August 10, 2001
Your Excellency:
This letter is written at the instruction of the Executive Board of the Catholic Biblical Association of America to convey our concern relating to the document of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, Liturgiam authenticam, issued in March of this year. Having studied this document in detail and having discussed our reactions to it, we conclude that although it contains much that is positive and beneficial to true liturgy, some of its provisions are sufficiently ill-advised as to be the likely occasion of embarrassment to the Church. And it is our considered opinion that the document can have a seriously detrimental impact on the reverence and love for as well as study and knowledge of the Bible in the Church.
Our main concerns have to do with the presentation of the Nova Vulgata as the model for Scripture translations in various ways and the provisions that translations conform to it, even to the point of requiring conformity to the Nova Vulgata in the tradition of original language manuscripts used for translation. Such procedure, and others mandated in the document, would produce an inferior product. The problem is compounded by the attempt to make the Bible translation so produced the only one in general use for Catholics in the given language.
The enclosed presentation, authored in large part by Fr. Richard Clifford, S.J., and endorsed by the members of the CBA Executive Board, will provide details for what is here summarized. We send you this letter and this document in order to convey our concerns and the reasons for them. We request that you and your fellow Bishops urge the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments to review the scriptural provisions of Liturgiam authenticam, asking the Pontifical Biblical Commission to review them, in accord with the Motu Proprio of Pope Paul VI--since it does indeed set forth new provisions for the use of Scripture--as well as seeking counsel for Scripture scholarship worldwide.
With thanks for your kind attention to this request, I am,
Sincerely and respectfully yours in Christ,
Joseph Jensen, O.S.B.
Executive Secretary
Members of the CBA Executive Board:
Dianne Bergant, C.S.A., President
Francis J. Moloney, S.D.B., Vice President
Joseph Jensen, O.S.B., Executive Secretary
Lawrence E. Boadt, C.S.P., Treasurer
Richard J. Dillon, General Editor, CBQ
Christopher T. Begg, General Editor, OTA
Mark Stratton Smith, General Editor, CBQMS
Most Rev. Richard J. Sklba, Chair, Board of Trustees
Dennis C. Duling, Consultor
Corrine Patton, Consultor
Amy-Jill Levine, Consultor
Karen A. Barta, Consultor