Retiring bishop favors simpler English Mass

Associated Press

ERIE, Pa.

Bishop Donald Trautman is on his way out as leader of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Erie, but he’s left an indelible mark by fighting the church hierarchy by pushing for a simpler English translation of the Mass.

Trautman submitted his resignation Friday because he turned 75, the mandatory retirement age for clergy. Still, that won’t become official until Pope Benedict XVI accepts it.

In the meantime, Trautman was asked about his career, including his fight to use simpler English for the Mass in the United States and his oft-publicized stance against allowing politicians who support abortion rights to speak at Catholic colleges and universities in his northwestern Pennsylvania diocese.

“I’m not a rabble-rouser. I’m not a radical,” Trautman told the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette in a story published Sunday. “You talk to my priests and they probably think I’m the most conservative bishop in the country.”

Observers say Trautman is true to his conscience, which is why some of his stances have rankled conservatives in the church, while others upset more liberal members.

“He’s tenaciously loyal to his beliefs,” said Helen Hull Hitchcock, editor of Adoremus, a conservative liturgical journal that supports the new English Mass translation.

Trautman objects to a new missal the church plans to begin using in the United States once the Advent season begins a new church year in November. The missal, which guides Catholics through prayers used in the Mass, was approved by the Vatican last year and marks the first significant changes in the English translation since Vatican II in the 1960s.

Proponents of the new English translation have said its language is more poetic and true to the spirit of the original Latin. Critics contend the translation is too literal and includes too many theologically complex terms. Trautman has been one of the more vocal critics, saying the “slavishly literal” translation results in convoluted and awkward English phrasing.

Trautman also disagreed with many conservatives and the Vatican, when they rejected gender-neutral terms he and some other U.S. bishops wanted to adopt two decades ago, and yet he has also run afoul of some who take more liberal views on other issues.