Travis Heine’s recent column argued that the upcoming changes to the Roman Catholic mass are for the better.
I’m not so sure — as a Roman Catholic, I think the changes sound pretty horrid.
The author says some of the current phrases used are opaque — well, I don’t know how you hope to fix this supposed problem by throwing the word “consubstantial” into the mix. I, and I think most others, can understand what “one in being” means — consubstantial, not so much. Sure, we can learn it, but it does take away from the community, conversational feel of mass — and the sense that mass is a celebration, not a solemn intoning of choice Biblical phrases.
And I don’t know how our Church of the not-so-great-attendance-rates is ever going to attract more congregants by reverting back to ever narrower versions of mass. The purpose of the reforms of the Second Vatican Council which gave us today’s mass was to make the mass more accessible and open — this seems like a step backward.
Colin Ross
Nov. 10
The writer is a senior in Berkeley College and a staff columnist for the News.