OME CONSIDER the 1961 hand-missal by Dr. Finberg (drawing heavily on Msgr. Ronald Knox’s biblical translations) the most ‘extravagantly sumptuous’ ever published. Whether or not that’s true, efforts by other publishers also have much to contribute, and are therefore greeted with joy by lovers of the sacred liturgy. Today, we release an exceedingly rare book: the FEDER MISSAL. We release the 1962 edition (English-Latin) as well as the ‘original’ FEDER MISSAL (French-Latin). Members of Corpus Christi Watershed spent hours carefully photographing each page, and then we utilized an online viewer built by my colleague, Matthew Frederes, which allows each page to be navigated and viewed with spectacular ease:
* FEDER MISSAL • Latin-English (1962)
—Msgr. Crichton, Fr. Bullough, Fr. Howell, Harold Winstone, Donald Attwater, Canon Martimort.
* FEDER MISSAL • Latin-French (1957)
—Martimort’s NIHIL OBSTAT (11 July 1957); PSALTER comes from the ‘Jerusalem Bible’ according to the Preface.
English Translations • For hundreds of years, the ‘correct’ approach to liturgical translation has been debated. (1) Some believe strongly in a type of robotic literalness. Such an approach cherishes cognates and would render the beginning of Psalm 39 (Exspéctans exspectávi Dóminum) as: “Expecting, I have expected the Lord.” (2) Others feel the translator should render ideas, not individual words. For instance, when translating Spanish (dar a luz) adherents of this method wouldn’t refer to a mother “giving light to her child.” Rather, they would present what it means: viz. “giving birth.” (3) The third method might be called the “ICEL method,” in which translators deliberately ‘obscure’ or ‘contradict’ or ‘modify’ the meaning of the text for ideological reasons; e.g. to make texts more palatable to homo modernus. The 1994 PSALTER produced by ICEL (edited by people like Peter Finn) demonstrates this third method very well.
The Collaboration • The 1962 English version of the FEDER MISSAL was prepared by: Monsignor James Dunlop Crichton [1907–2001] of The Society of Saint Gregory (chairman of the editorial board); Father Sebastian Bullough [1910–1967], a Dominican priest, PRIOR of Woodchester, who lectured at Cambridge University in Hebrew and Aramaic (translation of rhythmical psalms), Father Clifford Howell, S.J. [1902–1981], a graduate of Stonyhurst College in England and contributor to Orate Fratres who is sometimes confused with Dr. Gerald Ellard S.J. of St. Mary’s College in Kansas (translation of longer introductions); Rev’d Harold Winstone [1917–1987] president of The Society of Saint Gregory and member of ‘ICEL’, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (translation of proper Mass chants); Donald Attwater [1892–1977] author of The Catholic Encyclopaedic Dictionary (general editor of this Englished Feder Missal); Canon Aimé-Georges Martimort [1911–2000]who in the 1960s suggested that the “Pater Noster” ought to be sung by all the faithful along with the priest “though sotto voce” and who—although he gave the NIHIL OBSTAT to the 1957 French edition—wrote the PREFACE to the Latin-English FEDER MISSAL. For the record, Rachel Atwater (the wife of Donald Attwater) was also a scholar and author; if you look on page 108, you will see that Rachel translated the Breviary hymn (O lux beáta cǽlitum) for the Feast of the Holy Family. Indeed, the 1962 FEDER MISSAL book contains English translations of certain Breviary hymns that can’t be found in any other book … not even the Brébeuf Hymnal.
Final Thoughts • It is not known why the books are called ‘FEDER MISSALS’ inasmuch as the Jesuit priest, Father José Feder, was not solely responsible for the creation of the hand-missal. Rather, Father Feder was part of a large team including: Father Ignace Carton SJ; Father Vincent Chartier SJ; Father Jean-Marie Dubromelle SJ; Father Henri Dudon SJ; Father Gervais Dumeige SJ; Father Charles George SJ; Pierre Poujoula SJ; Father Pierre Hennion SJ; and others who were not members of the Company of Jesus. In terms of the cadre who created the Latin-English version, some of them sadly went ‘off the deep end’ after the Second Vatican Council. For instance, Monsignor James Dunlop Crichton (d. 2001) labeled as “darkness” the Catholic liturgy for 1,000 years, in spite of how it formed and nourished so many great saints. Moreover, Monsignor Crichton wrote in 1996 that the post-conciliar changes “seemed to change the Roman rite beyond recognition but in fact brought it back to what it had been many centuries before it became distorted by accretions and indeed excrescences.” Such an assertion is bizarre and indefensible, but the ‘Baghdad Bob syndrome’ is hardly limited to Monsignor Crichton.
