Translation is job for local churches, Pope confirms

Claims that under new guidelines the Vatican will still be able to impose specific words and phrases onto local translations of the Mass have been rejected by Pope Francis.

Earlier this month, the Vatican’s liturgy chief Cardinal Robert Sarah said that although the Pope’s new directive on translating liturgical texts gives greater control over the translation process to local bishops’ conferences, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments retains power to approve or reject proposed translations.

Instruction

A commentary attributed to the cardinal in the journal L’Homme Nouveau said Magnum Principium, or ‘Great Principle’ did not replace St John Paul II’s 2001 instruction calling for more faithful translations from Latin. It noted that it was “by no means a formality” that approval would be granted, with the new ruling presupposing a detailed review by the congregation.

However, the Pope has written to the cardinal explaining that the Vatican should recognise the authority of bishops and their ability to determine the best way to translate texts faithfully into local languages.

In his letter, which the Vatican published on October 22, the Pontiff noted how Cardinal Sarah had thanked him for issuing the ‘moto proprio‘ instruction, and had also supplied him with the commentary.

Explaining that he wanted to “avoid any misunderstanding,” Pope Francis said the commentary could mislead people into believing that the congregation’s role remained unchanged, the Pope emphasised that it would indeed be for bishops’ conferences to judge for themselves “the worth and coherence of one or another term in translations from the original, even if in dialogue with the Holy See”.

He also stated that changes to canon law effected by his instruction take priority over the 2001 instruction, and said that while texts must indeed receive confirmation from the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, this save in specific cases, “no longer supposes a detailed, word by word examination”.

Translation

The Pontiff noted that the commentary had been “erroneously” attributed to the cardinal on certain websites.

It is not expected that the new instructions will affect the Mass translation currently in use in Ireland, given the cost of having produced the current translation and how Magnum Principium presupposes translations needing unanimous approval from the hierarchy.