Letters

Nicene Creed

Ken Bayliss

Contents - Mar 2002 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Selecting and forming future priests - Michael Gilchrist St Thérèse's relics make Australian pilgrimage - Mother Teresa OCDM News: The Church Around the World 'Conservation Plan' recommends changes to Toowoomba's Cathedral - Michael Gilchrist North American vocations summit overlooks orthodox success stories - Zenit News Service Former Anglican Bishop of London explains why he became a Catholic - Monsignor Graham Leonard Perpetual Eucharistic Adoration spreads throughout the world - Fr Douglas Harris 'Liturgiam Authenticam', ICEL and the need for improved Mass translations - Anna Silvas The Benedictine medal: a long history of devotion - Fr Fabian Duggan OSB Thoughts of a recent convert to Catholicism - Rett Peaden Letters: Watered-down faith - Teresa Martin Letters: Testimonies - Raymond de Souza Letters: Apology - Fr M. Shadbolt PP Letters: Last straw (letter) - Justin Kearney Letters: Human Rights (letter) - Sr M.B. Eanswythe OSB Letters: Courage Needed (letter) - Frank Bellet Letters: Sunday obligation - Leo Willems Letters: Forgotten teachings - Mrs Hiske Deschepper Letters: Nicene Creed - Ken Bayliss Letters: Parish libraries? - Bob Cotterall Letters: Indian appeal - Kevin L. Fernandes Letters: Teaching position - Robert Anderson Books: Freedom and Virtue: The Conservative-Libertarian Debate, George W. Carey (ed) - Alex Sidhu (reviewer) Books: Faith of the Fatherless: The Psychology of Atheism, by Paul Vitz - Bill Muehlenberg (reviewer) Books: Living The Catholic Faith, by Archbishop Charles Chaput - Anthony Cappello (reviewer) Books: Fatima Handbook, by Leo Madigan - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: Fr Werenfried - A Life, by Joanna Bogle - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Books: New Titles from AD Books Reflection: John Paul II: St Joseph's renewed significance for the Church - Br Christian Moe FSC

It was only some time after Cardinal Norman Gilroy's imprimatur of 23 January 1970 to We Offer the Mass that the Nicene Creed's credo, correctly translated as "I believe", became "We believe."

Jack Nyman (October AD2000) rightly states that the Nicene Creed was originally in Greek and contained pistenome ("We believe").

A good friend, who is a senior priest of the Greek Orthodox Church, our sister Church since Vatican II, explains the change from pistenome to pisteuo ("I believe"):

"Almost every creed prior to Nicaea was a baptismal formula that was required to be recited by the candidate for baptism. Prior to baptism, believers or their sponsors were, as is the case to this day, required individually to recite the Creed in the presence of the Church. It was therefore a natural progression to the first person singular in fitting with a personal belief in the faith, as you also suggested."

The Apostles' Creed, as Mr Nyman states, always had the "I" form and was traditionally said at baptism and the ordination of a priest. The Orthodox Church has only ever had the Nicene Creed.

Rome is to be congratulated for returning accuracy to the English translation of the Latin of the Mass. Meanwhile, it is a disgrace that in so many dioceses the abuse of inclusive language - outlawed by Rome - still continues in the new Mass with apparent impunity.

KEN BAYLISS
Holland Park, Qld

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 15 No 2 (March 2002), p. 15