Catholic mass to have the biggest change in 40 years

By Niraj Warikoo

Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

The biggest changes to Catholic mass in about 40 years will start Sunday, part of an attempt by the church to return to its roots.

But while church leaders praise the changes in wording, others say they’re a regression that will make mass harder to understand and were implemented top-down without considering what Catholics on the ground think. To critics, it’s a move away from the reforms of Vatican II in the 1960s that allowed mass in local languages instead of Latin. Though the mass still will be said in English and other languages, the words are a more direct translation of Latin and Hebrew words.

In the old mass, God is called the “Lord of power and might.” Now, he’s the “Lord of hosts,” a more direct translation of an ancient term for armies.

“It’s just a giant step backwards,” said Carmen Gudan, 63, of Dearborn. “It will drive people away.”

Church leaders acknowledge that the changes may take some getting used to, but say they will help Catholics draw closer to their faith.

“My hope would be they give it a chance … give it some time to have an effect,” said the Rev. Gary Smetanka, head of the worship commission of the Archdiocese of Detroit and pastor of Our Lady Star of the Sea in Grosse Pointe Woods.

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Some Catholics in metro Detroit fear mass confusion over changes to liturgy

For decades, English-speaking Catholics described Jesus during mass as “one in being with the father.”

But starting Sunday, they will say he’s “consubstantial with the father,” using a word that means roughly the same thing, but is awkward and confusing to many.

That substitution is part of the biggest change to the English-language Catholic mass in about 40 years, one that will affect how up to 1.3 million Catholics in the Archdiocese of Detroit recite words during services.

The changes have upset some, illustrating the divide between liberal and conservative Catholics. Critics say the new wording was thrust upon a reluctant public by the Vatican with little input from Americans and others. To them, it reflects the church’s rightward shift and an increased reluctance to listen to its members on a range of issues, from abusive priests to finances. The wording changes make the mass more opaque and unfamiliar, they argue.

“There are a lot of people upset by the changes, and the process by which the changes were made,” said Tom Kyle, 72, a Catholic from Farmington who says the church should be more open. “There is a lot of resistance from the clergy. A lot of the priests don’t like it.”

The word “consubstantial” is one example of what Kyle says represents a backward step for the church.

“Technically, it’s correct, but people don’t know what ‘consubstantial’ means,” Kyle said. “It doesn’t make any sense for many. And it doesn’t have the same flow.”

Higher language

But church leaders in Detroit and across the U.S. say the changes elevate the language in the liturgy. And they’re making people look anew at words they might have said by rote in the past.

“After 40 years of having more of a common language, this might take a little while to get used to, but it’s something that perhaps can take people to a different level,” said Smetanka.

“With change, there is new growth, new possibilities and new discoveries, and maybe it’s something the Holy Spirit is leading us to, to something richer and to a new discovery of our understanding of God, and the saints and the church.”

For the Catholic Church, mass is a key part of the faith, and the words that are recited are considered carefully. They are part of a text called the Roman Missal, whose language was changed after the reforms of the Vatican II Council in the 1960s.

Those reforms allowed mass to be said in local languages instead of the traditional Latin and encouraged more openness and variation. But conservatives say the pendulum shifted too far to the left. The late Pope John Paul II — who could recite the mass in several languages — wanted a more uniform language for the missal.

About a decade ago, he called for updated translations, which were worked on for years. Kyle said that the input from some American Catholic bishops was essentially ignored as the Vatican hierarchy put its foot down about the mass changes.

More singing

In the Archdiocese of Detroit, leaders have worked on introducing the changes over the past two years, Smetanka said. He and other clergy have visited a number of parishes, meeting nearly 3,000 people to explain the new words. They’ve held workshops to make people familiar with them. And in recent weeks, pastors have handed out cards with the new words to help familiarize parishioners.

One goal, he said, is to encourage “more chanting and singing of the mass.”

“Our liturgy is really meant to be sung at every mass.”

The process is making Catholics get back in touch with the meaning of the words, he said. “It’s a wonderful opportunity to be renewed in our understanding of the mass.”

But Gudan doesn’t feel that way. The 63-year-old lifelong Catholic says she thinks it’s a big mistake, one that betrays the spirit of the 1960s reforms that opened up the church.

“It’s a direct violation of Vatican II,” she said. “The whole purpose of that is to make things easier, and this makes things more difficult.”

One of the text changes that concerns Gudan centers on sin. In the old mass, Catholics say, “I have sinned through my own fault.”

Starting Sunday, they will say, “I have greatly sinned … through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault.”

Gudan said, “We’re wailing about our sinfulness instead of celebrating going out and following the teachings of Jesus Christ.”

The new language also doesn’t flow as well, she and others say.

“It’s stilted,” she said. “I can’t stand it. It’s just repulsive.”

But Smetanka said that “the new language is more of an elevated language. … Sacred language is different than common street language.”

Andrew Brown, 21, of Ann Arbor welcomes the changes.

“It shows the church takes seriously our tradition,” he said.

“It’s very easy to be mechanical with your words and just go through the motions,” he said. “These changes … will be significant enough to make (Catholics) wake up and think about the words again.”

Brown likes how the changes emphasize the universal nature of the church. One of the goals of the Vatican is to make sure that masses said around the world are similar enough to remind Catholics that their church is a worldwide institution. Brown, a student whose minor is Spanish, said:

“It’s cool … having unity along the language front and trying to remain faithful to the original Latin.”

Contact Niraj Warikoo: 313-223-4792 or nwarikoo@freepress.com

Niraj Warikoo is the religion reporter for the Detroit Free Press.  He graduated from Columbia College at Columbia University with a bachelor’s degree in political science and from Columbia’s Graduate School of Journalism with a masters degree in journalism.  Over the past decade, he’s written extensively about the domestic war on terrorism and its impact on metro Detroit’s diverse communities. In 2005, he was one of ten journalists selected to be a fellow at the University of Southern California, where he studied national security and civil liberties in the post 9-11 era.   In 2008, he was invited to give a presentation on the relationship between American Muslims and the U.S. government at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) in the University of London in England for an international conference on Islam in the West that featured experts and leaders from Europe, the U.S., and Arab world.

Warikoo has been an invited speaker or panelist at universities such as the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan State, and Wayne State; and at the national conventions of IRE (Investigative Reporters and Editors), AAJA, SAJA, UNITY, and Poynter’s National Writers Workshop.   He’s appeared on local and national TV and radio programs such as MSNBC’s Hardball Show with Chris Matthews, and with MSNBC hosts Alison Stewart and Contessa Brewer, C-SPAN, CNN Headline News with Jane Velez-Mitchell , and NPR’s Tell me More with Michel Martin (National Public Radio.)  In previous years, he wrote often about workplace safety issues, including investigative reports that exposed corporate negligence in the deaths of six workers at the Ford Rouge plant in Dearborn, Michigan. Warikoo also has examined the environmental destruction of Michigan’s wetlands in a special report based on new data he obtained.   In 2005, he visited Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington D.C. to write about U.S. soldiers who became amputees after serving in Iraq; the story examined how new technology has improved survival chances, but also brings recovery challenges for victims. In 2006, he traveled across Lebanon to write stories for the Detroit Free Press on the aftermath of the war between Hizballah and Israel, which affected communities in metro Detroit. 

Warikoo has written often about Michigan’s immigrant communities, from the lives of Mexican-Americans to Vietnamese Catholics, as well as  the region’s Arab-American and Muslim population —  the highest concentration in the U.S.   His work was profiled in a Poynter story after the Sept. 11 attacks and he became a resource for other journalists seeking to understand the region’s Arab and Muslim communities.  He covered the case of a Michigan man detained on terrorism suspicions; after the government banned him and other reporters from attending court hearings, his newspaper filed a lawsuit on his behalf that was eventually won in an appeals court.  In the run up to and during the Iraq war, he interviewed top leaders in Iraq’s government and political parties on their frequent visits to metro Detroit, including Iraq’s future Prime Minister. 

In recent years, he’s written about a wide range of religious issues, including: the Dalai Lama’s lectures in Michigan, men and masculinity in churches, splits within the Episcopal Church, Catholic natural family planning, the growing rate of Jewish interfaith marriages, and religious belief in the end of times.  In 2010, he wrote a special report that revealed the use of secret informants in the counter-terrorism case of a Muslim leader killed in a shootout in Dearborn with FBI agents.  Also this year, he was the lead reporter on the FBI raid and arrests of members of a Christian militia in Michigan called Hutaree allegedly plotting against the U.S. government.  Outside of work, Warikoo enjoys listening to music; he played the piano and trumpet for 10 years.

Reach him by email: nwarikoo@freepress.com or on Twitter.com/nwarikoo @nwarikoo

And here’s a story I wrote about the party in Dearborn to celebrate Rima Fakih’s win.

Also, click here to read a preview story in the Detroit Free Press that I wrote about Rima Fakih before the victory.