Viewpoint Ecumenist calls Romes translation norms unrealistic,
authoritarian
By HORACE T. ALLEN JR.
As a Presbyterian minister of the
word and sacrament and a committed ecumenist for many decades, I responded to
Liturgiam Authenticam, a Vatican document issuing new rules on
liturgical translation, with considerable sorrow. The May 7 publication of
Liturgiam Authenticam (NCR, May 25), only six days after a
meeting of the Consultation on Common Texts in New York City, has canceled 30
years of ecumenical preparation of liturgical texts.
I have represented my church for 30 years as a member of the North
American Consultation on Common Texts, and for a time served as chair of that
body. And on the occasion of the 1983 publication of Common Lectionary, I
encouraged the formation of the international, ecumenical English Language
Liturgical Consultation. The history of the ecumenical liturgical conversation
in the English-speaking world is rooted in the extraordinary support -- in
terms of staff, finances and expertise -- of the Roman Catholic International
Commission on English in the Liturgy. The origin and history of this ecumenical
conversation would probably have been impossible without that
encouragement.
Sadly, there were no representatives of that Catholic liturgy
commission at the Consultation on Common Texts this year, for only the second
time in 30 years. Nor did the representative of the U.S. Bishops
Committee on the Liturgy give us any hint of the impending publication of
Liturgiam Authenticam, which virtually repudiates everything we have
done since the founding of the Consultation on Common Texts in 1965.
This curial document, signed by the prefect and the archbishop
secretary of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments and with the approval of Pope John Paul II, quite forthrightly
states, The norms set forth in this instruction are to be substituted for
all norms previously published on the matter. This is not the language of
ecumenical discourse; it is not even polite. For this ecumenical participant,
this language cannot but raise very serious questions (as have actually been
expressed by a certain cardinal at the recent consistory in Rome) as to whether
the current curial leadership in Rome is not only deaf but
determined to repeal the Second Vatican Councils decisions relating to
the language of liturgy.
Reading this document for the first time, I fell apart in tears.
In a letter to America magazine, published in June 2000, I had expressed
my profound worry that just such an ecumenical detachment was impending.
The document states that regarding the principles and norms
contained in this instruction, there should be an appropriate
relationship or coordination between translations used in the various
rites of the Catholic church. A similar agreement is desirable with the
particular non-Catholic Eastern churches or with the authorities of the
Protestant ecclesial communities, provided that it is not a question of a
liturgical text pertaining to doctrinal matters still in dispute, and provided
also that those consulted are truly capable of functioning as representatives
of the same ecclesial communities. I can only assume that this is a
not-so-subtle reference to both the Consultation on Common Texts and the
English Language Liturgical Consultation. As far as I know, the Holy See is not
engaged in working ecumenical relationships with other English-speaking bodies.
Thus, in a not-so-gentle way, it questions our reliability.
The question must be raised as to whether it is a matter for
curial officials to determine whether or not the Protestant liturgical partners
properly represent their ecclesial communities and as to whether
those communities have sufficient numbers to be taken seriously.
(Someone once said, Where two or three of you assemble in my name, I am
there.)
In 1994 I led the executive committee of the English Language
Liturgical Consultation (along with the Rev. John Fitzimmons of Scotland) to
Rome to appeal to the Congregation on Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments to request that the dicastery grant faculties to Roman Catholic
bodies such as religious houses, dioceses or theological schools to use the
ecumenical Revised Common Lectionary, since it is so closely related to
and based upon Ordo Lectionum Missae. The structure, principles of
selection and the gospel readings are all identical with the Roman Catholic
patterns. Since to this date there has been no formal response, I can only
assume the answer: No! That is too bad, since the similarities of the two
lectionaries have, in the English-speaking world, created considerable joy and
harmony as the faithful, Catholic and Protestant, have discovered a large
measure of unity and agreement around the liturgical use of scripture. Indeed,
clergy of very diverse traditions, certainly in North America, meet on a weekly
basis to do exegetical and homiletic work together.
Liturgiam Authenticam is quite clear that no liturgical
texts are to be created in vernacular languages, even though that
has already happened in the Swiss and Italian sacramentaries. The norm is
the identity and unitary expression of the Roman rite. The document
says, The translation of the liturgical texts of the Roman liturgy is not
so much a work of creative innovation as it is a rendering the original texts
faithfully and accurately into the vernacular language. Such a definition
seems to suggest word-for-word translations from Latin originals
and ignores what is known in biblical and liturgical translation as
dynamic equivalence. Such a restriction produces not only bad
vernacular linguistics, but in many ways distorts the genius of older
languages.
A second issue has to do with the matter of generic language --
that is, the weakness of English in not having a useful neuter set
of words. The document clearly acknowledges this, and says to avoid
expressions characteristic of commercial publicity, political or
ideological programs, passing fashions, and those which are subject to regional
variations or ambiguities in meaning. Academic style manuals are not to
be used as standards for translation, it says. On the other hand, works
that are commonly considered classics in a given vernacular
language may prove useful in providing a suitable standard for its vocabulary
and usage.
I cannot imagine why academic style manuals are so dangerous, or
why reference is made to classics in the English language, which is
continually evolving. Does this mean Elizabethan expressions? It was, after
all, part of the marvelous impact of Vatican IIs Sacrosanctum
Concilium that pushed Protestant liturgical expression into the 20th
century.
The norms pertaining to the translation of the Bible are even more
problematic from an ecumenical point of view. The document declares that there
must be only one approved translation -- not the New Revised Standard
Version, which the Vatican rejected for use in liturgical texts in 1994. It
speaks explicitly of the Psalter, which reminds us of the suppression of the
International Commission on English translation of the Psalter. (A colleague of
mine in Old Testament and Aramaic studies has declared the suppressed
translation the best in English he has ever seen.)
Why should there be only one approved translation?
Certainly literacy levels in the English-speaking world cry out for
translations using differing vocabularies and syntax. Varying texts might well
serve differing liturgical purposes and peoples.
Liturgiam Authenticam directs that biblical readings
be conformed entirely to the Ordo Lectionum Missae or to the other
approved and confirmed liturgical texts, as the case may be. This is
apparently the response to the English Language Liturgical Consultations
1994 initiative, and the answer is, No!
Further, great caution is to be taken to avoid a wording or
style that the Catholic faithful would confuse with the manner of speech of
non-Catholic ecclesial communities or of other religions, so that such a factor
will not cause them confusion or discomfort. May this Protestant catholic
observer respectfully ask to what this prohibition refers?
Anyone who has worked carefully in the translation of liturgical
texts will recognize what an unrealistic and authoritarian set of directives
this is. It amounts to a repudiation of vernacular usage and arrogance of both
the Latin language and the Latin rite. Surely, in this day of globalization,
such a stance is at least misguided, if not totally wrongheaded.
The politics of this document are quite obvious. The emphasis on
required Vatican approval, the insistence on decisions by conferences of
bishops, as opposed to the International Commission on English in the Liturgy,
and the dismissive references to Protestant ecclesial communities
and their representatives is clear. It signals the effective termination of the
longstanding international partnership between the Catholic International
Commission on English in the Liturgy on the one hand, and the Consultation on
Common Texts and the English Language Liturgical Consultation on the other.
Toward the end of this sad reversal of many years of happy and
fruitful ecumenical collaboration, it is stated with what must be an
extraordinarily sardonic note, From the day on which this instruction is
published, a new period begins for the liturgical use of vernacular
languages. It adds that the norms established apply to previous translations,
and any further delay in making such emendations is to be
avoided.
As a committed ecumenical liturgist of at least three decades, I
can only say in response to Liturgiam Authenticam: No! And how sad.
Horace T. Allen Jr. is professor of worship at Boston
University School of Theology.
National Catholic Reporter, June 29,
2001
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