From Zenit’s liturgy column this week, a complaint about the widespread use of “Pray, brothers and sisters …” which has usurped the “Pray brethren …” followed by a curious answer by columnistFather Edward McNamara.
Thus, not all expressions such as “brothers and sisters” instead of “brethren” are necessarily ideological uses of inclusive language. Rather, such uses might simply recognize the reality that in some parts of the English-speaking world the word “brethren” is now archaic and no longer conveys its original meaning.
In my experience, most uses of inclusive language in church are non-ideological. A curial official in the CDWDS, when confronted with proposals from ICEL in the early 90’s, asked, “Is this all you want?”
When the Latin uses “homo,” its gender neutral term for “humankind,” why do translators persist in using the archaic definition of “man?” They burden parishes and widen rifts that should be closed. Language doesn’t need to be the distraction it is.