New Spanish missal translation to take effect at Advent

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SALT LAKE CITY — In February, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Divine Worship Secretariat announced the publication of the third Spanish edition of the Roman missal (Misal Romano tercera edición) for Catholic parishes in the United States.

This is the first Spanish-language Roman missal approved specifically for use in the U.S.

According to the USCCB, the base text of this book is taken from the Misal Romano from Mexico. (The Episcopal Conferences of Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, and Venezuela have also approved the Mexican edition for use in their countries.) The new missal also includes texts and adaptations for the dioceses and archdioceses of the United States.

Parishes are required to implement the missal by the First Sunday of Advent, which this year is on Dec. 2, although it has been available for use since May 20, which was Pentecost.

This third edition contains several changes from previous versions:

“The U.S. Misal Romano will contain eight appendices, two more than the English edition,” states the USCCB letter announcing the changes. One appendix will include the many greeting options at the beginning of Mass, which had appeared in the previous Misal Romano within the Ordinario de la Misa.

The optional texts formerly given for the Orate fratres, the introduction of the Lord’s Prayer, and the invitation to exchange the Sign of Peace will not be included in the Ordinario de la Misa.

Several prefaces that had appeared in other Spanish missals will not be included in the new missal. These are Prefaces III and IV for Advent; Preface V for Lent; Preface after the Ascension; Prefaces IX and X in Ordinary Time; Prefaces for Baptism, Confirmation, Ordination, Penance, and Anointing of the Sick; Preface for Angels; Preface for Saint Joseph; Preface II of Holy Martyrs; and Common Prefaces VII and VIII.

Within the Eucharistic Prayers, the proper forms of the communicantes for Holy Thursday and the Solemnity of the Ascension will not appear in the revised Misal Romano. In Eucharistic Prayers II and III, particular intercessions will be provided only in the case of the celebration of Baptism and in Masses for the Dead. As in the current English translation of the Roman Missal, the Eucharistic Prayers for Children will not be included in the U.S. Misal Romano.

“The Misal Romano includes another option among the Ritual Masses not found in the English Missal: the Mass for First Communion,” according to the USCCB web page.

The USCCB also states that while “the change from the second to the third edition of the Misal Romano is not as dramatic as the change to the English translation several years ago, the new texts in the Misal show more ‘formal equivalency’ than the older versions, after the translation guidelines of Liturgiam authenticam. There is a more elevated register, but those who pray with them should not find it difficult to ‘understand them with ease’ (Sacrosanctum Concilium, no. 21)”.

The Misal Romano tercera edición also contains significantly more texts set to music.

“The Secretariat collaborated with a team of Hispanic/Latino composers to prepare chants for all the texts that are set to music in the English-language Roman Missal. Priests will find that the melodies in the Spanish edition are very similar to those in the English edition. The music includes chant settings of the people’s parts in the Order of Mass as well,” the USCCB letter states.

The Secretariat of Divine Worship approved four editorial houses for its edition: Catholic Book Publishing Co., Liturgical Press, World Library Publications and Magnificat.