Liturgiam Authenticam is an instruction of the Holy See

Holy See

The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...

, dated 28 March 2001, that included the requirement that, in translations of the liturgical texts from the official Latin originals, "the original text, insofar as possible, must be translated integrally and in the most exact manner, without omissions or additions in terms of their content, and without paraphrases or glosses. Any adaptation to the characteristics or the nature of the various vernacular languages is to be sober and discreet."

This is in contrast with the principle of dynamic equivalence promoted in translations after Vatican II.

Typical edition

The following year, the third typical edition of the revised Roman Missal in Latin was released. These two texts made clear the need for a new official English translation of the Roman Missal, particularly because the previous one was at some points an adaptation rather than strictly a translation. An example is the rendering of the response "Et cum spiritu tuo" (literally, "And with your spirit") as "And also with you".

ICEL translations

The new English translation of the Order of Mass

Order of Mass

The Order of Mass , also called the Ordinary of the Mass, is the set of texts of the Roman Rite Mass that are generally invariable. This contrasts with the proper, which are items of the Mass that change with the feast or following the Liturgical Year...

 as prepared by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy

International Commission on English in the Liturgy

The International Commission on English in the Liturgy is a commission set up by a number of episcopal conferences of English-speaking countries for the purpose of providing English translations of the liturgical books of the Roman Rite, the originals of which are in Latin.Decisions to adopt these...

 (ICEL) and adopted by English-speaking Episcopal Conference

Episcopal Conference

In the Roman Catholic Church, an Episcopal Conference, Conference of Bishops, or National Conference of Bishops is an official assembly of all the bishops of a given territory...

s has received confirmation from the Holy See and may be consulted at the web site of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops. The episcopal conferences are still studying draft translations of other parts of the Missal. The timetable envisaged for this work suggests that the complete English text can be presented for the confirmation of the Holy See only at the end of 2010.

2006 circular

The approved new translation of the Order of Mass is in conformity with the circular of 17 October 2006 from the Congregation for Divine Worship

Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments

The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments is the congregation of the Roman Curia that handles most affairs relating to liturgical practices of the Latin Catholic Church as distinct from the Eastern Catholic Churches and also some technical matters relating to the...

 to presidents of episcopal conferences on the translation of "pro multis" in the formula of the consecration of the wine. The Congregation recalled the 1974 declaration by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith

The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith , previously known as the Supreme Sacred Congregation of the Roman and Universal Inquisition , and after 1904 called the Supreme...

 that there is no doubt whatsoever regarding the validity of Masses celebrated using "for all" as a translation of "pro multis", since "for all" corresponds to a correct interpretation of Christ's intention expressed in the words of the consecration, and since it is a dogma of the Catholic faith that Christ died on the Cross for all. However, the Congregation pointed out that "for all" is not a literal translation of the words that and report that Jesus used at the Last Supper and of the words used in the Latin text of the Mass: "for all" is rather an explanation of the sort that belongs properly to catechesis. The Congregation told the Episcopal Conferences to translate the words "pro multis" more literally.

Opposition in South Africa

In February 2009, the Holy See instructed that the new texts should not be put into use until the whole Missal is translated and the translation approved. Before the instruction was issued, the Southern African Catholic Bishops' Conference (Botswana, South Africa, Swaziland), on 30 November 2008, put into effect the changes in the people's parts of the Order of Mass. This provoked protests, with writers in the national Catholic weekly newspaper, The Southern Cross, saying the revised text had defective English grammar and poor theology, and others complaining about being out of line with other English-speaking conferences. Bishop Kevin Dowling of Rustenberg claimed that the English-speaking conferences should have withstood the Holy See's insistence on a more literal translation. However, the Bishops' Conference as a whole still wanted to press ahead and decided to appeal the Holy See's instruction.

External links

• Text of the instruction (Latin)
• Text of the instruction (English)