Translating the Missal, Continued
Jul 31, 2006
Cardinal George Pell of Sydney was in Rome this past week for a series of meetings for the committee he heads, Vox Clara, which advises the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments on English translations.
ROME, JULY 27, 2006 (Zenit.org).- The group of senior cardinals and bishops from the English-speaking world met at the Vatican's congregation to discuss how the translation of the Roman Missal into English is proceeding and to give their advice to the translation group, the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).
"Just recently," the 65-year-old cardinal told me, "the American bishops and all the major English-speaking countries have overwhelmingly approved the translation for the order of the Mass. That was a very significant step."
Although the president of Vox Clara knows that the translation work won't please everyone completely, he is convinced they will appreciate its quality.
"The new Roman Missal is theologically richer than the old and this is reflected in the quality of the translations that we're getting," he said. "The translations are immeasurably superior.… They will be in clear, strong and powerful English and they will very accurately transmit the richness and the challenge of the Latin originals."
To underline this point, Cardinal Pell provided some examples of the changes that are being discussed:
"Some of the more controversial changes include the reply to 'The Lord be with you,' [the new line] being 'And with your spirit.' Apparently it's only the English and the Portuguese-speaking Brazil who presently say 'And also with you.'"
Another change can be found at the Sanctus, the time we say "Holy, holy, holy."
"Previously the term that we used prior to this prayer meant that the identity of the other phases was obscured," says Cardinal Pell. "Now it will be clear that what we are talking about is that we are joining the angels in that praise. There is a very considerable theological richness in the Latin originals that is now being conveyed accurately."
But, speaking of Latin, some are criticizing the work of the Vox Clara committee as being an imposition by Rome.
To this Cardinal Pell responds: "We belong to a single Church, we belong to the Latin rite and there is one missal, the Roman Missal."
Although there has been some degree of protest over the new translation, Cardinal Pell insists that it helps in promoting unity in faith which is the higher good, especially for the good of evangelization.
"I think it is a very noble ideal to be working for one English translation right throughout the English-speaking world," he said. "Yet now there's a secondary level of importance because in many parts of Africa and Asia they no longer know Latin well, so English will become the base translation which they will use for their translations into their vernacular. So it's really important that we have accurately translated what is in the Latin."
Translating the Missal, Continued