Magnum principium

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Pope coat of arms of Francis

Magnum principium ( German : the great principle , the important principle ) is an Apostolic Letter , the Pope Francis in the form of a Motu proprio the canon law regarding the translation of liturgical texts from the Latin re-adjusted. Specifically, it concerns the amendment of can. 838 of the Codex of Canon Law . The letter was published on September 9, 2017 and came into force on October 1, 2017 . The existing legal texts have been adapted accordingly, especially the translator's instructions Liturgiam authenticam from 2001.

meaning

The main concern of this canonical change is aimed at the intelligibility of the liturgy . Until now, the competence, responsibility and examination of translated liturgical texts and liturgical books were solely with the Holy See , these criteria are now being transferred to the Bishops' Conferences . It now says:

"The Bishops' Conferences have to obtain and approve the translations of the liturgical books into the vernacular tongues, adapted within the established limits, faithfully and appropriately, and to publish the liturgical books for the regions for which they are responsible after confirmation by the Apostolic See."

- Can. 838 § 3.

Regarding the scope of this competence, the law stipulates that it is kept within the established limits and "faithful and appropriate" ( fideliter et convenienter ). As before, the aim is to translate it into the vernacular to faithfully express what the Church wanted to convey through the Latin language ( fideliter communicandum est certo populo per eiusdem linguam id, quod Ecclesia alii populo per Latinam linguam communicare voluit ). However, this loyalty cannot always be achieved through a literal translation of individual words, but rather has to be judged “from the context of the entire act of communication and according to one's own literary genre” ( fidelitas non semper iudicari potest ex singulis verbis, immo vero in contextu ex toto communicationis actu et secundum genus dicendi proprium ).

The local bishops' conferences now have more responsibility for the translation of the liturgical texts into the respective national language , but they also have more leeway. The individual diocesan bishop is entitled "in the church entrusted to him to issue norms for the area of ​​the liturgy to which everyone is bound, within the limits of his competence". In this context, Francis recalls the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy of the Second Vatican Council, Sacrosanctum Concilium . There it says that the use of national language elements can be "very useful for the people", but must be approved by the "authority responsible for the area" and require "approval, that is, confirmation by the Apostolic See". The new Motu Proprio also demands this.

Procedure

All liturgical books such as the missal , the book of hours and the rituals for the sacraments are based on a Latin text, the so-called editio typica . The responsible local bishops' conferences set up specialist bodies for the purpose of translation. The translated text is then checked by the Bishops' Conference and approved with approval . The approved text is presented to the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments and, according to the current new regulation, is no longer checked as before ( recognitio ), but confirmed ( confirmatio ).

The German Bishops' Conference dealt with this decree at its plenary meeting from September 25 to 28, 2017 in Fulda and announced that the Liturgy Commission would deal with the document from the beginning of October 2017.

The Cardinal Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments , Cardinal Robert Sarah , had interpreted it in a very restrictive manner after the publication of the Motu proprio ; an anonymous comment appeared on the Internet on the text attributed to him. Pope Francis reprimanded the cardinal in a public letter in October 2017 and contradicted the "comment" in several places. The Pope affirmed that when translating liturgical texts, special attention should be paid to three aspects: loyalty to the Latin original, special features of the target language and comprehensibility in the target group.

background

This was preceded by conflicts between individual bishops' conferences and the Vatican over the native language text when revising liturgical books. A German-language ritual for funeral ceremonies was published in 2009 with the Vatican's approval, but was withdrawn after a year by the German Bishops' Conference after strong protests by many priests; since then a preliminary working translation of the Editio typica has been used. After this experience, the German bishops also suspended the new translation of the Roman missal in 2013, which the Vatican urged them to do in 2005. Similar experiences of the bishops' conferences concerned are also available in Japan and with the English translations of the missals, where the literal translation from Latin into the English missal led to stilted and technical formulations that are not used in everyday life and are not understood. Pope Francis wants to solve this problem now by assigning greater responsibility to the episcopal conferences and diocesan bishops. On the other hand, observers point out that in common languages ​​such as English, where numerous bishops' conferences are involved, long debates and confusion about different formulations could arise.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Apostolic letter from Pope Francis in the form of a Motu Proprio Magnum Principium, with can. 838 of the Code of Canon Law is amended (September 3, 2017) [1]
  2. ↑ Codex of Canon Law, Can. 838 §§ 1 - 4 http://www.vatican.va/archive/DEU0036/__P2S.HTM
  3. ^ Congregation for Divine Worship and the Order of the Sacraments: The Use of Popular Languages ​​in the Editing of the Books of the Roman Liturgy , Text in German
  4. ^ Liturgie.ch Liturgical Institute of German-speaking Switzerland, September 11, 2017
  5. ↑ New Motu Proprio: “Magnum Principium” deals with liturgical translations [2] , Auf: CNA deutsch from September 9, 2017, accessed on October 2, 2017
  6. ^ New regulations for the translation of liturgical books [3] , In: Liturgisches Institut - News from September 11, 2017, accessed on October 2, 2017
  7. ^ New method for translating liturgical texts . On: kathisch.de [4] , 9 September 2017, accessed on 2 October 2017
  8. ^ Text in Italian: http://lanuovabq.it/it/la-lettera-del-papa-al-cardinale-sarah
  9. ↑ https://www.kirche-und-leben.de/artikel/franziskus-rueffelt-kardinal-sarah-in-offenem-brief/ , accessed on October 24, 2017; http://www.praytellblog.com/index.php/2017/10/22/pope-francis-corrects-cardinal-sarah-on-translation/ .
  10. ^ The church funeral service in the dioceses of the German-speaking area. Second authentic edition based on the Editio typica 1969. Herder, Freiburg 2009, ISBN 978-3-451-32205-1 , in fact replaced by The Church Funeral Celebration. Manuals , published on behalf of the German Bishops' Conference, the Austrian Bishops' Conference and the Swiss Bishops' Conference as well as the Bishop of Bozen-Brixen and the Bishop of Liège , German Liturgical Institute, Trier 2012, ISBN 978-3-937796-12-3 .
  11. ↑ kirche-heute.ch: P. Peter Spichtig: "Now a gate opens", October 21, 2017. ( Memento of the original from November 7, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kirche-heute.ch
  12. ↑ kathisch.de : Liturgy and Curia in one go, September 13, 2017
  13. ↑ CNA German of September 9, 2017: New Motu Proprio: "Magnum Principium" deals with liturgical translations [5] , accessed on October 30, 2017.