Approved Bibles

Title

Approved Bibles

Language

English

Source

Boletin Eclesiastico de Filipinas XLIII (482) May-June 1969

Subject

Bible -- Versions

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

[The Cardinals and Bishops who are the members of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, assembled in Plenary Session, November, 1968, voted that information be circulated by the Secretariat among the Episcopal Conferences about approval given by various hierarchies for the use of editions of the Scriptures prepared and produced under auspices of the United Bible Societies, in order that Bishops in various parts of the world may know what Scriptures are available for immigrant workers, seamen, travelers and others speaking languages not native to an area where they happen to be. This letter encloses a copy of a report containing that information together with information about other developments in relations between the Catholic Church and the Bible Societies.]

Fulltext

AD CHRISTIANORUM UNITATEM FOVENDAM CITTA DEL VATICANO APPROVED BIBLES To the President of the Episcopal Conference 439/69 The Cardinals and Bishops who are the members of the Secretariat for Promoting Christian Unity, assembled in Plenary Session, Novem ber, 1968, voted that information be circulated by the Secretariat among the Episcopal Conferences about approval given by various hierarchies for the use of editions of the Scriptures prepared and produced under auspices of the United Bible Societies, in order that Bishops in various parts of the world may know what Scriptures are available for immigrant workers, seamen, travellers and others speaking languages not native to an area where they happen to be. With this letter we enclose a copy of a report containing that in formation together with information about other developments in rela tions between the Catholic Church and the Bible Societies. These deve lopments are connected with the Second Vatican Council’s call for “easy access to sacred Scripture for all” (Dei Verbum, 22). For the sake of convenience, we summarize here the information about Bible So cieties’ editions of the Scriptures approved by Catholic Bishops and some other editions produced under joint Catholic-Protestant auspices or with Protestant collaboration that have been similarly approved: Afrikaans: Bible (ed. of Bible Society with deuterocanonical Books added) (Episcopal Conference of South Africa) Danish : Bible (Bible Society) (notes from Jerusalem Bible published in a separate booklet) (Bishop of Copenhagen) Efik: Bible (Bible Society) (Episcopal Conference of Nigeria) APPROVED BIBLES 391 English: Fiji: Bible, Revised Standard Version (original ed., National Council of Churches of USA) (Bishops of Kenya and Tanzania); (original ed. with added annotations by various Protestant scholars: Oxford Annotated Bible, Oxford Uni versity Press, revised at a dozen places by Catholics (Arch bishop of Boston, Mass., USA); (Catholic ed., Thomas Nelson and Catholic Truth Society) (Archbishop of St. Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland) Bible (Bible Society) (Archbishop of Suva) French: New Testament, Revised Segond (Archbishop of Kinshasa, Congo) Frisian: Bible (Bible Society) (Archbishop of Utrecht) Italian: Bible (La Biblia Concordata, Mondadori) (Archbishops of Ravenna) Kurukh: Bible (Bible Society) (Archbishop of Ranchi, India) Mundari: Bible (Archbishop of Ranchi, India) (Bible Society) Samoan: Bible (Bible Society) (Archbishop of Samoa) Spanish: New Testament, Version Popular (Bible Society) (Bishop of San Felipe, Chile; Bishop of Santa Cruz, Bolivia; Bishop of Juli, Peru, et al.) Swahili: Bible (Bible Society) (Bishops of Kenya and Tanzania) Thai: Old Testament, Revised (Bible Society) (Episcopal Con ference of Thailand) Yoruba: Bible (Bible Society) (Episcopal Conference of Nigeria) A Spanish translation of the New Testament produced by a small mixed group of Catholic and Protestant scholars under the auspices of the Herder Publishing Company and the Taize Brotherhood has been apptoved by the Episcopal Conference of Latin America (CELAM) and a similar project in Portuguese is in progress. In a few areas (Hong Kong, Katanga in the Congo) the Bishops of the region have given ap proval for the use of all editions in all languages available in the Bible Society bookstores of those regions. 392 BOLETIN ECLESIASTICO DE FILIPINAS The Cardinals and Bishops assembled in the same Plenary Ses sion of the Secretariat also voted that this letter accompanying the foregoing information should state the following two points: (1) in general, there is no difficulty in cooperating with other Christians such as the members of a Bible Society in securing use of an accurate translation of the Scriptures in schools and among the Catholic faithful provided there is “in some way or other” (quovis modo) a study of the Bible, and provided the edition is a faithful and integral one which does not at tack dogmas of Catholic faith in introductions and annota tions (cf. CIC, c. 1400); and (2) since Vatican II stressed that the Bible should be easily ac cessible to all, Bishops may endorse for general Catholic use editions of the Scriptures without annotations produced under auspices of other Christian groups, such as a Bible Society, when there is no Catholic edition with annotations at a price the people can pay (ptovided the Bishops are satisfied that the translation is good enough) until such time as it becomes pos sible to fulfil more adequately the pastoral use of the Bible legislated in Dei Verbum, Chapter 6, i.e., until there is a com plete Bible with annotations or helps for readers in an edi tion that makes such a book easily accessible to all and avail able at all times. These two points had already been made in responses to inquiries from several Episcopal Conferences (e.g., Kenya, Nigeria, Peru). They are now communicated to all as a result of the latest Plenary Session cf this Secretariat. Respectfully in Our Lord, t J. G. M. Willebrands The Secretary

pages

390-392

Media