The Vatican will not “impose” a specific liturgical translation on bishops’ conferences, but rather is called to recognise the bishops’ authority and expertise in determining the best way to faithfully translate Latin texts into their local languages, Pope Francis has said in a letter to Vatican officials.
In the letter, released by the Vatican on Sunday, Pope Francis said he wanted to correct several points made in a “commentary” which Cardinal Robert Sarah sent him, which was published on several websites in a variety of languages.
The letter said that most of the websites “erroneously” cited Cardinal Sarah as the author of the commentary.
The commentary looked at changes Pope Francis made to the Code of Canon Law in the process for approving liturgical translations. The changes were ordered in his document, Magnum Principium (“The Great Principle”), which was published in September.
Explaining that he wanted to “avoid any misunderstanding”, Pope Francis said the commentary could give an erroneous impression that the level of involvement of the congregation remained unchanged.
However, while in the past “the judgment regarding the fidelity to the Latin and the eventual corrections necessary was the task of the congregation,” the Pope said, “now the norm concedes to episcopal conferences the faculty of judging the worth and coherence of one or another term in translations from the original, even if in dialogue with the Holy See”.
The commentary attributed to Cardinal Sarah insisted on the ongoing validity of the norms for translation contained in Liturgiam authenticam, the Congregation for Divine Worship’s 2001 instruction on translations.
But Pope Francis said the changes to canon law take precedence, and “one can no longer hold that translations must conform in every point to the norms of Liturgiam authenticam as was done in the past”.
The texts for Mass and other liturgies must receive a confirmation from the Congregation for Divine Worship, he said, but this “no longer supposes a detailed, word by word examination, except in obvious cases that can be presented to the bishops for further reflection”.
Pope Francis also said the fidelity called for in translations has three layers: “first, to the original text; to the particular language into which it is being translated; and, finally, to the intelligibility of the text” by the people.
Polish bishops consider new mission to remarried
The Polish bishops’ conference is considering a new document reaffirming the Church’s traditional teaching on Communion for the remarried.
The document has been produced by the bishops’ council on the family. The Italian newspaper La Nuova Bussola Quotidiana has published excerpts, in which the council lays a particular stress on supporting those in irregular situations.
The council suggests that bishops appoint priests with a special role of accompanying people who have separated from their spouses.
The priests would carry out “careful discernment”, to distinguish between different kinds of situation and to make sure that nobody feels excluded or shunned.
For those who are in a new relationship, the council reaffirms the teaching of the Church as stated in John Paul II’s Familiaris Consortio, of
“not admitting to Eucharistic Communion divorced persons who have remarried”.
The council says that a divorced person in this situation, if they continue their new sexual relationship, cannot receive Communion because their state of life “is objectively incompatible with God’s law”.
Francis: interviews are a ‘risk’
Pope Francis has said that answering questions and giving interviews are the best way to know and respond to people’s real concerns, and that the possible “pastoral risk” of these occasions is worth taking.
“I know this can make me vulnerable, but it is a risk I want to take,” the Pope wrote in the introduction to a new book collecting transcripts of question-and-answer sessions he has held all over the world, Adesso Fate le Vostre Domande (“Now, Ask Your Questions”).
Areas of Catholic Herald business are still recovering post-pandemic.
However, we are reaching out to the Catholic community and readership, that has been so loyal to the Catholic Herald. Please join us on our 135 year mission by supporting us.
We are raising £250,000 to safeguard the Herald as a world-leading voice in Catholic journalism and teaching.
We have been a bold and influential voice in the church since 1888, standing up for traditional Catholic culture and values. Please consider donating.