New Translation in St Peter's

Whilst in Rome I was able to offer Mass early one morning in St Peter's Basilica at the altar of St Thomas at the side of the south transept.  It always feels a little unreal to be able to offer Mass in the great Basilica.  There appears to be a Latin Missal at each altar now, which was not always the case in the past.  

What I also could not help noticing was the large American group that arrived at the neighbouring altar of St Joseph  towards the end of my own Mass because the priest proceeded to speak rather loudly using a microphone.  It is not the lack of sensitivity I'm complaining about but the fact that, while he used the new English translation he changed the wording all the way through the Mass - bellowing out his own made-up version right there in St Peter's!  The most glaring abuse was the deliberate change of 'chalice' to 'cup' but others are too  numerous to mention.  (If I'd taken his name I would have reported him to Cardinal Burke, as I happened to see him later that day at the Apostolic Signatura!)

Obviously, the intention of re-sacralising the Mass through the new translation is never going to work if priests still feel free to invent their own versions which they somehow believe superior to the one promulgated by the Holy See.  It will not matter how much better the new translation is if priests still add in their "Good Morning everybody - Good morning Father" and interrupt the Mass to add in their own dubious rubrics instructing the congregation to "hold hands during the Our Father" and all the other ad libs that congregations have been forced to suffer in recent years.

The other great thing about St Peter's is that all the altars that priests say Mass on around the Basilica are "ad orientem".  It must come as quite a shock to many.