I was standing in a gallery of the Tate Britain looking at a piece by William Blake… this one as a matter of fact…
… when I had an SMS to check mail.
Therein I found a link to something mentioned during lunch by His Hermeneuticalness.
Aside: I should travel more often: exciting things happen when I am on the road and less connected.
A great deal the new Roman Missal has been leaked in several .PDF files (images of the pages rather than usable text). They may be found on a site called Wikispooks.
I found the “cover letter” or “introduction entitled “Areas of Difficulty” to be very interesting. The person who wrote it, not necessary the same as the one who leaked it or caused it to be leaked, has obviously had the texts both the “white book” approved by the Holy See’s CDW and then the revisions to the same that have come along.
I find it interesting that this happens at the time the bishops of the USA and of England and Wales are having their respective meetings.
Having read through “Areas of Difficulties” I can say that I agree in large part with the author’s concerns.
Where Liturgiam authenticam = LA and Ratio translationis = RT, here are the areas of concern identified by the writer:
1. change of meaning from the Latin original (RT 41)
2. mistranslation of the Latin (RT 20)
3. limiting of the vocabulary (LA 49/51; RT 20, 46-50)
4. additions of an element not found in the Latin (LA 20)
5. omission of an element found in the Latin (RT 44)
6. weakening of Scriptural allusion (RT 6, 36)
7. loss of intensity of original (RT 50/62)
8. introduction of a theological problem (RT 102)
9. difficulty with English grammar or usage (LA 44/74)
10. adoption of Neo-Vulgate when an antiphon uses the Vulgate (LA 37/38; RT
37/107)
11. capitalization of LORD when it renders YHWH. (LA 41c; RT 81/116)
12. suppression of a rhetorical device (LA 57a/58/59)
13. translations of ‘unigenitum’ (RT 81)
Here is an example of the writer’s work:
Prayer after Communion, Wednesday, Week I, Advent (A20pc)
This prayer appears five additional times in Advent; cf. A35pc, A55pc, A70pc, A75pc, and
A90pc.Lines 2 to 4 of the Received Text read:
that this divine sustenance
may cleanse us of our faults
and prepare us for the coming feasts.
The Gray Book text reads:
that these divine provisions,
which have cleansed us of vices,
may prepare us for the coming feast.The corresponding Latin text reads:
ut haec divina subsidia, a vitiis expiatos,
ad festa ventura nos praeparent.The translation of vitiis as “faults” is at best weak but more likely wrong in this context. A vice as described in the Glossary of the Catechism of the Catholic Church is a “habit acquired by repeated sin in violation of the proper norms of human morality.” This habitual form of evil is seen in contrast to virtue which is described in the same Glossary “as a habitual and firm disposition to do good.” This contrast is illustrated in the third section of the blessing of baptismal water at the Easter Vigil (P634bn): “so that from the mystery of one and the same element of water would come an end to vice and a beginning of virtue.” Translating vitiis as “vices” emphasizes that God’s grace enables us to overcome habitual evil, not just the cleansing of individual faults.
Elsewhere in the Proper of Time vitiis/vitia is mistranslated in the Prayer after Communion, Second Sunday after the Nativity (p.168, N197pc “our offenses may be cleansed”), in the Prayer over the Offerings for Tuesday, Week II of Lent (Q344so, “we are cleansed of earthly faults”), in the Prayer after Communion for Wednesday, Week V of Lent (Q476pc, “that…we may constantly be cleansed of our faults”).
It is with paschal faith that the Church confesses in its Easter Proclamation (P616pr):
This is the night,
that even now, throughout the world,
sets Christian believers apart from worldly vices
and from the gloom of sin,
leading them to grace,
and joining them to his holy ones.
This will give you and example of the way the writer has looked at the texts.
In seven instances the following examples of Latin verbs that designate God’s agency are not accounted for in the translation, though they are translated in the text approved by the Conference.
20. concede, Prayer over the Offerings, Vigil, Nativity of the Lord (N148so)
21. tribue, Prayer over the Offerings, Monday of Holy Week (Q528so)
22. dedisse, Prayer after Communion, Wednesday of Holy Week (Q542pc)
23. ut .., facias, Collect, Friday, Sixth Week of Easter (P866co)
24. praesta, Collect, Twenty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time (O1053co)
25. ut…permittas, Prayer after Communion, Thirty-Fourth Week OT (O1129pc)
26. digneris, Alternative Collect, Most Sacred Heart of Jesus (O1143co)
Worth paying attention to?
You decide.
WDTPRS will start drill into texts. That’s what we do around here.
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