Anger as Rome recalls ICEL Psalter

By Luke Coppen THE VATICAN has ordered the body that translates liturgical texts into English to recall its controversial translation of the Psalms.
A letter sent to the chairman of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL) branded the inclusive language translation "doctrinally flawed" and called for its complete withdrawal.
The letter is the latest salvo in the Vatican's battle to overhaul the commission, which began in October when it criticised its work as "inadequate" and called for "thorough-going reform and revitalisation".
It will increase pressure on the commission's IIman board to adopt the Vatican's sweeping proposals for change. which it hopes will ensure greater speed, accuracy and transparency in translations.
The strongly-worded letter, sent to Bishop Maurice Taylor of Galloway on January 14, stated that "after careful study", the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship had ruled that the translation "does not accurately represent the word of God and therefore risks being a danger to the faith".
"Such a text," the letter, leaked to the US National Catholic Reporter, said, "is clearly no more suited to private prayer than it is for public proclamation and it is therefore a matter of the greatest importance to impede its further diffusion", Bishop Taylor told The Catholic Herald that ICEL had replied to the letter. He said: "The Psalter has no imprimatur. It had an imprimatur from the United States congregation of bishops. That was ordered to be withdrawn and it was withdrawn.
'The letter said that there were still hits of it appearing in some publications and we need to do something to ensure that this didn't continue to happen.
"As far as I know it would be against the wishes of the congregation to print that text or to use it publicly and officially. But whether people can sit in their rooms and pray with it, l'm not sure."
The ICEL Psalter was presented to the world's English-speaking bishops' conferences in 1994 as a text for "study and comment", with an eye to its eventual development as a psalter for authorised liturgical use. In 1995, the US bishops' conference became the first — and only — conference to give it the imprimatur. However, three years later, the bishops were forced under Vatican pressure to withdraw their approval.
The Vatican was reportedly concerned that the translation applied feminist linguistic criteria, suppressing not only "man" as a generic word for "humanity" hut even avoiding "Lord" for God", and "he" as a pronoun for Him.
Thus, "The earth is the Lord's and the fullness thereof... for he has founded it upon the seas," becomes "God owns this planet and all its riches... God set the land on top of the seas".
But a liturgist in this country familiar with the ICEL Psalter, who did not wish to be named, questioned the basis of Rome's intervention.
He said: "If the US Catholic bishops conference did not find the translation doctrinally deficient in 1995, what's happened since?
"It's regrettable that a text which was put out for study and comment is now to be withdrawn before it can be properly evaluated in actual use."
Stephen Dean, editor of the liturgical periodical, The Liturgy Planner, appealed to the Vatican to explain the Psalter's doctrinal flaws.
-They should actually provide examples of what they mean, otherwise people will think they are coming down like a ton of bricks without giving a reason," said Mr Dean, who issued a hymn book last year containing settings of the Psalter. "It's part of a \-I., I)' heavy-handed attitude that the Vatican has adopted towards English
translations at the moment."
Relations between the Vatican and ICEL reached their nadir in October, when the Congregation for the Sacraments and Divine Worship demanded an overhaul of the commission's constitution.
It asked ICEL — which is directly responsible to the world's 11 Englishspeaking bishops' conferences — to submit the revised constitution to the Vatican within six months.
Bishop Maurice Taylor was confident the work would be completed in time. "We're trying our very best to meet that deadline," he said.