German-speaking bishops move to take full control over liturgical translations

Cardinal Reinhard Marx says "Liturgiam authenticam", the rules for translation the Vatican issued in 2001, was a “dead end”. But thanks to a recent decision by the pope the bishops now have greater freedom 

Christa Pongratz-Lippitt
Germany 

Catholic bishops in the German-speaking countries of Europe have been at odds with the Vatican for years over a controversial and never-implemented translation of the Missal, the Latin prototype for the celebration of the Roman Catholic liturgy.

Germany’s bishops never even mentioned the disputed translation last month in the final report of the national episcopal conference’s autumn plenary. Instead, they thanked Pope Francis at length for his recent “motu proprio” Magnum principium, which gives such conferences greater authority over liturgical translations.

They also expressed gratitude that the pope had once again underlined, as he did in his 2013 exhortation Evangelii gaudium, that the “genuine doctrinal authority” of episcopal conferences needs to be more fully elaborated (EG 32). And they said the liturgy commissions of all the various German-speaking conferences would now begin discussing Magnum principium and its consequences in detail.