Bilingual church services irk 4 Montreal priests

Bilingual church services irk 4 Montreal priests

www.cbc.ca

A group of Montreal priests says the house of God is going bilingual — and they're not very happy about it.

Four Roman Catholic priests have written a letter complaining that English has been creeping back into their churches over the past five years.

They're upset that when large assemblies are held at big churches such as Notre Dame Basilica and St. Joseph's Oratory, a large number of immigrants are usually present and the services are bilingual.

The priests say that sends the wrong s

(visit the link for the full news article)

People who even visited Montreal should understand what this article is all about.

The priests say that sends the wrong signal to immigrants in Quebec, which is officially unilingually French.

Really?

I thought the church had no political or linguistic message to give, only a religious one.

If these priests care about their language so much they should get out of the church and go into politics!

This has nothing to do with them or church.

Francophones can be sooo....... ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH

And if you look at the comments at the bottom of the page you'll see how fed up montrealers are of these idiots.

www.cbc.ca
(visit the link for the full news article)

I am glad that they have to do their services in both languages. As someone who does not live in La Belle Province, I get pretty sick of having french shoved down my throat. Every other province has to be mindful of the fact that we are a "bi-lingual" nation, yet in Quebec they are allowed to discriminate against the Anglophones.

Perfect example, all store signs in Quebec need to be prominently French, even if you don't speak french. Yet everywhere else, if you were to see sign that was in french and complained about it, it would be discrimination.

I would not be against them carrying out their threat and leaving, and taking their enormous debt load with them.

reply to post by Rook1545


Well, from a linguistic standpoint, if you speak English, you're speaking French. if you speak French... you're still only speaking French. There was a lot of one-way trade between the languages back in the day Learn your English more betterer, and you'll end up being able to figure out a lot of French, German, and Spanish along the way.

That said... these priests need to pray for the ability to build a bridge and get over it. Either that, or they should show their contempt by holding services entirely in Latin. And then I'll say "Learn your French more betterer, and you'll end up being able to figure out a lot of Latin"

reply to post by Rook1545


Yeah I completely agree
do you remember this:
angryfrenchguy.com...

???
They wanted to get rid of chinatown too

This would never have been a problem if they hadn't changed the mass in 1969 to allow use of the vernacular.

The old Latin Mass was accessable to all regardless of language. Everyone carried their own latin/ english or whatever missal and there were no problems.

You could go to mass anywhere on earth and follow along, knowing exactly what was going on.

[edit on 23-12-2009 by FortAnthem]

Originally posted by TheWalkingFox
reply to post by Rook1545

 

Well, from a linguistic standpoint, if you speak English, you're speaking French. if you speak French... you're still only speaking French. There was a lot of one-way trade between the languages back in the day

Learn your English more betterer, and you'll end up being able to figure out a lot of French, German, and Spanish along the way.

Funny thing I can understand french to a degree. I did take it all through school, and back when I graduated I could carry out a decent conversation that was not just me saying "Je suis tu es Il e'st". I just hate being told that I have to learn the language because we are a bi-lingual nation, when the other side doesn't have to reciprocate.

Funny thing I can understand french to a degree. I did take it all through school, and back when I graduated I could carry out a decent conversation that was not just me saying "Je suis tu es Il e'st". I just hate being told that I have to learn the language because we are a bi-lingual nation, when the other side doesn't have to reciprocate.

As a french canadian, I could say exactly the same thing. You only need to switch the word ''english'' for ''french'' and vice versa.

Most french canadian I know speak fluent english. And I know a lot.

Well in my Island of PR we are all Spanish speaking but the Catholic Church service is in Latin, has been in Latin since I remember regardless if we understand or not.

So I am surprised that in Canada they use other language beside Latin for the Catholic Mass.

[edit on 23-12-2009 by marg6043]

reply to post by marg6043


You're lucky to have access to the Latin Mass where you are. Here on the mainland, one often has to travel over an hour to find a church which still offers the old mass.

Thanks to Pope Bennedict releasing the old mass, that is starting to change though.


edit to fix spellin

[edit on 23-12-2009 by FortAnthem]

In the Toronto area most catholic churches have regular bilingual masses; it all depends on the cultural background of the neigbourhood. For example, the church nearest me holds 9 o'clock mass in english, 10:00 in Tagalog and 11:00 in Italian. That's simply the makeup of the neighbourhood and the parish aims to reach as many people as possible with it's message.

I'm not sure what the fuss is about. I suspect these priests have sovereigntist notions rather than religious ones. They really should stick to their vocation and leave the politics out of the religion. There is already enough friction regarding this whole "nation within a nation" business (Thanks for that little chestnut Mr. Harper, I just know that will come back to haunt us), we really don't need to add a religious dimension to it.

These 4 priests ought to join the Separatist movement, and leave the priesthood, because their attitude is not very ecumenical. In our parish, we have one mass in Spanish, several in English a mass with Gospel singers, and a mass in Latin once a month. The reason that there are not more Latin masses, is that they are not very well attended.