French Catholics face battle royale over Roman Missal translation
The Tablet
30 May 2016 | by Tom HeneghanVatican insisting on a precise translation of a new Latin text
The French-speaking Catholic world is
heading for the same tug-of-war over translating the Roman Missal that
their English-speaking cousins fought and lost five ago. As in the case
of the English text, the Vatican insists on a precise translation of the
new Latin text approved in 2002.
The planned new text, meant to replace the first
translation made after the Second Vatican Council, will be used in the
French-speaking parts of Europe, Canada, Africa and the Caribbean for
the next half-century. The bishops’ first draft was rejected by the
Vatican in 2007.
Several francophone bishops conferences,
especially in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, have raised objections to
the latest text that they find pompous and unnatural, the French
daily La Croix reported. The French bishops are less critical, but still
have reservations.
But Cardinal Robert Sarah, prefect of the
Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the
Sacraments, told the French magazine Famille Chrétienne that Pope
Francis had recently told him “the new translations of the Missal must
absolutely respect the Latin text.”
The latest text introduces the adjective
“consubstantial” that English speakers discovered in their new Missal,
and brings back the “through my fault” sequence that had been replaced
by “Yes, I have truly sinned” in French.
For the chalice, it turns the current
word for chalice “coupe” back to the older “calice”, which has become a
swear word for exasperated French Canadians. The introduction to the
Offertory (“Orate fratres”) has become stilted and hard to recite.
By contrast, a change to the Lord’s
Prayer has been well received. The currently used French prayer now says
“do not submit us to temptation”, which theologians say implies that
God tempts people to sin. The new translation, which France’s Protestant
churches also support, says “do not let us enter into temptation”.
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