Gerald O'Collins has provided a true service to any student or scholar pursing the issues of liturgical translation, the history of ICEL (the International Commission on English in the Liturgy), and the important theological and pastoral concerns found in the current (2010) Roman Missal. In his book, Lost in Translation, The English Language and the Catholic Mass, O'Collins presents a clear, ordered, and honest look at the events that led to the promulgation of the current missal. He reveals both the inadequacies of the current text and the comparable strengths of the 1998 Sacramentary (currently languishing in Rome) in order to show that the 1998 translation is not only far superior to that of the 2010 Roman Missal, but it is an excellent and readily available choice to replace the current missal.
Starting in the introduction with the foundational principles driving translation decisions as set out by Vatican II in The Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, especially the need for full, conscious, and active participation and the requirement that local bishops bear the responsibility for vernacular translations, O'Collins builds a clear picture of the immediate postconciliar period. Including a detailed discussion of the establishment of ICEL, Lost in Translation captures the energy, the excitement, and the turmoil that circulated around implementing the liturgical reform and its translation into the vernacular. By presenting this valuable timeline of texts and events, O'Collins also provides a candid examination of the powerful forces at work, almost from the beginning, to undercut not only the work of ICEL in implementing the conciliar reforms but the vision and ecclesiology of the reforms themselves.
The first three chapters provide a detailed, scholarly analysis of the history and principles of translation that were carried through the 1973 Sacramentary to the 1998 edition. They also provide a profoundly honest and disturbing picture of Roman Church authority seeking to exert power over the translation process, a move that led to (a) the imposition of Liturgiam Authenticam over the translation process, (b) the centralization of authority over translation in the establishment of the supervisory committee Vox Clara, and (c) the 2010 Roman Missal, which these actions produced.
These chapters are followed by an academic critique that is a devastating analysis of the 2010 Roman Missal, its principles, and its texts, thereby opening the way for the 1998 translation to return to use. The most persuasive evidence for choosing the 1998 Sacramentary, however, is found in the translation itself. O'Collins demonstrates the profundity of the 1998 texts, their grounding in Scripture, history, and tradition and, especially, their strengths as proclaimed prayer!
Lost in Translation needs to be read by liturgical scholars and students alike, as well as by any and all who work with or are responsible for the public prayer of the church. With his motu proprio of September 2017, Pope Francis has opened the way for the 2010 Roman Missal to be replaced. As O'Collins notes, “The ball is now firmly in the court of the English-speaking bishops’ conferences. The excellent 1998 translation is there, waiting in the wings” (115).
