The bishops of the German-speaking countries have opened to public consultation the revision of the missal used in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland since 1975, and the project’s technical director announces that the new text will incorporate inclusive language and will leave the translation of the words of consecration open. The director of the German Liturgical Institute of Trier, Marius Linnenborn, explained in an interview with katholisch.de published on Tuesday, November 3, that wherever only the masculine form has appeared until now, women will be added, and that “the images of God with a markedly masculine character will also be handled with care.” Regarding the chalice, he believes the bishops would vote to keep “für alle” (“for all”) instead of “für viele” (“for many”) that Benedict XVI requested.
The German Bishops’ Conference announced on Monday, November 2, that the public participation phase is beginning. Until June 30, 2027, specialists and those involved in liturgical pastoral ministry may submit, through an online form, concrete proposals for change on specific passages of the missal; general criticisms will not be taken into account. At the same time, between Ash Wednesday and the end of June 2027, the new texts will be tested in parishes and religious communities selected by the dioceses. The introduction of the new missal is scheduled, according to the current timetable, for 2033. Before that, the text must be approved by the bishops of the German-speaking region and receive the recognitio of the Dicastery for Divine Worship.
The project has been directed since 2024 by the Conference for the Liturgy of the Church in the German-speaking area, on behalf of the bishops’ conferences of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland and of the bishops of Luxembourg, Vaduz, Strasbourg, Bozen-Brixen, and Liège. It is presented as a moderate revision: there will not be a complete new translation from Latin. The texts of the third typical edition of the Missale Romanum that still lack an official German version will be translated, including, according to Linnenborn, another Eucharistic Prayer of Reconciliation that was not translated in 1975 and prayers over the people for each day of Lent, and alternative collect prayers inspired by the readings of each Sunday will be added.
The most delicate issue is that of the chalice. The Roman Canon says in Latin that the blood of Christ is poured out pro vobis et pro multis, and the current German missal translates it “for you and for all.” On April 14, 2012, Benedict XVI wrote to the then president of the German bishops, Archbishop Robert Zollitsch, to communicate that the Holy See had decided that in new translations of the missal the pro multis should be translated literally, “for many,” and requested prior catechesis to avoid division. Fourteen years later, Linnenborn says the question has not been decided, but that a vote of the German-speaking bishops would, in his view, lean toward keeping “für alle.” The quotations from the interview are a translation by this editorial team.
It is not the first attempt to revise the 1975 missal. A first project, from the 1990s, was abandoned after the instruction Liturgiam authenticam, of 2001, which demanded strict fidelity to the Latin text. A second draft, closer to the Latin, did not obtain the approval of the German-speaking bishops themselves, who did not consider it better than the current one. Linnenborn maintains that the English and French translations made according to that instruction provoked strong controversies and that this shows it was not the solution. The new attempt was made possible after Francis, with the motu proprio Magnum principium of 2017, returned to the bishops’ conferences the primary responsibility for liturgical translations.
The director of the Trier institute argues that the current translation is generally well done, although it contains expressions that would not be formulated the same way today. The new collects, he adds, should make it easier for the assembly to join in the prayer, because the current ones are often dense and strongly theological in content. The missal that the German Church wants to have in 2033 is being written with inclusive language, with lighter prayers, and, if the forecast of its main technical director is fulfilled, without the correction that Benedict XVI requested for the chalice.
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