A third aside on "A Challenging Reform"

Much of the discussion of the vernacular by the Consilium in the months immediately after the promulgation of Vatican II's constitution on the liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, appears to have been in the context of bi-lingual Latin-vernacular texts of the Missal. These were already beginning to be published for congregational use before the Council, and I get a feeling from Archbishop Marini's book that there may have been a kind of unwritten and unspoken assumption that this would continue to be the pattern. There also seems to have been a similar unwritten and unspoken assumption that the vernacular translations would be accurate to the Latin original.

I wonder whether, with the preparation of vernacular translations of the Third Editio Typica of the Missal, the norm could be that bi-lingual editions of the altar Missal be published? This would seem to be closer to the intention of Sacrosanctum Concilium (nn.36, 54) with regard to the retention of Latin in the Liturgy along with appropriate use of the vernacular. It would also respond to that aspect of the agenda of Summorum Pontificum with regard to mutual influencing of the two forms of celebration by promoting the use of Latin in the ordinary form.

[Problems of bulk could be overcome by publishing the Missal in different volumes for the different seasons of the liturgical year, though that has its own potential difficulties.]