Louisville, USA - A dozen people sat in a circle in a small meeting room beside the darkened sanctuary of St. Barnabas Church in Louisville on a recent weekday morning, practicing new readings that will mark the biggest and most controversial overhaul of Roman Catholic liturgy in decades.
They gave a test run to a revised version of the confession of sins. They softly struck their chests with their fists as they read the repentance for sins committed through "my fault, my fault, my most grievous fault."
Many hadn't made that gesture in nearly half a century, when they had used the Latin phrase, "Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa." Since the Mass began to be recited in English, that clause, and the chest-striking, had been dropped from the confession of sin.
"OK, how did that feel with the change?" asked a discussion leader, Mary Carol Kelly.
A chorus of voices from the mostly middle-aged and older group said it was familiar.
"Growing up, that's what I did (at) Mass every morning in school," said one.
The class is part of an effort under way for months in archdioceses throughout the country. They were preparing for a revised text of the Mass that will take effect on Nov. 27, the first Sunday of the liturgical season of Advent and of the church year.
The revisions reflect a new translation for the English-speaking world of the Roman Missal, the official Latin-language set of worship documents. It includes words and instructions for conducting the Mass, the central act of Catholic worship, in which priests bless and distribute bread and wine as essentially the body and blood of Jesus.
Virtually every prayer and proclamation in the Mass is undergoing at least some revision, marking the biggest change in worship for American Catholics since they began having Masses in English rather than Latin after the reformist Second Vatican Council of the 1960s.
Much of the debate within the church is over whether the changes, ordered by the Vatican to achieve more literal translations from the Latin, are good or bad.
Proponents say the new version is a more precise reflection of the original Latin. They say it is richer in its poetry, more reverent in its references to God and fuller in its allusions to the Bible and church creeds.
Critics say the Vatican dismissed years of work by scholars who had been working for the bishops of English-speaking countries. They call the new version rigidly literal -- difficult for priests to recite and lay people to understand.
It contains technical theological terms -- such as Jesus being "consubstantial" with the Father, replacing the current phrase "one in being," and "oblation," replacing the term "offering."
But for many Catholics, such discussions haven't even registered.
A national survey released in August found that three-quarters of Roman Catholics are unaware of the changes to come. The least informed are younger adults and those who don't attend Mass frequently, according to Georgetown University's Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.
Louisville Archbishop Joseph E. Kurtz said that, as he has practiced the new prayers, "I've been encouraged by the beauty of them."
For example, the new version speaks of God being praised "from the rising of the sun to its setting," replacing the current, "from east to west." The new phrase, he said, is more poetic and biblical and conveys a vast sense of time as well as space.
Kurtz said studying the new version will provide people "an opportunity to deepen our appreciation and participation" in the Mass.
The best approach for those dismayed by the translation is "to listen and dialogue," he said.
"The liturgy is supposed to be a vehicle of their prayer and participation in the church," he said. "I wouldn't want it to become a stumbling block for them."
One ad hoc group of local Catholics, called the Louisville Liturgy Forum, has opposed the changes while acknowledging that they are inevitable.
"In many ways it's a half-step back to Latin," said co-chair Michael Diebold. "It's awkward, it's choppy, they've got sentences in there that are eight, nine, 10 lines long," he said.
The Rev. Joseph Fowler, a retired priest, said the phrasing is "going to be very foreign" to people.
"We don't speak in long clauses and subjunctive clauses," he said.
Diebold sees the revisions as showing "symbolically where Rome is headed" -- away from a cooperative vision of church as the "people of God" toward one defined by its hierarchy.
"Are we going to have a Vatican II vision of church or are we going to have a Counter-Reformation vision of church?" Diebold asked, referring to the reassertion of central church authority that defined Roman Catholic life between the Protestant Reformation of the 1500s and the Second Vatican Council.
Such fears are unfounded, said Judy Bullock, director of the archdiocese's Worship Office.
She said the use of technical terms reflects both the original Latin and Catholic theology. "Consubstantial," for example, captures more precisely the ancient Catholic creed that describes the oneness of Jesus with God the Father.
The vocabulary is "not the language of the street, it's not the language I may pray on my own," she said. But it reflects the current Vatican emphasis on using a "sacred vernacular" -- which people recognize as devotional language.
Bullock said the new language is also more nuanced. Before, several Latin words were translated as "love"; now they will be translated more precisely.
And she said the widespread education about the Mass that will accompany the Missal fulfills a goal stated in a Vatican II-era document -- the "fully conscious and active participation" of lay people.
"How many prayers do we just rattle off … without one thought?" she said. "This will call attention to every prayer text and also talk about why we pray them."
The Vatican's control of the final product is not surprising, she said. "In the end, there is an authority, which happens to be the Holy See."
At the St. Barnabas class, participants embraced the new translation.
Sally Lynch said she's relying on the church leaders who deemed the changes necessary.
"There's a big trust factor," she added. "I'm fine with it."
"We're used to a lot of this," added Jane Beach, recalling the Latin Mass.
Kelly, the discussion leader, said that understanding the reasons for the changes helps her adjust to them.
For example, when the priest tells the people, "The Lord be with you," the current response of "And also with you" is being changed to "And with your spirit."
Kelly cited a lesson on the change that emphasizes that the priest doesn't act on his own power, rather through the Holy Spirit.
Others worry about how young people -- whom Catholic and other churches are already struggling to retain -- will react.
Gregory Hillis, a theology professor at Bellarmine University, said scholars have long recognized that the current translation needed a more nuanced replacement.
He said there will be times "when people are simply not going to understand what's being said. … At the same time it could be an opportunity for teaching people."
The new one is "neither completely amazing nor absolutely horrible," he said. "It's better than what we have."
"There seems to be a sense among American Catholics that things should be done more democratically," he added. "That simply hasn't been the way that the church works. I'm always surprised when people are surprised."
As Nov. 27 approaches, meanwhile, priests and others are busy practicing.
"If any priest picks up that Missal on that first Sunday and has not read it out loud, he'll be in over his head," said the Rev. Paul Scaglione, pastor at St. Barnabas.