Archbishop's web site Denver Catholic Register Parishes Catholic Pastoral Center
June 13, 2001
Liturgiam Authenticam places emphasis on fidelity to Latin
How the Latin Liturgy gets put into English: Part 2
What follows is the second half of a column that originally appeared in The Catholic New World newspaper, Chicago, Ill.
By Cardinal Francis George, O.M.I.
Archbishop of Chicago
The English language, as it has evolved, has used a convention that permitted masculine words to stand for all human beings. This convention has been judged hurtful by many women, and "inclusivist" concerns have shaped English idiom in recent years. Some of these have been successful, and some not. Last month, as a case in point, The Economist, a British political journal, which is widely read throughout the English-speaking world, wrote an editorial insisting that "grammatical gender" is not dead in English. In other words, there are still words which are grammatically masculine or feminine but which do not refer to biological males or females. A ship is still "she" and a devil is still "he." This very secular journal controverts a key point of "Inclusive English," in which every masculine pronoun refers to a biological male. When translating religious texts, this inclusivist rule of thumb means you can't use pronouns for God, since God is spirit. But languages always use pronouns, and elaborate circumlocutions have had to be introduced into Scriptural and liturgical translations and hymn texts in order to avoid them.
The U.S. bishops have tried to resolve this debate by insisting that language about God should be unaltered, but language describing human beings can respond to "inclusivist" concerns. This compromise has left few people entirely happy and has not solved the problem of linguistic manipulation. This debate will go on, because language is so central to one's identity and self-respect. For the purposes of liturgical translation, however, the new document gives clearer guidelines to the work of translating texts, which the Holy See can give back to us as the Roman liturgy in English.
The present liturgical books remain in use, of course, until they are replaced. When they are replaced, an extensive liturgical catechesis will be used to introduce the new texts. This will be an important moment, for deeper understanding of common texts will foster full participation in the liturgy on the part of all. Nothing is so destructive of the full participation desired by the Second Vatican Council than an individual, priest or reader or anyone else, making up changes to the texts as the liturgy is celebrated. Such changes draw attention to the individual and away from the rites, which enable us to pray together. They weaken participation by leaving people unsure of what is going to come next.
These controversies have a history and an often complicated context which are betrayed by provocative newspaper headlines. Newspapers have basically one story, especially in religion: courageous and enlightened individuals fighting fusty, tradition-bound authorities (usually biologically male). Unfortunately, such a take on this new document, while it sells papers, manipulates opinion and makes the liturgy, which is supposed to be the source of our unity, into a battleground dividing us. The Church is Christ's body. If anyone "dominates," it must be Christ. The Eucharistic Liturgy is where the risen Christ is made visible in the sacrament of his Body and Blood; it is not a form of personal self-expression, except to the extent we are truly "in Christ." If we start with that basic conviction, linguistic problems have a chance of being worked out in such a way that our unity in worship is preserved. Any other agenda will divide us.
I would recommend that those interested read this new document (Liturgiam Authenticam) personally. For those with access to websites, the document can be downloaded at: www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/ccdds.
A careful reading will help us all, I believe, become more aware of the complications involved in the Church's giving us liturgical translations both faithful to the Latin and comprehensible in English. It might also move us to keep the translators in our prayers. God bless you.
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