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CHARLOTTE — Staff writer SueAnn Howell was granted an exclusive interview with Cardinal Francis Arinze Saturday during the 2011 Eucharistic Congress in Charlotte. Cardinal Arinze was in town for the two-day annual congress as its keynote speaker, giving an address on Friday about the importance of Sunday Mass and of keeping the Sabbath holy.

In the one-on-one interview, the cardinal offered some advice for the faithful in our diocese regarding the upcoming implementation of the revised English missal and also regarding the ongoing battle to protect the sanctity of marriage in North Carolina and the U.S.

Revised Missal

Cardinal Arinze pointed out that the changes in text for the English translation of the Roman Missal are not changes in the Mass itself. And the revisions are being made in nearly every language in the world – not just in English – to more closely align the vernacular translations with the original Latin text of the Missal.

"The aim is to get it more faithful to the original Latin text," Cardinal Arinze said. "The second: to let it help more to prayer, because liturgical prayer should help us in our personal prayer."

Thirdly, he said, the English translation better captures the Biblical references that are key components of the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. Those scriptural references are meaningful and important, he emphasized.

Marriage

The ongoing battle in the U.S. has recently come home to North Carolina, as the state legislature recently gave the green light for a ballot measure in 2012 to place in the state constitution a definition of marriage as the union between one man and one woman. State law already does this, but a constitutional amendment would safeguard traditional marriage from legal challenges, as have already occurred in other states.

Cardinal Arinze reassured the faithful in the battle over traditional values.

"You have Moses and the prophets. Listen to them," he said, adding, "You have your bishops, you have your priests, you have good theologians."

"God made marriage (as being between) one man, one woman. That's what God made. No human being has any power to reinvent (it). Marriage was not made by the Vatican. It was made by God Almighty. We will be all right if we follow the laws of the Maker," he said.

-- SueAnn Howell

To listen to SueAnn Howell's interview with Cardinal Francis Arinze, go to www.goeucharist.com.