Vatican City, Aug 23, 2013.- In one of his last acts as Pope, Benedict XVI approved changed wording in the rite of baptism which emphasizes “the Church of God” as the community into which the baptized individual has been incorporated.
After having baptized a child, the minister will now receive him, saying, “The Church of God welcomes you with great joy,” according to a Feb. 22 decree of the Congregation for Divine Worship signed by Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, prefect, and Archbishop Arthur Roche, secretary.
The previous text read, “The Christian community welcomes you with great joy.”
The new one: “The Church of God welcomes you with great joy.”
The change took effect March 31 in the Latin typical edition of the baptismal texts, and is to be implemented in future vernacular editions.
According to the decree, Benedict XVI established the change during an audience with Cardinal Cañizares held Jan. 28.
The decree was recently published in “Notitiæ,” the newsletter of the Congregation.
The opening text of the decree states: “The gate of life and of the kingdom, Baptism is the sacrament of faith, by which men are incorporated into the one Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the Bishops in communion with him.”
“Wherefore it seemed good to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments of Baptism to introduce some changes … so that in (baptism) more light may be shed on the doctrinal teaching of the task and office of Mother Church.” [It is an issue of catechism!]
Vatican analyst Sandro Magister's commented in his Aug. 22 article in L'Espresso that the change emphasizes that “it is the Church of God … that receives those who are being baptized, and not generically some 'Christian community;'” the latter is ambiguous, and could refer merely to the local parish community or even other ecclesial communities. [Why am I not surprised about too much ambiguities in our Church documents after Vatican II. Remember this! Liturgy experts were behind this liturgical books! And look where it brought us!]
Magister noted that Benedict XVI had in fact implemented the change in his own administration of baptism on Jan. 13, two weeks prior to his audience with Cardinal Cañizares. According to Magister, when the emeritus Pope celebrated baptism that day in the Sistine Chapel, his annual custom, he said in Italian, “Dear children, with great joy the Church of God welcomes you.”
The present Italian text reads, “With great joy our Christian community welcomes you,” even though “our” is not included in the Latin text. [Does the ICEL translation of the liturgical books sound familiar? How about the Tagalog liturgical books? Ha!]
Prior to this year, when Benedict XVI celebrated baptism in Italian as Pope, he had omitted this “our,” conforming the Italian he pronounced to the Latin typical edition.
“Perhaps,” Magister concluded, “it is precisely that excessively self-referential 'our' that induced the pope theologian to decide on the change.”
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Our liturgy has become too anthropocentric, man-centered, always the "Me" "You" "Us" that matter.
The liturgy which lifts our heart and souls to God, was re-engineered to bring our senses to one another.
We have so much ambiguous terms in the liturgy the one who hears it need too much "re-catechism" just so that the Catholic does not get confused. Example? How about the new translation of the Missal?
Liturgiam Autheticam, the Instruction which started it all said "the original text, insofar as possible, must be translated integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses. Any adaptation to the characteristics or the nature of the various vernacular languages is to be sober and discreet."
One of the reasons again why I love Pope emeritus Benedict XVI.
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