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Omitting 'men' - I've never heard that one in practice, but I'm sure it's done. All of that liturgical-gender-avoidance is post-1990 in parochial usage, though it's been going on in female religious orders since the mid-60s, I've read. The only one I occasionally hear with my own ears is the resolute use of 'God / God's / God' instead of 'He / His / Him' in certain prayers, especially in the response of the people to the "Orate fratres" just before the eucharistic prayer proper:
- Priest: Pray, brethren, that our sacrifice may be acceptable to God, the almighty Father.
- People: May the Lord accept the sacrifice at your hands for the praise and glory of his ('God's') name, for our good, and the good of all his ('God's') Church.
That sounds like a "standard" use of inclusive language, like many of the changes in the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible. Is this a top-down change supported by some bishops, or a grass-roots thing that people are just kind of doing at the lay level? I know the American bishops don't always see eye-to-eye with the Pope on everything. --Wesley
- dunno. I think it's a movement that is concerted and propagated by lay and clerical groups without episcopal approval but often with the approval of diocesan-level officials - for instance, at diocesan conferences for liturgical planning, etc. Not that there aren't some bishops who are part of it, but it's never come to a vote the way the lectionaries did. The Roman Catholic Church is and has always been a lot less successful at policing practice than either its organizational charts or its critics make out. --MichaelTinkler