THIRD EDITION OF THE ROMAN MISSAL IS PRESENTED

VATICAN CITY, MAR 22, 2002 (VIS) - Cardinal Jorge Arturo Medina Estevez and Archbishop Pio Tamburrino, respectively prefect and secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Discipline of Sacraments, presented today the third edition of the Roman Missal in the Holy See Press Office.

Cardinal Medina indicated that the new edition follows editions in 1970 and 1975 and that the decree with which the congregation publishes it was approved by the Holy Father on April 10, 2000. Cardinal Medina said: "The edition that we present is the result of a lot of work of revision and updating which began in 1991 and continued in 1996, years in which the Congregation has celebrated its plenary meetings."

He said that it is "an official, updated edition, to be used for the celebration of the Eucharist in Latin and it forms the immediate base for translations into the national languages."
"The decree of promulgation of this third edition establishes the necessity of a global revision of the missals used up until now through a new presentation of the translated texts to the Holy See for the necessary 'recognitio'," he explained.

This new edition contains some touch-ups and new features in the text of the "Istitio Generalis", that part of the Missal that consists of "a directory about the Eucharistic celebration, with information about its theological, liturgical, pastoral and spiritual character."

Cardinal Medina emphasized that among the new, most relevant developments is "the possibility of administering Holy Communion to the faithful under both species," and that it is "the responsibility of the diocesan bishop to establish norms for his diocese" regarding this issue. In addition, "the diocesan bishop can leave the decision to distribute Holy Communion under both species, outside of the specified cases in which it is not advised, to the discretion of each priest, as pastor of a particular community."

Furthermore, a new chapter (the ninth) was added about liturgical inculturation, in which the "principles and criteria that must be applied when an episcopal conference deems it necessary to introduce in the Missal different adaptations from those anticipated for the same missal" are highlighted. The prefect of the dicastery emphasized that the adaptations "are an exception" and must yield to the "spiritual good of the individual churches, safeguarding the substantial unity of the Roman Rite."

Finally, the cardinal affirmed that various memorials for new saints and patrons, distributed throughout the year, have been included in the universal calendar of the Church. Also, a new Preface for the martyrs has been added, the Common of the Blessed Virgin Mary has new formulas and among the votive masses there is now the formula called "De Dei Misericordia."

Archbishop Tamburrino affirmed that this third edition "has taken note of particular adaptations of the Roman Missal in the last thirty years in many local churches through the translations into spoken languages and confirmed by the Holy See. In this sense, the new Roman Missal gathers together some usages already official in the translated Missals and represents a development of the Roman Rite."

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