Pope Francis has issued a public correction to an article by Cardinal Robert Sarah about the changes the Pope has made to the way liturgical texts are to be translated from the original Latin into local languages.
Sarah, a 72-year-old Guinean is the prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, which traditionally has had authority over liturgical translations.
In a letter dated October 15, Pope Francis very directly corrected a commentary by Sarah on the implementation of the motu proprio Magnum Principium (MP)
In his commentary, Sarah argued that the new process for the translation of liturgical texts still follows the rules put into place with the 2001 Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam (LA), which said the vernacular versions must faithfully reflect the language and structure of the Latin texts.
In his letter, Pope Francis said MP “abolished” the process for translating used by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments after LA was published in 2001.
He said that in the past, it was the task of the Vatican’s liturgical office to judge whether or not a translation is faithful to the original Latin.
Now episcopal conferences themselves have been given the faculty of “judging the goodness and consistency of one and the other term in the translations from the original, in dialogue with the Holy See.”
Sarah suggested that the words recognition (recognitio) and confirmation (confirmatio) are “interchangeable with respect to the responsibility of the Holy See”.
But the Pope said these two words cannot be said to be “strictly synonymous or interchangeable or that they are interchangeable at the level of responsibility of the Holy See.”
The distinction between recognition and confirmation he said, emphasises the different responsibility that the Apostolic See and episcopal conferences have in liturgical translations.
He said recognition by the Vatican “no longer supposes a detailed word-by-word examination” except in obvious cases which can be brought to the bishops for further reflection.
Recognition indicates verification and certainty of conformity into law and the communion of the Church.
It is granted after the text confirmed by the local bishops has been submitted to the Apostolic See.
While he conceded that “the recognitio was not a simply formal act”, Pope Francis also insisted on “the spirit of dialogue” between Rome and bishops’ conferences that his motu proprio required.
Pope Francis closed his letter noting that Sarah’s commentary had been published on several websites, and asked that the cardinal transmit his response to the same outlets, as well as to members and consultors of the Congregation for Divine Worship.
Read the full text of the Pope’s Letter
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