The new missal, the product of almost a decade of collaboration, was approved by the Vatican in March 2010 and will begin being used in the United States on the First Sunday of Advent. Dioceses and parishes across the country are providing catechesis for Catholics well ahead of the mandated implementation date — and the Diocese of Springfield in Illinois is no exception, says Eliot Kapitan, director of the diocesan Office for Worship and the Catechumenate.
In the Springfield diocese, parishes have been provided with a variety of resources to prepare for the new missal. Training sessions for priests and parish leadership, informational sessions for parish liturgists and musicians and workshops for teachers, cathechists and individual Catholics have all been offered over the past year.
At the recent Priests' Convocation, pastors and parish leaders were provided with free pew cards containing the new texts of the people's responses during Mass. Distribution of the cards were made possible by gifts from various Knights of Columbus Councils and other donors.
In addition, Kapitan says, his office offers a variety of free resources to be used in parish bulletins and training sessions at www.dio.org/romanmissal.
For those who are interested, Kapitan says, there is plenty of information available on the Internet about the implementation of the new missal.
"As with anything on the World Wide Web, there is no lack of data and information about the new missal on the Internet," Kapitan says. "But that does not always mean the information is helpful, factual, or even true in whole or in part. A better approach is to use some trusted addresses; you will save yourself a lot of time — and get faithful, accurate information."
Here, according to Kapitan, in addition to the Springfield diocesan site at www.dio.org/romanmissal, are some trusted sources of information about the new translation of the Roman Missal and its implementation:
• United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, Committee on Divine Worship – Roman Missal site: www.usccb.org/romanmissal/
• Federation of Diocesan Liturgical Commissions: www.fdlc.org/
• National Association of Pastoral Musicians: www.npm.org/
• Archdiocese of Chicago: Revised Roman Missal: www.revisedromanmissal.org