At the beginning of the Advent season 2011, the Catholic Church began to implement the New Roman Missal in order to reflect a more accurate and direct translation of the original Latin from past church texts.

Many of the Church’s original prayers, such as the Nicene Creed, and texts of the mass have been altered through this translation. While the changes may seem drastic, there is little actual text change during the mass for the general congregation. Most of the changes in the service come for the priest, and rewording makes up the majority of the revisions.

Despite the minuteness of the changes for the common person during the mass, many BSM students question the needs for these alterations. “It doesn’t make sense to me, because I don’t understand why they chose now to change all of the text,” said junior Maria Williams.

Others, however, have embraced the idea of connecting deeper to the stories making up the Catholic doctrine. “I think it’s interesting that the text is changing, and hopefully I can learn more about it,” said junior Joe Pauly.

In order to embrace such permanent developments in the church, religion classes spent a few days explaining the workings of the New Roman Missal; however, many students still felt that questions were left unanswered after these discussions. “I think that the video we saw in religion class helped [me learn about the changes] a little bit, but I still don’t understand why the changes had to happen,” said sophomore Sierra Twesten.

The basis of going back to the original translation compels churchgoers to understand the text rather than only repeat the correct response thoughtlessly. For example, the one of the new responses for the congregation has become- “Lord, I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof, but only say the word and my soul shall be healed.” This might seem confusing at first, but after analyzing scripture and understanding the story behind this text, one learns more about the Catholic doctrine, which is the basis of these changes.