Dear Friends in Christ!

Welcome back to this week’s rather brief Bishop’s Blog – as I have been travelling!

This last week I was in Washington in the United States, as part of the Editorial Committee of ICEL where we continue with the, rather painstaking, practical work of renewing the translations of our Roman rite liturgical books from the original Latin to English.

Of course, I say ‘painstaking’ because it is always a struggle to be faithful to the original Latin text, and at the same time to come up with a translation which is in workable and understandable English!  Your prayers for this delicate work at the service of the Church are always appreciated.

The International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) is a mixed commission of Catholic Bishops’ Conferences in countries where English is used in the celebration of the Sacred Liturgy according to the Roman Rite. The purpose of the Commission is to prepare English translations of each of the Latin liturgical books and any individual liturgical texts in accord with the Holy See’s Instruction Liturgiam authenticam.

Eleven Conferences of Bishops are currently full members of ICEL. They are: Australia, Canada, England and Wales, India, Ireland, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines, Scotland, Southern African, and the United States of America. In addition, there are fifteen other Conferences of Bishops where English is used in the Liturgy to a lesser extent, though they have access to liturgical texts prepared by ICEL.

When an ICEL translation has been completed and approved by the Bishops of the Commission, it is sent to the Member and Associate-Member Conferences for their consideration. Later the Holy See will be asked to give its recognitio before publishing takes place.

Meanwhile, last Sunday saw the arrival of the Bishop-Elect Joseph Srampickal, the new Eparch for the Syro-Malabars in Great Britain and there was a great crowd to welcome him into Manchester Airport. Later that day Bishop-Elect Srampickal celebrated his first Mass in his new Cathedral of St Alphonsa (St Ignatius church, Preston).  Again, I understand the Cathedral church was healthily full and afterwards the Bishop-Elect was greeted by many of his new flock.

We continue to keep Bishop-elect Srampickal and the newly established Eparchy of the Syro-Malabar faithful in our prayers – ready for the Episcopal Consecration and Dedication of the new cathedral on Sunday 9 October 2016.

This last week, the Bishop-Elect has been busy visiting Syro-Malabar Mass centres, priests and people, as well as Latin-rite Bishops here with whom he will collaborate, around England, Wales and Scotland. I look forward to meeting with him myself in the week ahead.

This week on Tuesday 27 September 2016 at 12.15pm, I am celebrating the Closing Mass for the Year of Priestly Vocations at Lancaster Cathedral.  Please do come along and support us.  I know so many of you are keeping our priests, seminarians and those discerning their vocation, in your daily prayers.  Thank you for this.

Until next week,

May God bless you!

+Michael