More thoughts, now from the North American Academy of Liturgy (which is an ecumenical group)

The outgoing president of the North American Academy of Liturgy and a leading Catholic liturgist has told The Catholic Register the most recent translation of the Roman Missal is “a step backwards” for ecumenical relations.

“It’s going to feel like the ecumenical movement has taken a hit,” Father Paul Turner, pastor of St. Munchin Church in Cameron, Mo., and author of a half-dozen books on Catholic liturgy, said following an opening liturgy for the North American Academy of Liturgy annual meeting here Jan. 4.

New, more literal, translations from Latin of liturgical texts scheduled to hit parishes in two years are a departure from the Second Vatican Council’s movement toward common texts with Anglican, Lutheran and other churches, Father Turner said. Those common texts were a specific goal of council fathers in the 1960s, and non-Catholic scholars were consulted by Catholic liturgists and translators in the past.

“That same effort is not being made today,” he said.

While Father Turner regrets the ecumenical implications of the new translations, he supports the new texts generally.

“The words will be an improvement as a whole,” he said.