"CATHOLIC parishes in Wales will soon be able to follow the Mass in their native tongue with the impending publication of a new Sunday Missal in Welsh.
"There are a certain number of parishes where Mass is said in Welsh every weekend, and other parishes which like this to happen occasionally," Bishop James Hannigan of the recently created Wrexham Diocese told the Catholic Herald. "The publication of the new Missal will greatly ease the burden on priests whose parishioners like
the Mass in Welsh."
All the prayers in the new Missal have been translated from the Latin of the Missale Romanum with Scripture readings taken from the New Welsh Bible, also published this year on the fourth centenary of the first full Bible in Welsh.
Fr John Fitzgerald from Aberystwyth, who worked on the translation of the Missal, said that although Welsh speaking Catholics are a minority, "it is important that the Church presents itself to the Welsh as not merely an alien presence. The new Welsh Missal is therefore an important witness of the presence of the Church in the whole body politic."
The Missal, published by the Diocese of Menevia on behalf of the bishops of Wales, costs ten pounds and is available through local churches or from CTS Cardiff. A copy will be on show in the Catholic tent at the National Eisteddfod in Newport in August this year.