It’s dress rehearsal time as parishes prepare for the new Mass.

It was last Advent season when Andy Hentz first heard his pastor talk about the new Latin-to-English translations coming to the Mass. But it wasn’t until Hentz, a mail carrier who reads Catholic magazines and listens to Catholic radio, read excerpts of the new texts on the Internet earlier this year that he realized how dramatic the changes will be.

The 33-year-old married father of three says his parish, St. Elizabeth Catholic Church, has not yet done much to prepare parishioners for what is coming. When the new texts are implemented across the nation this fall, Hentz thinks some Catholics could be caught off guard.

“I haven’t heard much about this, considering it’s going to change the central thing that we do as Catholics,” says Hentz of Granite City, Illinois, a St. Louis suburb. “That’s kind of surprising.”

Diocesan and parish officials across the country say they have worked hard to make sure that won’t be the case when the new translations are introduced at Mass on November 27, the first Sunday of Advent. Last year the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops presented the new texts at 22 regional workshops for diocesan and parish leaders. More than 4,200 people participated from all but six dioceses, says Father Richard Hilgartner, associate director of the USCCB’s Secretariat for Divine Worship. Many dioceses that weren’t home sites sent teams of priests, who would return home and lead training sessions in their parishes.

The church has more than ignorance to overcome. Critics charge that the new texts clash too awkwardly with English, and they resent the “top-down” way in which they are coming to American parishes from Rome.

“Many people will at first be concerned about making changes to prayers and responses we know by heart, but the hope is that the new texts will be helpful in leading to a deeper understanding of what we celebrate in the liturgy,” Hilgartner says. “Parishes are being encouraged to plan for catechesis about not only the changes in the texts but the bigger picture—the nature and meaning of the Mass—as well.”

Ready or not

Father Paul Turner, pastor of St. Munchin Parish in Cameron, Missouri, has been giving presentations to a few dozen dioceses in the United States, Canada, New Zealand, and Australia. He will go to England and Scotland later this year.

“I’ve been trying to respond to requests from dioceses intermittently over the past couple of years, and there is more intense interest now,” Turner says. “I think it’s going well, but I’m finding what you would expect. Some priests are very hesitant about the changes coming, and some are very excited about it.”

Turner says some dioceses have done “quite a lot” to prepare; others have done “quite little by comparison.”

The Archdiocese of Dubuque, Iowa hopes a gradual approach will have its faithful ready by late November. Starting in February it began publishing one-paragraph installments in the Sunday bulletin, describing the reason for the changes and including short excerpts, says Peggy Lovrien, director of Dubuque’s Office of Worship.

The first 15-part series covered the introduction to the Mass and the liturgy of the word. This fall a second 15-part series will focus on the liturgy of the Eucharist and the dismissal.

In February the archdiocese also gathered more than 200 musicians to practice singing the new translations and some new music proposed by Catholic publishers. Early this fall Dubuque plans to reconvene the group.

Lovrien says she has enjoyed working with the musicians. “Through all of this I’m real impressed with the deep love of the church that people have,” she says.

She is not worried that many Catholics will be caught off guard come Advent. “Nothing is perfect in terms of communications,” she notes. “The church, from Rome to the Sunday liturgy in parishes, has been communicating over and over that these changes are coming. If there are those who are surprised by it, I think the numbers will be small.”

Turner says it’s hard to say whether he’s comfortable with the level of preparation thus far. “It’s like asking me as a pastor if I’m comfortable with the level of preparation an engaged couple has received so far before marrying,” he says. “You can never have too much.”

Great divide

Turner has no doubt that the new texts will be implemented on schedule, but some critics say the change will be so unpopular, it should not be forced on Catholics all at once. Father Michael G. Ryan, pastor at St. James Cathedral in Seattle, last year proposed a pilot project “What If We Just Said Wait?” in which the new texts would be introduced in some carefully selected parishes throughout the English-speaking world to be evaluated after a year. Ryan has since discontinued the campaign.

“There is no chance that will happen,” Turner says. “It’s impractical. What would you do [at such a pilot parish] for weddings and funerals when you have a large number of people who have not had the catechesis? And what would you do at the end of that year, go back to the original texts?”

While he disagrees with the critics, Turner likes their passion for the issue. “It’s a sign of how deeply people care about the Eucharist. Behind that is a desire that the people’s voice be heard in some way. It’s a good desire. These changes are going to affect every Catholic in the pews.”

Alexandra Besore, a 25-year-old singer and actress in Los Angeles who attends Mass daily, is among those who are excited about the changes. She says she has grown increasingly frustrated with how area churches have become too “modernized and Protestantized,” citing more tolerance for homosexuality and contraception.

Besore doesn’t necessarily want to revert to an all-Latin Mass but says she is “thrilled” that the “fabulous” new translations will bring a more literal translation of the Mass from the original Latin and a step toward the traditional.

“The closer you get to the original, the closer you get to when Christ was on the Earth, so any move in that direction is a positive thing,” Besore says.