Father Somerville was also a musician and composer. He wrote the Good Shepherd Mass for the English liturgy in 1965 which was adapted in 1970 for the bowdlerised Gloria and Sanctus and then corrected back by St. Michael's Choir School in 2011 with his permission. I enjoy every opportunity to sing his Responsorial Psalms in CBWII which are finely crafted based upon his authority in chant at St. Michael's Choir School. Last weekend was the 50th anniversary of his first conducting of the Tenor/Bass Choir of St. Michael's at the annual Massey Hall Christmas Concert. I have great memories of singing Handel's Messiah standing beside him in the Bass section a number of years ago in Etobicoke and singing his corrected Gloria translation (later modified by the Choir School) with him at the piano just a few years ago when visiting him at St. Bernard's Convalescent Home. Father Somerville was also the Chaplain on the set of Mel Gibson's The Passion of the Christ.
He was well-known as "Canada's liturgist" having participated on the International Committee for English in the Liturgy (ICEL) which translated the Missal of Paul VI into English from the original Latin. It is important to know that the English translation used from 1965 to 1969 of the modified 1962 Roman Missal was a faithful translation. The Novus Ordo Missae was translated by ICEL using a translation method called dynamic equivalence. Father John Zuhlsdorf began his blog from years of writing in The Wanderer highlighting the grievous textual errors in the Missal, now corrected, and which still exist in the Liturgy of the Hours.
11 comments:
Remember your friends, Lord. May Father Somerville rest in eternal peace.
This is the second time I have heard or read the term "English liturgy". Is that just a white wash expression for the Novus Ordo? If so, it does ...not...make the Novus Ordo any more Catholic. If that is not what it means, then what is it??
Fr. Somerville renounced his service on the ICEL because he saw that the other, more senior, participants were deliberately misinterpreting the Latin to English. http://www.catholicapologetics.info/modernproblems/newmass/renounce.html
Dear "Pray for Priests," Considering I am Vox Cantoris and wrote the post, without polemics, kindly linked her, perhaps I should answer your question. When I wrote "English liturgy" I was referring to his wonderful Good Shepherd Mass written for the "English liturgy" in 1965 which was a correc translation. He later revised it for the ICEL translation which he then repudiated. However, I sat with him at a piano and sang a new Gloria with him, one corrected for the 2011 revised translation. So, if you have a problem then you should put it aside. Obviously, Father Somerville was a bit of a contradiction, no? Save the polemics and pray for his soul. If you read my blog, you would know I white wash nothing. Aside from the fact that I sing both Forms of the Roman Rite and the Novus Ordo Missae, despite many issues, is not invalid and not even Father Somerville believed that!
This isn't the best post to blather about the Mass.
Some people have no real sense of decorum.
Indeed Tancred. Thanks for the link.
May his soul rest in Peace. Eternal Rest grant to him O! Lord, let perpetual light shine up on him. May his soul rest in peace.
A priest who repented deeply for his work of English translation at I C E L and embraced TLM. Will many many priests be converted after hearing his story and work for salvation of souls as true Catholic Priests. May they give up New Mass of Vatican council 2.
The post was about the death of a priest. Not a polemical argument on liturgy.
exactly. And may the Lord grant him eternal rest.
Will you please post obituary on Bishop Robert McKenna please?
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