Now this is real news - even if and especially since the Vatican's own media has never reported it - not the invention of some agency hack citing an anonymous (and probably fictitious) source - and yet, this has not been reported till now. The article appears on www.chiesa run by Sandro Magister but is one of those pieces inexplicably bylined "***"
Vatican Diary:
Among Pope Benedict's last acts as Pope
He changes the text of the Baptism rite to explicitly say
the new Christian is being received into 'the Church of God'
not just into 'the Christian community'
by ***
Translated by Matthew Sherry for
VATICAN CITY, August 22, 2013 – The Sunday after the Epiphany is the Sunday of the baptism of Jesus. And on each of these Sundays, year after year, Benedict XVI administered the first sacrament of Christian initiation to a certain number of children, in the Sistine Chapel.
Each time, therefore, he had occasion to pronounce the formulas supplied by the rite of baptism in effect since 1969. But two of the words in this rite never entirely convinced him.
And so, before renouncing the chair of Peter, he ordered that they should be changed in the original Latin, and as a result in the modern languages as well.
The amendment was published in the official bulletin
Notitiae of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of Sacraments, Its existence was pointed out,
amid the silence of the Vatican media, by
Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian episcopal conference.
[THIS IS TRULY OUTRAGEOUS: Why the Vatican media thought this was not at all worthy of being reported as news is one of those unfathomable 'perplexities' we have grown accustomed to with them! Does the rest of the Curia even know about this???? When and how was the universal Church going to be informed about the change properly and clearly, though it's too late now to say 'promptly'? This appears to be yet another 'bureaucratic' sabotage of Benedict XVI's intentions and acts, as was the recent one done on Summorum Pontificum]
In the decree published in
Notitiae, 557-558, Ian.-Feb. 2013, 1-2, pagg. 54-56, "communitas christiana" is changed to "Ecclesia Dei" in paragraphs 41, 79, 111, 136, and 170 of the second "editio typica," or normative, in Latin, of the 1973 rite for the baptism of children.
The decree that introduces the innovation, published in Latin, begins as follows:
"The gate of life and of the kingdom, baptism is a sacrament of faith, by which men are incorporated into the one Church of Christ, which subsists in the Catholic Church, governed by the successor of Peter and by the bishops in communion with him.”
It is precisely on the basis of this consideration that the CDW explains the change to the wording of the rite in the second Latin “editio typica" of the 1973 rite for the baptism of children (which is is identical to the wording in the first “editio typica" of 1969):
"So that in this same rite more light may be shed on the doctrinal teaching of the task and duty of Mother Church in the sacraments to be celebrated.”
The change introduced is the following: From now on, at the end of the rite of reception, before signing with the cross the forehead of the child or of the children, the priest will longer say: "Magno gaudio communitas christiana te (vos) excipit," but instead: "Magno gaudio Ecclesia Dei te (vos) excipit".
In practice Papa Ratzinger, as a sophisticated theologian, has maintained that in the baptismal rite, it should be clearly said that it is the Church of God - which subsists fully in the Catholic Church - that receives those who are being baptized, and not generically the “Christian community,” a term that also signifies the individual local communities or non-Catholic confessions, like the Protestants.
The decree published in CDW bulletin
Notitiae specifies that Benedict XVI “benevolently established” the aforementioned variation in the course of an audience granted to the prefect of the congregation, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, on January 28, 2013, just two weeks before the announcement of his resignation as pope.
The decree bears the date of February 22, 2013, the feast of the chair of St. Peter, and is signed by the cardinal prefect and by the secretary, Archbishop Arthur Roche. It is said there that it went into effect on March 31, 2013, when the Pope was already Francis, who evidently did not object to his predecessor's decision.
The introduction of the change into modern languages will be overseen by the respective episcopal conferences.
Currently in English, the phrase reads "The Christian community welcomes you with great joy" - which with the change will now read "The Church of God welcomes you with great joy".
In French: "La communauté chrétienne t’accueille avec une grande joie."
In Spanish: "La comunidad cristiana te recibe con gran allegria."
In Portuguese: "È com muita allegria que la comunidade cristã te recebe."
Departing slightly from the original Latin are the German version: “Mit großer Freude empfängt dich die Gemeinschaft der Glaubenden [The community of believers welcomes you with great joy]" and the one now used in Italian: “Con grande gioia la nostra comunità cristiana ti accoglie [With great joy
our Christian community welcomes you].”
The Italian formula is the one that Benedict XVI used each time he administered the sacrament on the Sunday of the Baptism of Jesus. And perhaps it is precisely that excessively self-referential “our” that induced the Pope-theologian to decide on the change.
Until 2012, in fact, Benedict XVI omitted the “our,” and although he was celebrating in Italian, he told the little baptizands: "With great joy the Christian community welcomes you.”
But in the end he must have considered the original Latin ambiguous as well. So that last January 13, in celebrating baptism for the last time as supreme pontiff, he said: "Dear children, with great joy the Church of God welcomes you.”
And shortly afterward, among the last measures of his pontificate, he prescribed this formula for the whole Church.
[The site then goes on to publish the full text of the decree in Latin.][Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 23/08/2013 14:47]