Some things had been lost in translation

Q: After 40 years of using an English translation of the Mass that had simple, easy to follow English, why has the Vatican given us this new translation which in many passages is difficult to follow and has some cumbersome phrases?

A: There is a long history to this translation. Although the Second Vatican Council retained Latin as the official Church language in the liturgy, it did allow a greater use of the vernacular. In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, Sacrosanctum Concilium, the Council de-clared that “since the use of the mother tongue, whether in the Mass, the administration of the sacraments, or other parts of the liturgy, frequently may be of great advantage to the people, the limits of its employment may be extended” (SC 36).

Soon after, Council translations came to be prepared in the vernacular all over the world so the faithful could participate more actively in the Mass. This fuller participation was also desired by the Council which expressed the wish that “all the faithful should be led to that full, conscious and active participation in liturgical celebrations which is demanded by the very nature of the liturgy”, which “is the primary and indispensable source from which the faithful are to derive the true Christian spirit” (SC 14).

In the Tridentine Rite, now called the Extraordinary Form of the Mass, prayers were said by the priest in Latin facing away from the people, were barely audible and not intelligible to the faithful in the pews. In a sense they didn’t need to be intelligible as the priest was praying to God on behalf of the people, talking to God alone.

With the change to altars facing the people and use of the vernacular, they could now be aware of what was said and participate more consciously and actively in the Mass. This is one of the great blessings that followed the Council.

The principle that governed early translations was known as “dynamic equivalence” and outlined in the Instruction Comme le prévoit of the Consilium for Implementing the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy in 1969.

According to this principle, translations should not be excessively concerned with structure, form and precise expression of the Latin, but more with conveying accurately in the vernacular the original intention of the Latin.

The result was the translation we have been using for some 40 years. As you say, the English was easy to follow and flowed readily. Over the years, a new approach to translations came to be developed, set out in the Instruction Liturgiam Authenticam of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001.

Among considerations identified by the Congregation was the need to preserve the unity of the Roman Rite used by the majority of Catholics. If translations of the liturgical texts into different languages did not follow the Latin original closely enough, there could be significant differences and hence the unity of the liturgy could be lost, and along with it unity of the faith which those texts express. Following the principle lex orandi, lex credendi (the law of praying is the law of believing) people believe as they pray, so if their prayers are very different from those of another language, so may be their faith. As is clear, this would endanger the unity of Church worship and belief.

Because the English translation developed some 40 years ago was seen not to convey adequately the rich scriptural and theological content of the Latin, a new translation was seen to be necessary.

Now the new translation is being introduced, we can appreciate how much richer it is, obvious in such prayers as the penitential rite, the Gloria, the Eucharistic Prayers, etc where whole phrases and words were previously omitted. In short, this translation is more faithful to the original.

While at times the language can appear cumbersome and some of the wording strange, we will get used to it as we did the previous translation, and be assured we are once again praying with the full content of the Latin, in union with our brothers and sisters in faith throughout the world.

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