New Italian Missal Introduces Liturgical Disunity

National Catholic Register, 17 September 2020

Italian is not an international language, but it has great influence in the Church — so it’s especially unfortunate that two different consecratory formulas can now be used when celebrating Mass there.

With the approval of the new Italian translation of the Roman Missal third edition (2002), consider the following: A Catholic anywhere in North America — from Alaska to Zacatecas — will hear the same consecratory formula for the chalice at Mass, whether attending Mass in English, French, Spanish or the original Latin. The same would be true if he went to Mass in Spanish in Argentina or in French in Zaire.

But that same Catholic on pilgrimage in Rome, attending an early morning Mass at one of the many altars in St. Peter’s, will hear a different consecratory formula depending on which of the two missals the celebrating priest opts to use — Latin or Italian. 

That development — unity across continents but disunity at a single altar in the Vatican basilica — is a regrettable development in terms of liturgical unity and ecclesial governance.

At issue is the translation of the Latin words pro multis in the consecration formula the priest prays over the chalice: pro vobis and pro multis effundetur (which will be poured out for you and for many).

Pro multis means “for many”; no one contests that. But in the early translations of the Roman Missal in the 1960s and 1970s, many languages, including English, opted “for all.” Italian did the same: per tutti.

As the Roman Missal third edition (2002) began to be translated into various languages, Pope Benedict took a decision on the pro multis. In a 2006 letter from the Congregation for Divine Liturgy, his decision was given: Pro multis was to be translated “for many.” The reasons were threefold: “For many” is what the Latin actually says and has always said in the Roman Rite; the biblical words of Jesus are “for many”; the Eastern Churches employ the equivalent of “for many.” 

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