The upper hand
From Fr Kevin Reynolds, Pretoria:
As usual, your editorial “The new missal” (May 26) presents a comprehensive overview of the subject.
I think the most significant point you make (by quoting Cardinal Wilfrid Napier) is that the Church’s approach to translating Latin texts at a particular time depends on which equivalence enjoys the “upper hand” in the Vatican. Thus, when our present English texts were approved by Rome in 1973, dynamic equivalence held sway. Now literal equivalence reigns supreme and is about to spawn a new translation of the missal.
Thank God, this is not a matter of faith or morals requiring the exercise of papal infallibility. As such, those who find the new missal a hindrance to prayerfully celebrating Mass can only look forward to the day when dynamic equivalence regains the upper hand it enjoyed under Pope Paul VI four decades ago.
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