Over the weekend, Pope Francis issued a new directive on liturgical translations conferring a greater role to national bishops’ conferences. The liberal Jesuit magazine America was excited about the change. There will certainly be more opinions on the document in the days ahead.
For a straight news account of the changes, here’s the Catholic News Agency with details:
The Holy See has released a new “motu proprio” from Pope Francis outlining a shift in the responsibility of local bishops and the Apostolic See for the revision and approval of liturgical texts.
Dated Sept. 3, the document is titled “Magnum Principium,” meaning “The great principle,” and deals explicitly with two specific changes to Canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law, which addresses the authority of the Apostolic See and national episcopal conferences in preparing liturgical texts in vernacular languages. …
The changes apportion a greater portion of responsibility for the preparation and approval of liturgical translations to episcopal conferences, rather than the Vatican’s Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments.