Saturday, February 24, 2018

New ICEL Translations in England and Wales for the Chrism Mass

Readers of NLM may be interested to know that the Liturgy Office of England and Wales has just announced that the English and Welsh Bishops' Conference has received the recognitio for use of the 2016 ICEL translation of the Ordo benedicendi oleum catechumenorum et infirmorum et conficiendi chrisma (1971)

This use of this translation, entitled The Order of Blessing the Oil of Catechumens and of the Sick and of Consecrating the Chrism, will be obligatory in England and Wales from 2018 onwards, so will be in use in this year's Chrism Masses. The text is provided on the Liturgy Office website, along with some other related resources.

These are not texts that are used very often, so a good number of people may be unfamiliar with them. For those who are interested, I have drawn up a table where the 1971 Latin editio typica, the 1972 ICEL translation, and the new ICEL translation can be compared:

Comparison of the Order of Blessing the Oil of Catechumens and of the Sick and of Consecrating the Chrism (1971 Latin, 1972 ICEL, 2016 ICEL) [PDF]

(Note: the 2009 translation of the Ordo benedicendi published in the interim Roman Pontifical in 2012 is not part of the comparison here, as to the best of my knowledge it was never in use in England and Wales.)

Pope Benedict XVI breathing on the Chrism before the Prayer of Consecration (2010)
I am sure that NLM readers will enjoy discussing the merits and faults of the new translation in the comments below!

More recent articles:

For more articles, see the NLM archives: