Bishops Debate Latest Translation for Liturgy : Conference: Among issues being decided by the Roman Catholic clergy on English wording are questions such as: Should the church be ‘her’ or ‘it’?

Should Roman Catholics, when they celebrate Mass, refer to Joseph as “the spouse of the Virgin” or as “Joseph, her husband”? Should the church be “her” or “it”? Should the elements of Communion be printed as Bread and Wine or bread and wine?

The nation’s Roman Catholic bishops wrestled with such questions this week as the spring meeting of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops began deliberations over a new English translation of the Mass.

Progress, however, came at a snail’s pace in the early going, as the bishops debated several amendments challenging the adequacy of the translations prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, which includes representatives from English-speaking Catholic churches around the world.

One of the most influential and respected voices of the National Conference-- that of Cardinal Joseph Bernardin of the Archdiocese of Chicago--was missing from the deliberations.

Bernardin, 67, underwent a seven-hour operation Monday after being diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer.

His illness was noted during the opening moments of the meeting Thursday, when Cardinal William Keeler of Baltimore, group president, read a letter from Bernardin written before his surgery.

Bernardin vowed “to offer whatever suffering I may encounter for the spiritual well-being of my priests and people.”

On Wednesday, Bernardin’s doctors confirmed that a walnut-size tumor removed from the cardinal’s pancreas was malignant, but they expressed optimism that they had removed all of the cancer and said Bernardin should be able to resume full activities in the archdiocese.

After Goedert’s report, the bishops turned their attention to the liturgy issues, which have a powerful impact on the religious life of the nation’s 59 million Catholics.

Although Catholics in the United States have been worshiping in English since the end of the Second Vatican Council, the current revision--11 years in the making--is an effort to update the early translation and bring conformity to the English used not only in the United States but also in Canada, Great Britain, New Zealand, the Philippines, South Africa, Australia, Ireland, Pakistan and India.

The revision is meeting resistance, however, from a small but vocal group of bishops who fear the new translations stray too far from the literal meaning of the Latin original.

“We are not all in agreement about the nature and quality of these texts,” said Archbishop Daniel Pilarczyk of Cincinnati.

Pilarczyk, who is the U.S. representative to the international group preparing the translations, is an ardent supporter of the new revisions. “We are all concerned to prepare an adequate liturgical text for our people at a time when revision is needed,” he said.

But opponents of the new Sacramentary, which contains the texts as well as instructions for both worshipers and priests celebrating the Mass, urged the bishops to send the proposed changes back to the international commission for more work.

On the conference’s first day, the bishops turned down amendments that would require capitalization of the names of the elements in Holy Communion, refer to the church as “her,” and make Joseph “the spouse of the Virgin” in prayer during the Eucharist, rather than “Joseph, her husband.”

Other issues on the agenda include reordering the structure of the Mass and deciding whether it is permissible for worshipers to join hands during the Lord’s Prayer.

Current rules surrounding the Mass neither encourage nor forbid the joining of hands. The practice has spontaneously sprung up in many places, especially among small groups of worshipers.

The bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy has declared the gesture “really not appropriate in the Sunday liturgy.” But instead of forbidding hand-holding, the committee is recommending that worshipers be encouraged to use the ancient prayer gesture of the hands upraised and extended.