Bishop Welcomes Cardinal Sarah

WASHINGTON  Bishop Serratelli, chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, welcomed Cardinal Robert Sarah, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, May 17 to the ICEL Secretariat in the nation’s capital.

Cardinal Sarah, appointed Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship by Pope Francis in November 2014, heads the Vatican office that gives approval (recognitio) to the Conference of Bishops’ submission of ICEL liturgical texts of the Roman Rite.

Cardinal Sarah was in Washington for the National Catholic Prayer Breakfast at which he gave the keynote address. He came to the ICEL Secretariat as a courtesy visit to meet the chairman and the staff.

Since 2010, when the recognitio of the third English-language edition of the Roman Missal was approved, two important texts — Marriage and Confirmation — have also received the approval of the Holy See and are to be implemented in several ICEL Conferences this year.

In addition, ICEL has submitted draft texts to the Conferences of Bishops for Dedication of a Church, Exorcism and a Supplement containing news Saints for the Liturgy of the Hours.

During the visit to the ICEL Secretariat, Msgr. Andrew Wadsworth, executive director, was able to show Cardinal Sarah, three additional texts — Baptism for Children, Christian Initiation of Adults and a fourth fascicle of texts for the Liturgy of the Hours. These books were submitted to the Conferences and the Congregation for study and comment in the past several days.

Cardinal Sarah also greeted the six-member permanent staff of the ICEL Secretariat. Bishop Serratelli traveled to Washington for the visit that included Benedictine Sister Maria Kiely, a faculty member at The Catholic University of America here and Father Richard Mullins, pastor of St. Thomas the Apostle Church here. Both Sister Maria and Father Mullins are consultants to ICEL.

In speaking about the work of ICEL and the acceptance of the Roman Missal in the member and associate-member Conferences of Bishops, Cardinal Sarah said that he holds up ICEL and the process used for the English-language Missal as a model for other vernacular languages to follow.