Cardinal George on liturgy NCR’s John Allen interviewed Cardinal George last fall. As you might expect, liturgy was one of the hot topics. The cardinal is a member of the Vatican’s Vox Clara Commission, which works as a liaison body between the International Commission on English in the Liturgy and Rome’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. The cardinal offered praise for ICEL’s work on Roman Missal II: “ICEL itself was extremely critical of its own first translation. It isn’t as if you had ICEL fighting for what we’ve got now. They created a new translation for the second edition of the Roman Missal that is very different, and I think very good in many ways. It has influenced the third edition, which is being translated now.” That second translation, after approval by the world’s English-speaking bishops, was deep-sixed in 1998. At the same time, the forthcoming Roman Missal III was near completion. The unspoken reason was that the 1969 translation guidelines had been secretly rewritten and were soon to be published as the content for Liturgiam Authenticam in 2001. Cardinal George is concerned about possible negative reactions to yet more liturgy changes when the new English translation is published in another year or two: “It will be a lot harder, as we all know, to go from English to English than [it was to go] from Latin to English. The Latin was foreign anyway, and this was our language. Now we’ve got something that is our language, and we’ve got something new that is also our language with a slightly different cast. That’s going to be hard.” Additionally, Cardinal George related, the factor of people returning to reading new responses rather than praying from memory will be difficult. For example, “It’s good when you say ‘We believe,’ and people go down the line through the Creed. We’re changing four lines in that thing. It’s going to be difficult. People will go back again to reading it, whereas for 20 years now we’ve just been able to remember it. That’s not going to be easy, and nobody’s looking forward to it.” I like his frank assessment of this. I disagree on his statement that good catechesis will ease the transition.  Some priests might assess these changes more as politics (which, in part, they are) than as concern for better liturgy. Some pastors will resent the bother, especially the ones who don’t focus on liturgy. And some will refuse the changes, as will more laypeople. It won’t be about catechesis. It will be a protest against a perception of politicizing the liturgy. The Vox Clara group expects the new English translation to be out by the end of 2009. Given that several months of preparations and printing will ensue, Advent 2010 seems a likely implementation date. Prayer in space With two other astronauts, Sheikh Muszaphar Shukor rocketed into orbit in early October aboard a Soyuz spacecraft. Dr. Shukor, a Muslim, inquired of his spiritual leaders of the best way to observe the holy month of Ramadan during his 11-day assignment on the International Space Station. The responses drew much public attention in his country of Malaysia and in the rest of the Muslim world. Three important questions seemed of particular importance. 1. How do devout Muslim astronauts pray five times daily when in low Earth orbit they experience 16 sunrises and sunsets and have no sun-based reference for day and night? Answer: Muslim scholars state astronauts will be bound by the sun position at the point of launch. For Dr. Shukor on this mission, it will be the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. 2. How should one direct the body toward Mecca in the weightlessness of space? Astronauts in Earth orbit may be traveling at a speed up to 17,500 mph relative to the Muslim holy city. Answer: Each astronaut may pray according to his own capabilities; body posture and direction of prayer is at personal discretion. 3. How does one conduct the sunrise-to-sunset fast of Ramadan? Answer: Although Dr. Shukor wished to attempt the fast in space, he was given permission to fast after his return to Earth at the conclusion of the mission. “Being a Muslim going to space is a big responsibility for me not only before the Malaysian people but all Muslims,” said Dr Shukor. “To be close to God’s creation, I will feel more spiritual and I do hope to come back and share all my feelings with other Muslims all over the world.” I wonder if Christians have yet considered the ramifications of human travel in space. In Earth orbit, astronauts live and work on a 24-hour clock attuned to some place on the home planet. When bases are set up on a place like Mars, with a day 40 minutes longer than on Earth, astronauts will certainly adapt to the slightly longer cycle for sleeping and waking. Eventually that will lead to liturgical complications. On Earth it has been determined, for example, that the connection between Passover or Easter and spring does not hold for southern-hemisphere Jews and Christians. They follow the north’s calendar and observe those holidays at the onset of southern autumn. Mars will be impossible to keep in strict liturgical alignment with Earth. Every 36 days, the local Sabbath will advance the equivalent of one Earth day. After 15 weeks, our Sunday will be the same as Martian Wednesday. Will the seven-day week be sacrificed every month or so to keep the calendar in close alignment to Earthbound Christians? Martian seasons will be even more offset from Earth’s. The Martian year is 687 Earth days long. Will permanent settlers be obliged to keep a 365-day year and have a sanctoral cycle totally unhinged from the local calendar? Religion and art The new website Catholica Australia (www.catholica.com.au/index.php), advertising itself as “a vigorous discussion on Catholic spirituality, theology, and faith for adults seeking to enrich their lives,” commenced a series on religion and art this past October. The author, Peregrinus, began this series with a look at art in early Christianity. Given the church’s rich heritage of art and music, “It comes as a bit of a surprise, then, to realise that for the first two centuries of the church’s life, art appears to have played almost no role. Little or nothing in the way of Christian religious art from this period survives.” Aside from the well-known symbols of fish, lamb, and cross, the first devotional Christian art dates to about the year 235, an image of Jesus telling the paralytic to “rise, take up your bed, and walk.” Interesting that in this Syrian image, Jesus is portrayed wearing the clothes and hairstyle of a Roman teacher. The same is true of many images of Jesus from the third century. The gospels give no account of the physical appearance of the Lord, nor much of his sense of style. Christians of these times portrayed Jesus with contemporary trappings, not what would be considered historical ones. “The Christian faith is based on some stupendously big ideas — ideas which really stretch our capacity to understand, never mind our capacity to articulate. We’re not going to be able to express our faith without making full use of all the modes of expression that we have. So it’s pretty much a given that a lively Christianity is going to produce religious art. And that’s why we have all those millions of plaster reproductions of the Infant of Prague with the fingers chipped off, and Byrd’s Mass for Four Voices, and everything in between.” ML What do YOU Think? Send an e-mail to ML Editor or post an entry on the ML Current Issue Discussion Board. 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