Catholic Mass Will Sound A Little Different Beginning This Weekend
CHICAGO (CBS) -- Chicago's Roman Catholics attending Mass this weekend may be in for a few surprises: changes to familiar prayers they've heard and responded to for a lifetime.
CBS 2 Chief Correspondent Jay Levine has the story of the first significant changes in the Mass since Vatican 2, more than 40 years ago.
In the 100-year-old church of Notre Dame on the Near West Side this week, the age-old ritual of Roman Catholic Mass was celebrated the same way, with the exact same words used for decades: "Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again."
Beginning this weekend, churchgoers won't be able to hear that acclamation and some other familiar phrases as well. The new Roman Missal, the book of prayers and responses, this weekend will replace the version of the Mass that has been used for decades.
"I don't know. I don't like change," one parishioner said.
Here's another modification. The exchange of "The Lord be with you … and also with you" turns into this: "The Lord be with you … And with your spirit."
Francis Cardinal George, the Archbishop of Chicago, says Masses said in other languages have long since used those phrases.
"They've been saying it for 40 years, so now we'll say it, too," he said.
The Vatican says it's a more consistent, faithful translation from the Latin, but critics say it can force the square peg of one language into the round hole of another. For example: changing the word "born" to "incarnate."
"By using the word incarnate, you have a clearer understand of the full mystery that's being celebrated," says Fr. Robert Tuzik of Notre Dame de Chicago.
Most will go with the flow.
"I'll figure it out," Glen Leonard of Chicago says.
Some even welcome the changes.
"We're set in our ways, where we respond automatically, so now it's going to give the ability to think about what we're saying," Victor Fernandez says.
Father Bob Tuzik, who has written two books explaining the new translation, isn't worried.
"Come back in a couple of months. There's going to be a comfort level that will have set in," he says.
The New Missal will used for the first time in Chicago Saturday night.
