Letters

Canadian Lectionary

Matt Walton

Contents - Mar 2008 - Buy a copy now Editorial: Man-made global warming: new religion? - Michael Gilchrist Tribute: B.A. Santamaria: ten years on - Cardinal George Pell News: The Church Around the World Man-made climate change: another great hoax? - Peter Finlayson Recovering the sacred in modern church architecture - Moyra Doorly 40 Years On: Vatican II at its mid-life crisis - Br Barry Coldrey Easter: The Sacred Triduum in the Extraordinary Form of the Roman Rite (1962 Missal) Crescat amor: What is the nature and purpose of theology? - Fr John O'Neill PP La Sapienza: Benedict XVI: the papacy and the university - Pope Benedict XVI Vocations: The priesthood: a special relationship with Christ - Fr Pat Stratford Vocations: Signs of hope in US diocese Letters: Christ's Church - Frank Mobbs Letters: Married clergy - Frank Bellet Letters: Canadian Lectionary - Matt Walton Letters: Language - Kevin McManus Letters: Liturgical abuses - Dennis Macdonald Letters: Response - Richard Stokes Letters: Homosexual 'marriage' - Arnold Jago Letters: Altar rails - Corinne O'Loughlin Letters: 'Re-ordered' churches - Brian Tooley Letters: Abortion laws - Robert Prinzen-Wood Letters: From India - Fr. A. Joseph Poetry: Time-Warp - Bruce Dawe Books: GOD AND CAESAR: Religion, Politics, and Society, by Cardinal George Pell - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: SEARCHING FOR AND MAINTAINING PEACE, by Father Jacques Philippe - Tim Cannon (reviewer) Books: JOURNEY OF A FAITH COMMUNITY, compiled by Tom Johnstone - James E. Scarlett (reviewer) DVD: NO TURNING BACK: Confessions of a Catholic priest, by Fr D. Calloway - Fr Martin Durham (reviewer) Books: Books available from AD2000 Books Reflection: Benedict XVI on Lent: 'authentic conversion to the love of Christ' - Pope Benedict XVI

Why are we going head over heels to formally institute the 1991 Canadian Lectionary, as indicated by current practice, by the Holy See's recognitio and by ICPEL's interest? (December-January AD2000). This Lectionary was developed by the Canadian Bishops' Conference.

To call the Canadian Lectionary 'modified' is a genteel term for a massive deconstruction of the Holy Scripture for it sets out to change the mind, nature and constitution of the Church, primarily by desacralising and emasculating the Word of God.

Do we really have to live with this parallel Church that has developed within the Catholic Church?

The integrity and readability of language is not necessarily improved by modernising and secularising. The standard pre-l990 versions of the Lectionary tended to carry a rhythm, power and beauty that subsequent 'inclusive' translations have largely failed to achieve.

We have inherited from St Jerome, from St Paul, and from the Apostles and Evangelists an inherent right to hear the Word of God in the fullness of its integrity. By present indications, the English-speaking Bishops Conferences risk instituting a Lectionary which will paradoxically be unacceptable to much of the Catholic Church.

Take a leaf from St Jerome, get it right this time or the faithful will have to devise their own local solutions, as I have already seen in evidence.

MATT WALTON
Palmerston North, New Zealand

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 21 No 2 (March 2008), p. 13