The bishops will be having their June meeting in LA. Here’s the agenda:

The agenda will include discussion and vote on: extending the annual appeal for the Retirement Fund for Religious beyond 2007, adaptations of the Order of Mass, liturgical translations by the International Committee on English in the Liturgy, and a request by the Stewardship Committee to begin drafting a document entitled Stewardship and Teenagers. The bishops will hear reports on the work of Priorities and Plans, on Catholic Relief Services, on their Hurricane Task Force, on a new DVD by the Committee on Vocations, “Fishers of Men,” and a report by the Task Force on Catholic Bishops and Politicians.

The bishops will spend a half day on study and reflection on the theme of the New Evangelization.

At Adoremus, Helen Hull Hitchock gives a preview of the action on liturgy:

Before they vote on the ICEL text itself, the bishops will have to deal with amendments proposed for altering the translation. If past experience is repeated, bishops could propose hundreds of amendments to the ICEL text, though the BCL sorts all these into two categories, “BCL accepts” and “BCL rejects”; and any bishop can ask for “separate consideration” of any item on either list. Only these would be subject to discussion and separate voting. A simple majority is required to accept or reject amendments. If the bishops vote to amend the ICEL text in any way, these changes would be incorporated into the text they would then vote on — and could affect the text sent to other ICEL-member countries for approval. This process could complicate and delay things, of course.

For canonical approval of the whole text of the Order of Mass, a 2/3 majority of the eligible Latin-rite bishops is required.

If it passes, the entire text would then be sent to the Holy See for approval and confirmation (recognitio). If it fails, however, the members of the Bishops’ Committee on the Liturgy will decide the next step to propose to the conference. According to the ICEL Statutes, if it proves “unfeasible” to achieve a common translation for the English-speaking countries, as Liturgiam authenticam urges, each country can provide its own text. Though this outcome may be unlikely, confusion and delays in achieving a worthy translation of the Missal would almost certainly ensue; and no one wants a repeat of the liturgical conflicts of the 1990s.

Adaptations…
In contrast to the amendments, proposed by the BCL and/or bishops, which would affect the translation of the main ICEL text of the Order of Mass, the adaptations proposed would become actual additions to the Missal for the Church in United States. Because of this, each of the proposed amendments requires a 2/3 majority vote of the Latin-rite bishops.

At the bishops’ November 2005 meeting, they first discussed a list of proposed adaptations. After a lively discussion, they voted overwhelming to table this until after they had a chance to examine the text of the Missal they were asked to “adapt”.