Vatican approves General Instruction of the Roman Missal for Australia

The General Instruction of the Roman Missal which has been approved by the Vatican for Australia can be accessed by clicking on the pdf icon to the right of this page. Please Note that this document is for study purposes only at this time and not for immediate implementation. The Bishops of Australia will determine when the new provisions are to be implemented.

The Vatican has approved the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM) which was submitted by the Australian Catholic Bishops Conference.

ACBC President, Archbishop Philip Wilson received the approval from the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Cardinal Francis Arinze.

The approval relates to the General Instruction that accompanies the third Latin edition of the Roman Missal published in 2002 and translated into English.

The General Instruction explains how the Mass is to be celebrated in a number of different scenarios and states the liturgical principles which guide the celebration of Mass in the Latin Rite. There have been two previous editions of the General Instruction.

Chairman of the Bishops’ Commission for Liturgy, Archbishop Mark Coleridge, said while there were some small changes that would affect the posture and gestures of people attending Mass, the main changes were simply fine tuning some liturgical practices that would affect priests, deacons and lay liturgical ministers.

“It is very valuable at this time to have the approval of this interim translation of the General Instruction, particularly as we move towards a completion of the translation of the 3^rd edition of the Latin Missal,” Archbishop Coleridge said.

“The implementation of the provisions of this General Instruction will be accompanied by catechetical material from the Bishops’ Commission that will assist local Bishops, clergy and people to make their celebrations of the Eucharist a rich spiritual experience and help people focus more fully on the mystery being celebrated.”

Archbishop Coleridge also said the text would be available on the ACBC website for easy accessibility and study.

The Bishops in Australia will determine when the provisions of this new Instruction will be implemented.