Vatican ponders future of unrepentant translation body

By Luke Coppen THE International Commission on English in the Liturgy is awaiting approval of its new constitution, amid reports that it has rejected Rome's demand for more control over its work.
The reports came last week in the National Catholic Reporter, which claimed that the new statutes ceded none of the new powers demanded by the Vatican.
Quoting an official who had seen the new statutes, the American weekly said that ICEL had refused to give the Vatican final approval of documents and a veto over the commission's staff.
"It's a victory for the collegiality agreed upon at the Second Vatican Council," the official said. "It protects the idea that the commission is a project of the bishops' conferences and not of Rome." ICEL, formed in 1963 to develop a vernacular liturgy for the whole English-speaking world, was asked to revise its statutes by the Vatican in October last year.
Cardinal Jorge Medina Estevez, head of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments, attacked ICEL's "undue autonomy", accusing it of paraphrasing sections of the liturgy without permission and departing even from the substance of the original Latin text.
The NCR claimed that a draft revision of the commission's statutes, incorporating the Vatican's demands, was rejected at a meeting of ICEL officials in January.
It said that the draft, presented by Cardinal Fran cis George, Archbishop of Chicago, was opposed by other bishops because it gave Rome too much control over ICEL's work.
The American weekly said that the draft was substantially revised by a subcommittee, consisting of Cardinal George. Bishop Peter Cullinane of New Zealand and Bishop James Foley of Australia, who gave the English-speaking bishops more power over the commission at the expense of the Vatican.
The new statutes, which were presented to the presidents of ICEL's 11 participating bishops' conferences in Washington in April, are said to reject the Vatican's most stringent demands.
The presidents issued a cautious statement following the meeting which "affirmed the need for regular consultation and dialogue" with the Vatican, but robustly defended the right of bishops' conference to "approve translations of texts which become liturgical texts after recognition by the Holy See".
It said that the new statutes, which must receive the approval of both the Vatican and the English-speaking bishops' conferences, provided "a good foundation for further discussion and refinement".
Cardinal George, who is currently in Australia, was not available to confirm the NCR report. Bishop Maurice Taylor of Galloway, chairman of ICEL's episcopal board, said that as far as he was concerned "the work of the episcopal board is done".