For many Catholics who regularly attend Mass, reciting the congregation’s parts of the liturgy are automatic – the responses are so deeply ingrained in them that they don’t even have to think about the words that they say.

But in the not-too-distant future, that is all going to change. As the Church prepares to institute the English translation of the new version of the Roman Missal, many of the prayers, songs and responses Catholics know by heart will be altered. And even though that change is still more than a year away from happening, it isn’t too soon to start preparing.

To that end, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have launched a new website detailing some of the differences in the revised translation with a side-by-side comparison of the people’s new and old responses. The website, which can be found at www.usccb.org/romanmissal, also has a great deal of information on the history of the translation and a timeline of the events that have led us to this point.

For a deeper look at the changes and what Catholics can expect, I recently spoke to Msgr. Anthony F. Sherman, executive director of the USCCB Secretariat for Divine Worship. The following is an edited transcript of the interview:

Can you explain some of the reasoning behind the changes to the Mass?

Msgr. Sherman: The principles for the translation were all dictated by a document called Liturgiam Authenticam, and one of those principles is that as much as possible, the translation is to be faithful to the original Latin syntax…

The fact of the matter is that the first time around when these translations were done, they were done rather quickly and sometimes maybe things were not captured that were contained in the Latin text that now will be. On the other hand, when you recapture a lot of different elements, it is going to take us time to [understand] the content of these prayers, which in some instances will be richer than before, and so everybody has to be aware that it is not a question of catching it the first year around. These prayers are meant to be present on the stage for 30 or 40 years and gradually begin to shape and form people over the years. And the people themselves will have the opportunity then to be able to dig a little deeper into the significance and meaning of each prayer, which admittedly is a little difficult for a soundbyte world…

We just have to seize the moment and try to accent the most positive aspects of these things that are going to help us grow and develop.

What is the current status of the translation and the timeline for putting it into practice?

Msgr Sherman: The American bishops will finish reviewing the last section of the Roman Missal in this November’s general meeting. Then at that point we’ll send it over to Rome, and then it becomes a question of when Rome decides to give what’s called the recognitio, or the approval, of the final text that will be used.

I think it is important for people to keep in mind that the text that they are going to eventually have to approve will be used in every English-speaking nation of the world. It is not just an American translation, it is a translation into English that will be used in England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, South Africa and so on. So that makes it a little challenging for the Congregation (for Divine Worship) to make sure everything gets ironed out.

Once the approval comes from Rome, how long will it take to get into the hands of the parishes?

Msgr Sherman: The way we have it envisioned is that at the present moment we are sort of in a remote preparation. We don’t have the final text of the entire Missal yet, it hasn’t been approved by Rome and it hasn’t been sent to us. Once that is done, it will take a year plus to put together, because then each country has to adapt it according to its own particular practices, so that text has to be worked on with publishers to put together the Missal. So it will take a year plus before the final text will get into the parishes.

So then the question is when is that going to be, and that’s a question I can’t answer. That clock will only start ticking once we get the final text (from Rome). So actually, whatever preparation is done now is a plus for everybody.

Do you think people will have a hard time adjusting to the changes?

Msgr Sherman: I think the people’s parts are not significantly changed. I think that probably within a few months people will adjust to it. And I suppose that publishers might even produce cards or things to help us for a while. But pretty soon I think the people will adjust to the situation. And probably for a little while it is just going to be a question of just not falling back into the old ways.

How can people prepare for the changes?

Msgr Sherman: One of the things that we are trying to do… is that we’ve encouraged bishops and priests to begin starting to put these things into their bulletin so the people can see what is going to be coming, so the first time they look at these texts is not when the Missal is produced. There is no reason why they can’t be in their bulletins now, there’s no reason why there can’t be articles in the diocesan newspaper that describe what these different responses are going to be, so that when people finally see the Missal they’re going to say, ‘Well, we knew about this.’ That’s the goal, that we can set up a situation in which finally when it does arrive in the parish, that people aren’t in shock about it…

Some people will say that the first time around, when we did the formation for the English translation of the Roman Missal, there wasn’t enough catechesis. But the situation that has changed is that there is nothing preventing any Roman Catholic in the United States of America at the present moment from going to that website and beginning to become informed about it. The only thing we can’t do is to force people to learn about it...

From the conference itself, we hope as we get closer to this text to be able to produce an implementation manual that will enable parishes to get some sort of program together to help the people understand what is going to happen and what is going to take place. So there are a lot of exciting things going on.

So it will be a gradual implementation and not a sudden change?

Msgr. Sherman: That’s what I think, and at the present moment, that’s what the bishops are attempting to do so that everybody isn’t surprised by this.

How will the liturgical music be affected?

Msgr. Sherman: We’re very consoled by the fact that publishers have been and are still working on adapting the previous musical settings we had to the new translation so that people will be able to sing things that they are familiar with. The publishers are also working on new music, which once again hopefully is going to be coordinated so as we get closer to this time, things will gradually come out and people will be able to prepare.

Although we don’t want too much of this material to be available too early because the one thing we do not want to have happen is that parish X across the street has jumped ahead and started using the new text and parish Y isn’t. That would just create great confusion, and that’s something we’re pleading with priests and musicians and everyone, please don’t do this and let’s see if we can move on this is a coordinated, concentrated way.