| Vatican hampers liturgical inculturation,
bishops say
By UNION OF CATHOLIC ASIAN
NEWS
Patna, India
Catholic bishops in India’s Hindi speaking region say the
reluctance of some Vatican officials to incorporate local cultural ethos in
liturgical texts could hamper inculturation.
Liturgical books in Hindi “cannot and should not mean dry
literal translations of Latin versions,” Archbishop Benedict John Osta of
Patna said at a recent meeting that involved 29 bishops from India’s
northern region.
During their Oct. 20 and 21 meeting, the bishops discussed
obstacles they face in having the Vatican approve Hindi translations of
liturgical texts, including the Roman Missal, which contains Mass texts, and
the Indian Anaphora (Eucharistic Prayer).
The Indian Anaphora was submitted to the Congregation for Divine
Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 1992. The Hindi translation of
the Roman Missal was sent in 2000. The next year, however, the congregation
issued Liturgiam Authenticam (“The Authentic Liturgy”), which
insists on almost-literal translations and close adherence to the style and
structure of the original Latin.
Osta, a Jesuit, told fellow bishops that liturgy in Hindi was
meant to generate greater participation of the faithful, but that would be
impossible unless the translation “is in tune with the broader cultural
canvas and creativity of the faithful.” Several other bishops at the
triennial gathering in Patna, the capital of Bihar state, agreed that the
reluctance of Vatican officials to reflect local culture in the liturgy would
impede the inculturation process.
Belgian Jesuit Fr. Jos De Cuyper, 82, who convened a committee set
up for the translations, told the meeting his group completed most of the work,
including a translation of the Roman Missal “as per the directive of the
Second Vatican Council,” which encourages local cultural creativity in the
liturgy. “But we abandoned publishing,” he said, because the
congregation “directed” translators to “skip local cultural
creativity and meticulously revise the texts in accordance with their authentic
Latin versions.”
Osta, a Sanskrit and Hindi scholar who pioneered the translation,
said he had personally discussed the issue with leaders of the congregation,
“but they did not respond very positively.”
The congregation, he said, insisted that the literal rendering of
the Latin texts “is an attempt at safeguarding the ‘unity of the
Roman Rite.’ ” But “we simply cannot accept such logic, and we
must make concerted and collective efforts to remove such restrictions,”
Osta said.
Jesuit Bishop John Baptist Thakur of Muzaffarpur used the words
“beyond comprehension” to describe the Vatican position.
“Actually, it is not a question of translation,” he observed.
“It is a question of the mentality of the people in Rome” who want to
control “from above” even the expression of devotion of culturally
different people.
“We should not accept such dictates that could potentially
hamper our mission of inculturation, which is indispensable for the Indian
church,” Thakur said. If cultural aspects are not given expression in
faith life, he said, Christianity “would remain an alien faith, a foreign
culture.” That, he concluded, would only help Hindu groups to propagate
their theory that Christians are foreigners and should be opposed.
Archbishop Telesphore Toppo of Ranchi, who is president of the
Conference of Catholic Bishops of India (Latin Rite), said the
conference’s next meeting in January 2003 will discuss the matter to
prepare a paper for presentation to the pope.
“We must tell everyone firmly that the march of inculturation
that followed Vatican Council II cannot be reversed,” Toppo said.
“Any attempt to do so would only hurt the sentiments of our people. I am
sure the Roman curia would appreciate our views and needs.” He also said
the needs of the region compels the church to prepare a liturgy comprehensible
to “even children and illiterates.”
It was “impossible” to return liturgy to the
“cultural background of the seventh and eighth centuries in Rome when
liturgical texts were composed in the language of Pope Leo the Great,” he
asserted. “We live in the present, and the local people yearn to live
their faith within the indigenous cultural ambience.”
National Catholic Reporter, November 15,
2002
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