Friday, August 15, 2008

No More Translation of Divine Name

No 'Yahweh' in songs, prayers at Catholic Masses, Vatican rules

By Nancy Frazier O'Brien
Catholic News Service

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the not-too-distant future, songs such as "You Are Near," "I Will Bless Yahweh" and "Rise, O Yahweh" will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States.At the very least, the songs will be edited to remove the word "Yahweh" -- a name of God that the Vatican has ruled must not "be used or pronounced" in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses.Bishop Arthur J. Serratelli of Paterson, N.J., chairman of the U.S. bishops' Committee on Divine Worship, announced the new Vatican "directives on the use of 'the name of God' in the sacred liturgy" in an Aug. 8 letter to his fellow bishops. He said the directives would not "force any changes to official liturgical texts" or to the bishops' current missal translation project but would likely have "some impact on the use of particular pieces of liturgical music in our country as well as in the composition of variable texts such as the general intercessions for the celebration of the Mass and the other sacraments."

To read the rest of the article go here.

The only Catholic translation that I am aware of that this would effect would be the Jerusalem and New Jerusalem Bibles. However, foreseeing this possibility, the Catholic Truth Society in London recently published the The CTS New Catholic Bible, which uses the original Jerusalem Bible, with Grail Psalms. What makes this edition even more unique is the fact that they changed the YHWH renderings to the LORD, which is standard in most Bibles. You can see more about this edition here.

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