ZUHLSDORF on REESE

Remember this AP news clip?
“My big concern is people are going to feel like they’re being jerked around. They finally got used to the English translation and now they have to get used to another translation,” said Rev. Thomas Reese, a senior fellow at the Woodstock Theological Center at Georgetown University and a Jesuit priest. “It’s going to cause chaos and real problems and the people who are going to be at the brunt end of it are the poor priests in the parishes who don’t need any more problems.”

Fr. Zuhlsdorf rightfully sums that up in one word: COWARD!

The good Father Zuhlsdorf continues:
Will this be hard? Of course! Will priests face some people who are irritated or confused? When don’t they? Are priests are going to bear the main burden of this challenge in a parish. When have they not? And if that isn’t enough, when did the role of the Catholic lay faithful in the Church become easy? Catholics trying to live their lives well in this world as it is today are often faced with challenges that would make most priests curl up in a ball and suck their thumbs. Do parents of children simply flop down and whine about how hard it is going to be to educate their children, feed them, shelter them, see to their needs? "sniff… It’s soooooo harrrrrrrrrd!" I am tempted to put this in terms more suited to Tony Soprano, but “Boo hoo!” You want a real challenge? How about the state of life of a mother in a military family with several children and her Marine husband in Iraq? Can we please get some perspective here?

We could start making our jobs easier by telling people “Hey, this is going to be GREAT!” rather than constantly sniveling about hard it is going to be. When you want junior to eat those Brussels sprouts does it strike you as particularly bright to introduce them with the phrase, “You’re gonna hate these!"

You know what's funny? I used to hear the same sort of flack from people who were used to throwaway missalettes and music issues picking up their first Worship hymnal - in a couple of different parishes. Oh, these books are heavy. That's good! Means that they're chocked full of good music. They get over it, and realize that the material in these hymnals were well worth the weight they carry and it wasn't such a bad cross after all.

Same goes with the new translation. It's the translation we probably should have had nearly forty years ago, but was agenda-driven and rushed. So now we've gone back to try to do it right. The dissidents will (as one of the Rhode Island Lottery's latest scratch tickets is titled) get over it!

Peace,
BMP