Liturgy: All in English, at Last

Beginning this month, U.S. Roman Catholics will be able to attend Masses celebrated entirely in English. Archbishop John F. Dearden of Detroit, president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops, last week announced that the Vatican had given its approval to an English version of the canon, or prayer of consecration. Although virtually all other prayers and readings of the Mass directed at or recited by the congregation have been in English for three years, the canon has remained in Latin, unchanged since the 7th century pontificate of Pope Gregory I.

The translation, prepared by a ten-nation committee on English in the liturgy, lacks some of the solemn grace of the consecration form used in Anglicanism's Book of Common Prayer. Nonetheless, it has a direct, personal quality that departs in style but not in substance from the Latin original. Sample passage:

We come to you, Father,

in this spirit of thanksgiving,

through Jesus Christ your Son.

Through him we ask you to accept and bless

these gifts we offer you in

sacrifice.