What if we were to be obedient?
Recently, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, in an overwhelming majority, gave final approval to the new translations of the Roman Missal for use in the United States and English speaking countries. This translation process has dragged on for many, many years. I was told by a prominent theologian that we would have a new translation in about two years, that was 27 years ago. The translation in current use is riddled with poor translation. Some of the prayers in no way resemble the original Latin text.
The problems the new translation faced were many. In the beginning, most of the translators wanted to put everything into inclusive language, even where it affected the veracity of the prayers. Because of political correct thinking of the time, so people would have removed “He”, “Him” and “Lord” when referring to Jesus, just to appease a small group of extreme feminists.
The whole translation war came to a grinding halt with “Liturgiam Authenticam“, a document from the Congregation for Divine Worship & The Discipline of the Sacraments, on May 7, 2001. This document made it very clear what the Church required for official translations of Her Liturgical books. This document was a major blow to those who wished to water down the Liturgical translations or even compose their own prayers for the Liturgy. The CDW ” makes it clear in very strong language that poor translations of Liturgical texts have caused harm to the Church and hindered the true renewal intended by the Council Father at Vatican II.
During and right up until the final vote, certain people fought tooth and nail to stop the new translation from being approved by the US Bishops. They failed! As we know, it was approved and is not awaiting final approval from Rome, before it goes to press.
If we were handed a horrible translation, like the one in current use, we would be expected to use it, no questions asked. And if we were to question it, we would be called disobedient, radicals, non-conformists and maybe even traditionalists. However, since the new translation has been approved, there is a new group, who wants to do their own “grassroots review of the new Roman Missal”. This group has a website called “What If We Just Said Wait?”. On the website is a petition with a “Statement of Concern”.
No! Enough is enough! No translation is perfect, and if that is what we want, then let’s just go back to the Latin. If not, there is no more time for waiting. We have waited long enough! Maybe the signers of the “wait” website should ask another question, “What if we were to be obedient?”