T. Chandrasekar, IV Assistant
Judge of the City Civil Court, said ‘Thiruppali Puthagam’, a translated
work by the bishops was illegal, improper, incorrect, unbiblical and
ultra vires of the Code of Canon Law. Consequent to the judgement,
Catholic churches across the State are not in a position to use the book
for mass.
Terming the translation as ‘careless’ and
‘confusing’, the judge said there was no documentary evidence to show
that a committee was appointed for translation.
The
judgement was delivered on a suit filed by G. Alex Benziger, Leonard
Vasanth and J.V. Fernando of Chennai, who described themselves as
members of the Roman Catholic Church.
They contended
that contrary to earlier translation, the bishops replaced “udal” for
body instead of ‘sareeram’ and the word ‘sin’ was found totally removed.
When asked about the history of translation, Rev. Fr. L. Anandam,
Rector, St Peters Seminary, Madurai, said there were three translations
of the Missal in the past.
After the Second Vatican
Council in 1965, Pope Paul VI granted local translation of the Missal,
which was in Latin and belonged to the period of Pope Pius V (16th
century). Again, Pope Benedict XVI sanctioned the latest translation,
which is in use since 2011-12. He said theologically there was nothing
wrong with the word “udal”.
Rev. Fr. Joe Arun, a
cultural anthropologist, said the argument of the petitioners would turn
the clock to the days of Hellenisation when the Bible was translated
from Aramaic – the language Jesus and his disciples spoke - and Hebrew
into Greek and symbolises the supremacy of the language of the conqueror
and dispensing with culture specific translations.
“Here,
the battle is between conservatives and reformists. We need a culture
specific Missal that accommodates the people’s language,” he said.
Fr.
Vincent Chinnadurai, one of the secretaries of the All India Catholic
Bishops Conference, said only a microscopic minority opposed the Missal
1993 and it was the same conservatives who opposed translation of Missal
from Latin to Tamil.