English language Mass translation reform: should ICEL be wound up?

Michael Gilchrist

Contents - Mar 2000 - Buy a copy now Editorial: The recovery of the sacred - Michael Gilchrist English language Mass translation reform: should ICEL be wound up? - Michael Gilchrist English language Mass translation reform: should ICEL be wound up? - Michael Gilchrist News: The Church Around the World How the Salesians are helping to rebuild East Timor - Br M Lynch How the Salesians are helping to rebuild East Timor - Br Michael Lynch Priestly vocations increasing in Melbourne - Fr Paul Stuart Priestly vocations increasing in Melbourne - Fr Paul Stuart New York Scripture seminar affirms reliability of New Testament - Eamonn Keane New York Scripture seminar affirms reliability of New Testament - Eamonn Keane US Bishops favour prominence of tabernacle - AD2000 Report Religious education: putting the emphasis back on God - Br John Moylan CFC Education: Religious education: putting the emphasis back on God - Br John Moylan CFC Fulton J. Sheen: prophetic inspiration for today’s new evangelisation - Archbishop Barry J. Hickey Biography: Fulton J. Sheen: prophetic inspiration for today's new evangelisation - Archbishop Barry J. Hickey Books: ‘Covenant of Love: Pastoral Reflections on Marriage’ by Cardinal John O’Connor - Thérèse Chandrasegaran (reviewer) Books: ‘Blessed Are Those Who Mourn: Comforting Catholics in Their Time of Grief’ by Gl - Katie Forster (reviewer) Books: 'Building Family Prayer and Traditions' by Steve Givens - Catherine Sheehan (reviewer) Books: ‘Springtime of Evangelization: Addresses by John Paul II’ - Tracey Rowland (reviewer) Books: ‘Pius XII and the Second World War’ by Pierre Blet SJ - Michael Daniel (reviewer) Reflection: Does Lent retain its spiritual meaning today? - Mary Kenny

Vatican disquiet at the role of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) came to a head with the leaking in January to the US weekly National Catholic Reporter of a strongly worded letter written on 26 October by Cardinal Jorge Medina Estévez, prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, to the Chairman of the Episcopal Board which oversees ICEL, Scotland's Bishop Maurice Taylor.

In his letter, Cardinal Medina states that ICEL "in its present form is not in a position to render to the bishops, to the Holy See and to the English-speaking faithful an adequate level of service." He points out that "ICEL texts often did not follow the original Latin closely enough; the process for developing, copyrighting and approving translations did not give bishops enough room for making changes and suggestions; and ICEL was writing its own material, not just translating Vatican-approved Latin texts." He directs that ICEL's governing statutes "be revised thoroughly and without delay," adding that his Vatican office had communicated "for a number of years now ... concerns regarding an undue autonomy that has been observed in the translations prepared by ICEL."

ICEL was originally set up in 1963 during Vatican II, under the supervision of representatives of all the world's English-speaking bishops' conferences, with the task of producing uniform English translations of all the liturgical texts.

Representatives of the 11 bishops' conferences which sponsor ICEL met on 21-22 January 2000 in London to discuss Cardinal Medina's letter. Early reports of the meeting suggest that opinion among the bishops remains strongly divided as to the level of acceptance of Cardinal Medina's criticisms and requests and how the bishops should respond.

The Cardinal's concerns were endorsed by Dr Eamon Duffy of Cambridge, the noted British historian, and a leading critic of ICEL's translations. He told Britain's Catholic Herald: "My specific criticism was that many of the ICEL collects, offertory and post- communion prayers were drastically over-simplified, inadequate versions of the Latin, which lost a lot of the theology."

In passing, anyone with a moderate knowledge of Latin might wonder how ICEL could justify the bland translation "Lord I am not worthy to receive you ..." for the rich Latin original, "Domine non sum dignus ut intres sub tectum meum ...", which actually means, "Lord I am not worthy that you should enter under my roof." Such examples abound in the ICEL version of the Mass, used worldwide since 1973.

Pope John Paul II has often expressed his concern for accurate and beautiful liturgical translations. In December 1993, in an address to a group of US bishops in Rome, he affirmed the bishops' responsibility to insist upon an accurate translation of the Roman Missal, and advised them to "guard the full doctrinal integrity and beauty of the original [liturgical] texts." Translations, insisted the Pope, are to be "free from doctrinal ambiguity and ideological influence."

The Holy Father might not have been impressed by a report in the January 1997 issue of New Zealand Catholic, which presented the views of Dr Ken Larsen of Auckland, one of the two principal translators of the revised ICEL Sacramentary.

Dr Larsen was quoted as saying: "We seldom refer to God as Him or Father, and in general we avoid personal pronouns ... There are odd occasions where the word Pater occurs in Latin and sometimes you can't get around using the word Father. But in general we have been very meticulous in keeping to the principle of inclusive language."

ICEL has a history of attempting to circumvent the authority of Catholic bishops and the Vatican. In a preliminary step in revising the Divine Office, ICEL published a new "inclusive language" translation of the Psalter in April 1995. Although it was said to be published for study and comment - and not for liturgical use - the intensive promotion of the ICEL Psalter provided wide access to texts that had not been approved for liturgical use. Publication of the ICEL Canticles followed - both by the Chicago-based Liturgical Training Publications - and continue to be promoted for liturgical use.

Cardinal Medina's letter also revealed a little-known example of ICEL's propensity to avoid hierarchical guidance and supervision. Normally, liturgical texts translated by ICEL are approved by English-speaking bishops and submitted to the Vatican for confirmation before publication for liturgical use. The Cardinal indicated he was "obliged to note" that a translation of the Ceremonial of Bishops (the book of prayers used by bishops during the celebration of major celebrations) "was published by [ICEL] without the necessary episcopal approbation and without the recognitio of this Congregation."

Episcopal conferences

The lengthy, exhausting task of approving revised ICEL texts line-by- line at episcopal conferences has tended to discourage some bishops concerned about accurate and beautiful translations of the liturgical texts from pushing their cases. As one bishop said privately, after the November 1996 meeting of the US bishops, to continue to make interventions on the floor of the Conference would have been counterproductive; it would have only irritated an exhausted body of bishops. With the threat of lengthy delays at conferences, it is likely that many bishops prefer to avoid further debate in the hope that the Vatican would ultimately correct faulty texts.

Perhaps, in the interests of local episcopal autonomy, and in speeding up the process of achieving improved translations, ICEL should be wound up altogether, with each national conference left to devise its own translations to be submitted separately to Rome for final approval. There seems no reason why English texts used in say Australia and Kenya should be completely identical - as long as they are both doctrinally and linguistically sound.

In hindsight, these problems might have been avoided in the first place, if the Congregation for Divine Worship, not bishops conferences, had sponsored ICEL.

Meanwhile, Cardinal Medina has asked the ICEL Episcopal Board to submit a draft of the new statutes to his office by Easter, 23 April.

Reprinted from AD2000 Vol 13 No 2 (March 2000), p. 3