Scandal of liturgical mistranslation. It is not "for all", it is "for many"
History of the Holy See's demand for correction of the words of consecration
A chronological overview
20 November 2006
Sensation: A letter from Rome
The letter has the protocol number 467/05/L, is dated 17 October 2006, comes from the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship, Francis Cardinal Arinze, and is addressed to the Presidents of the National Bishops' Conferences. Its content is a sensation: it gives the instruction that the "pro multis" in the words of consecration should be translated as "for many" and no longer, as is customary in many languages, as "for all". It was published the day before yesterday in the weblog of Domenico Bettinelli, a few hours earlier "Catholic World News" had already reported it, later followed by kreuz.net, kath.net and finally today the "Catholic News Agency".
kath-info had already pointed out the problem of translation months ago in two articles by Fr Michael Wildfeuer and Fr Franz Prosinger. The article by Fr Prosinger is a summary of his licentiate thesis, which he submitted to the Institutum Biblicum.
22 November 2006
Update on the sensation
Today the Australian news agency CathNews picked up the news concerning the Roman instruction on the correct translation of the words of consecration (see below the news item from the day before yesterday) from the Catholic News Agency (CNA). Yesterday it was already carried by the African news agency allAfrica and The Indian Catholic, which is owned by the Indian Bishops' Conference. It too has taken it over from CNA, so that this report cannot be taken as an immediate confirmation from the episcopal side. Such an acknowledgement is still pending. As far as can be gathered from the internet, KNA, KathPress and KIPA have so far remained silent on the matter, as has Radio Vatican. In the relevant blogger scene, however, the news is circulating diligently. A German translation of Cardinal Arinze's letter is offered by Pro Missa Tridentina (PDF document).
15 December 2006
Correction of the translation of the "pro multis" confirmed
Already in the issue of 5 December 2006, the "Tagespost", based on a report of the CBA, brought the news that the German Bishops' Conference had confirmed the receipt of the letter of the Congregation for Divine Worship concerning the necessary correction of the translation of the words of the consecration in the week before (i.e. in the week from 26 November to 2 December). "The request for a faithful translation was transmitted by the Prefect of the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship, Cardinal Francis Arinze, to several national bishops' conferences in recent weeks at the request of Pope Benedict XVI." According to the bishops' conference, the letter had been forwarded to the commission responsible for revising the German-language missal, where it would be taken into account in the ongoing work. A new translation should be available "in the next one to two years".
In the 9 December edition, the "Tagespost" carried an interview with dogmatics professor Manfred Hauke, who teaches in Lugano, in which he explains the instruction from Rome: "The formula 'for all' is an interpretation of the words of the consecration, while the marking 'for many' corresponds to the biblical wording." The translation of the Greek "for many" with "for all" is largely based on a lexicon article by the Protestant exegete Joachim Jeremias, according to which the Aramaic usage does not know a separate word for "all", so that "many" is to be understood inclusively, i.e. in the sense of "all". Hauke literally: "This interpretation has in the meantime become questionable due to a biblical study which was prepared under the direction of Father Albert Vanhoye SJ, the long-time secretary of the Pontifical Biblical Commission; Benedict XVI awarded him the cardinal dignity because of his scientific merits. The study by Franz Prosinger, soon to be published as a book, shows that Jeremias made numerous mistakes. Aramaic usage here does not differ significantly from Indo-European languages."
4 January 2007
From an interview with Bishop Gregor Maria Hanke
Markus Reder: The Vatican is pushing for the words of consecration to be translated literally in future: "for many" instead of "for all". Does that make sense or is it more of a pastoral problem?
Hanke: When the priest repeats the words of Jesus during the consecration, quoting them as it were, he should do so literally. My Latin teacher would certainly have painted the current translation red. I can understand it well and expressly welcome the fact that the literal translation "for many" is now also to be introduced in German. I think this is an absolutely justified concern. One does not change theology because of it. God's will of salvation is indeed directed at all people, but of course it still requires the decision of each individual person. Moreover, one should bear in mind that even outside the Catholic Church - for example in the Reformation communities - there are no problems at all with the literal translation "for many". The various Reformation or Anglican traditions have all striven for a literal translation. And there, people have had experience with the mother tongue for a long time.
The interview appeared in the Tagespost on 30 December 2006. Gregor Maria Hanke, Abbot of Plankstetten since 1993, was appointed Bishop of Eichstätt on 14 October 2006 and consecrated on 2 December.
4 January 2007
The Pope's "intervention"
Yesterday, the Austrian daily newspaper "Die Presse" published an article about Pope Benedict XVI's "first intervention in the liturgy". It refers to the demanded correction of the vernacular translations of the words of the consecration.
The article goes into detail with astonishing precision and asks about the wording in the ancient Greek original: "In Mark and Matthew it says 'for you and for many' and 'for the many' respectively; in Luke and Paul 'for you' (this is also how Protestants say it)." The post-conciliar translation "for all" was based on a misunderstanding. "A Protestant theologian, Joachim Jeremias (1900-1979), suggested that the Greek formulation was a Hebraism. Aramaic (the mother tongue of Jesus) does not know a word for 'all'; there the word for 'many' also refers to those who can no longer be counted, i.e. the masses and thus actually all. Later studies, however, refuted this: Aramaic language usage does not differ significantly from that of the Indo-European languages."
Franz Prosinger's licentiate thesis belongs to these "later studies". It is gratifying that the results of his studies are slowly gaining acceptance.
For many - for all
In the March/April 2007 issue of Theologisches, Fr Franz Prosinger deals with the "current state of the discussion 'for many / 'for all'" (columns 123 - 130) in connection with the controversy over the words of consecration, and in it he deals with Thomas Söding, among others. Furthermore, he illuminates the problem in the context of today's theological tendencies towards the doctrine of universal redemption, addressing Hans Urs von Balthasar, Karl Rahner and Eugen Biser. He also comments on the question of whether the translation 'for the many' would be a possible way out, and gives the following consideration: "When Th. Söding writes that the possible way out of a translation 'for the many' is not good German, but technical language of exegetically educated theologians, they would indeed have to think of the extremely restrictive and exclusionary meaning of 'the many' in the horizon of the time. But the 'way out' is of course not thought of in this way. Since 'for all' is now in everyone's ear, the article in 'for the many' would refer to that totality. But that would not be a sincere way out!"
Will the bishops obey?
"So a bishop cannot - as happened - demand obedience for forbidding the correct translation of pro multis demanded by the Pope. Which does not exclude the fact that abandoning the old translation 'for all', which is prone to optimism about salvation contrary to the faith, sometimes requires pastoral patience and some skill. Unfortunately, however, the German bishops apparently want to ignore the Pope's specification for the coming new edition of the Divine Praise as well."
So Professor Dr Johannes Stöhr in an article Obedience to liturgical mistranslations?, published in Theologisches of March / April 2008.
The new translation of the words of consecration was ordered in a letter of the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship Cardinal Arinze of 17 October 2006. In it, the bishops' conferences were asked to "offer the faithful appropriate catechesis in the next one to two years" to prepare them for the introduction of the precise translation. Nothing has yet been announced about the fulfilment of this request.
The words of consecration in Mexico
30 June 2008: In Mexico the new edition of the Roman Missal with the more accurate translation from Latin into Spanish has already been published. There, the "pro multis" is again literally translated as "por muchos". As a Mexican priest reported, the meaning of the "pro multis" was explained to the faithful during some Sundays: that all are invited, but also that each individual must consciously join in and participate. According to our information, the translation "por muchos" was accepted by the faithful in Mexico without any difficulties.
Cathcon: Universalism is the modernist heresy
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