The Vatican is insisting on a precise translation from the Latin text approved in 2002, as it did for the translation into English.

The planned new translation will be for French-speaking parts of Europe, Canada, Africa and the Caribbean.

It will replace the first translation made after the Second Vatican Council.

A first draft of a new translation from bishops in the French-speaking world was rejected by the Vatican in 2007.

Several francophone bishops' conferences, especially in Belgium, Canada and Switzerland, have raised objections to the latest text.

Bishops from these conferences say that they find the latest text 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 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 French text uses the word "consubstantial" in the Nicene Creed.

It also brings back the "through my fault" sequence that had been replaced by "Yes, I have truly sinned" in French.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".

Sources

• The Tablet
• Image: Catholic Herald

More than a year after the new Mass translation was introduced, 70 per cent of the clergy who responded said they wanted to see the text revised.

Catholics in the United Kingdom and Ireland were more critical than their counterparts in the United States.

New Zealand responses were not tabulated separately, but Australian responses were. Of these, 60 per cent said their attitude was: "Before it was introduced I was apprehensive about it and I still don't like it."

There was strong agreement by 56 per cent of the Australians with the statement "Some of the florid language is obsequious and distracting" and 66 per cent did not like "begotten, not made, consubstantial with the Father".

Overall, 47 per cent of respondents said they liked the new Mass and 51 per cent said they did not. There was an almost equal split between those who considered the new translation more prayerful and reverent (48 per cent) and those who did not (49 per cent).

There was a significantly high 19 per cent of respondents (heavily weighted towards the US) who expressed a preference for the traditionalist Extraordinary Form over the Ordinary Form of the Mass.

Among priests, 22 per cent preferred the new translation. There was strong opposition to "consubstantial" (67 per cent), "for many" (63 per cent), "chalice" (61 per cent), and "through my fault, through my fault, through my most grievous fault" (60 per cent).

Commenting on the results, Cardinal George Pell of Sydney, chairman of the Vox Clara advisory committee on liturgical translations, said it would be misleading to speak of a polarisation.

He said it was interesting that those who were apprehensive before the texts appeared generally felt their fears were justified.

Cardinal Pell said the new text "escapes the banalities of some of the older translation" and he recommended "patience and repetition" to produce a spiritual deepening.

Source:

The Tablet

Image: Washington Post