February Liturgy

On May 7, 2001, the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments issued its fifth Instruction for the Right Implementation of the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council. (Sacrosanctum Concilium, art. 36). The Instruction is called Liturgiam authenticam (LA) and it deals with the use of vernacular languages in the publication of the books of the Roman Liturgy.

Initial responses to the Holy See's strong statement on liturgical translation were varied and revealing. Although Liturgiam Authenticam has been called a "victory for conservatives", this is not a political struggle for control ("conservative" Vatican vs. "liberal" Bishops) as some insistently portray it. The dispute over translation is about ideas in this case, the core teachings of the Catholic Church. Liturgiam Authenticam makes it clear that Scriptural and liturgical translations affect the very heart of the Catholic faith itself; and that the words used to express that faith matter deeply. What underlies the conflict over liturgical translation is, finally, authentic vs. inauthentic belief.

According to Father Raymond Gawronski, SJ, “Ideologies are political systems for the mind, clung to by people like the Pharisees who cannot venture into the bracing world of ideas on their own. Because it is not grounded in truth, or goodness, or beauty, but rather in the shifting sands of worldly power, ideology has a way of creating ugliness . . . Ugliness can also infect language.” He adds further: “Although Liturgiam authenticam affirms the benefits of modern scholarship and technical prowess, it rejects the tyranny of experts, and allows the spirit of art, of poetry, of excellence and quality to re-claim their place. The technocratic bias of the twentieth century is corrected: beauty re-claims her place in religious language. Indeed, language itself can be healed: feminine pronouns are allowed to return along with the masculine, as befits an incarnate religion, a hopeful sign if it means greater fidelity to Scripture and the Mind that created it.”

The US bishops heard reflection papers on Liturgiam authenticam at their meeting in Washington November 12-15, 2001. Jesuit theologian Cardinal Avery Dulles, of Fordham University, was asked to comment on the theological import of the Instruction. Here is what he said: “The very title 'authentic liturgy' indicates the essential purpose. LA has the intention of correcting liturgical translations that are judged unfaithful to the Roman Missal. More specifically, it seeks to rectify the principles set forth in a previous directive, Comme le prévoit, issued by the Consilium on the Liturgy in 1969. These earlier principles have been blamed for the rather free and pedestrian translations produced by ICEL and printed in the Missal of 1971.”