. More than a year after revisions to the prayers and rubrics of the Catholic Mass were established, Catholic clergy are not quite as delighted, according to a new survey.

In a poll from St. John’s University School of Theology, nearly 60 percent of priests surveyed said they did not like the new Roman Missal. One-third of priests (34 percent) strongly disagree that the new translation of the Mass is an improvement and 80 percent say that some of the language is “awkward and distracting."

The new translation, which went into effect in the nearly 18,000 parishes in the U.S. in November 2011, was years in the making but took longer than expected when, critics say, the process was taken over by Vatican-backed conservatives who wanted to make the language sound more like literal translations of the original Latin.

That resulted in formulations that supporters said were more authentic and expressed a grandeur and mystery appropriate for the sacred rites. Critics said the new phrasings are stilted and often incomprehensible.

One reason that priests seem to take a dimmer view of the new translation than the laity in surveys could be that priests have to use it every day and have many more passages to recite than lay people. They paid closer attention to the translation process, which may explain why many of them said they were just as upset with the way the revision was undertaken and implemented as they were with the end result.

More than six in 10 of the priests surveyed said they wanted a revision of the revisions, and they are not the only ones. “While we don’t want to ‘throw the baby out with the bathwater,’ the new missal needs corrective surgery and this should take place without delay,” Bishop Robert Brom of San Diego said.

Homily hint: How have the revisions to the Roman Missal been accepted in your own faith community? Perhaps they offer an opportunity for some education on the history, form, and function of the liturgical celebration of the Mass. To examine the survey report in detail, see the Executive Summary of the 2013 Survey of U.S. Priests on the New Roman Missal.

Source: An article by David Gibson for Religion News Service