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Dear All,

The translator, as you are well aware, is interested in words, knows the power of words, and also knows that the choice of a single word can make a huge difference!

I am sure you all know one of the best-known acronyms in the Church since Vatican II: the RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults) or ‘Catechumenate’. But how many are aware that a major episcopal conference in the Catholic world has now changed that to OCIA (Order of Christian Initiation of Adults)? In November 2021, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops approved this new translation of the name of this process.

At one level, this change is quite simple and easily argued for: in 1972, following Vatican II, the editio typica for the Catechumenate was printed in Latin under the title Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum. So perhaps the English translation that followed should have said ‘Order’ to start with! However, in the meantime there has been a growth in greater sensitivity to language in the Church, and to translation. In 2017 Pope Francis changed the wording of canon 838 to give local episcopal conferences more power in this regard, needing only a ‘confirmatio’ rather than a ‘recognitio’ (understand this as meaning less Vatican intervention in the translation process) for the kind of change we see in the above case, from RCIA to OCIA.

But much more follows from such a change. The Catholic ‘journey’ is now seen not just as a single ‘rite’ but a continual ongoing journey. The word ‘Ordo’ reflects the progressive nature of this spiritual journey. There are many rites involved, as it happens, not just one. And whereas the RCIA spoke of the ‘candidate ’, the OCIA now splits this into three different categories: inquirer, catechumen, elect.

I mention this, because as Salesian translators we need to be aware of a similar growth in sensitivity and translation. Certain words/terms we use in the Salesian context are undergoing a shift in meaning or, at the very least, a more nuanced understanding. A case in point is formazione permanente. Th term is not just in Salesian usage, but in formation more generally in the context of priestly and religious life. It is typically translated into English as ‘ongoing formation’. Occasionally we have seen ‘permanent formation’, something that the translator understands to be a transliteration, not a translation. But have you noticed, in the Formation Councillor's various contributions over time to the AGC, the constant reference to ‘lifelong formation’? And in the renewed 2024 Fifth edition of the Ratio we will see reference to the fact that lifelong formation is the ‘mother-idea‘ and organising principle of the Ratio.

So what has been the shift in understanding of formazione permanente? I suppose, to put it simply, that we can say the term has both a narrower and a broader meaning: the narrow meaning is the period of time that follows initial formation; the broader meaning is that all of life is about formation, it is lifelong. But just as a change from Rite to Order has far-reaching consequences for the catechumenate, similarly, the translation of formazione permanente as ‘lifelong formation’, in some instances, has consequences too. 

Understood in its broader (and more fundamental) sense, ‘ongoing formation’ is the entire ‘journey‘ which includes initial formation... and every other phase or stage until we ‘enter fully into Christ's paschal mystery’ (C 54). 

Or, to put it in grammatical terms: we can use ‘ongoing formation’ in an adjectival sense, e.g. ‘ongoing formation is the period following initial formation’, in which case it is a phase of formation. Or we can use it predicatively, e.g. ‘Formation is ongoing’, in which case it is a dimension of consecrated life from beginning to end. 

There is another way we can look at it in the Ratio (and for that matter in the Constitutions and Regulations) if we ask the linguist in us, which recognises that words keep company: when the word permanente (ongoing) appears in a word cluster that also contains the word iniziale (initial), we are speaking of it in the narrower sense as a phase. When it appears without that other word in the cluster (linguists would say that if it doesn’t appear within 5 words either to the right or left it means there is no significant co-occurrence of the two terms), then it is an attitude, a spirit, a dimension of formation, something understood to be lifelong. The Ratio will clearly show these two patterns with their distinct meanings.

All of which was already available in the SDB Constitutions since they were renewed and promulgated in 1984, but only with increased sensitivity to language and translation have we arrived at the current more nuanced understanding. Those who will eventually translate the 2024 Fifth edition of the Ratio into other languages will need to take this sensitivity on board.

One way of maintaining this sensitivity is through an accurate translator's glossary. Last week’s newsletter offered a range of resources, included amongst which is the SED (Salesian Encyclopaedic Dictionary). You may be unaware that behind this lies a more glossary-oriented web (html) file which I am making available to you in attachment as a zip file, but the Best Practice also contains the entry in this file for formazione permanente, so you can see what each ‘glossary’-style entry looks like. The html file is fully self-contained (that is, all its interactivity is codified within that file without needing to depend on an outside resource). But it is not locked. This means that you could make any change to it. But if you do make a change and save it, the saved file will probably be found in your 'download' folder, not where you have currently located this file. Be warned????

Now, and this is important, this particular file is updated constantly (as any true glossary must be), so:

(1) if you find an error, anywhere, of any kind, please inform me so that it can be rectified, updated. 

(2) you will note that there is the opportunity to include other language versions of a term. Some of these are still empty, and other than Chinese, I have almost no examples of Japanese, Vietnamese, Korean... or other EAO languages. So here is a straightforward plea: when you get a few moments, select some terms, maybe ones that most interest you, and please send me your language version of those terms. My thanks to China Province over a number of years, who have already done this.

 

best_practice_19-Glossary.docx

 

sed17-06-24.zip

 


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30 Translators newsletter No. 30 “TM" Best Practice No. 28 - Using Matecat file tolle 2024.08.17 154
29 Translators newsletter No. 29 “How long does it take to...?" Best Practice No. 27 - Translation time file tolle 2024.08.10 160
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24 Translators newsletter No. 24 “Dealing with dialect, accent, idiom" Best Practice No. 22 - Dialect file tolle 2024.07.07 170
23 Translators newsletter No. 23 “Pastoral translation - 1” Best Practice No. 21 - FABC file tolle 2024.06.29 182
22 Translators newsletter No. 22 “Not word-for-word but world-for-world” Best Practice No. 20 - World-for-world file tolle 2024.06.22 183
» Translators newsletter No. 21 “When a word makes a difference” Best Practice No. 19 - Glossary file tolle 2024.06.14 168
20 Translators newsletter No. 20 “Be a ‘smart’ translator” Best Practice No. 18 - SDB Resources file tolle 2024.06.08 169
19 Translators newsletter No. 19 “Translating Jesus!” Best Practice No. 17 - Mysticism file tolle 2024.06.03 193
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