Tensions in Translating

The Misa ng Bayang Pilipino (MBP) is an attempt at liturgical inculturation. Yet the inaction of the Roman Curia in the 1990s regarding the MBP is partly explainable by the MBP’s use of the dynamic equivalence theory of translation and inculturated expression at a moment when norms on translation promoted by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments were shifting towards the formal equivalence theory. As a result, it appears that the MBP came into tension with the policy changes for liturgical translation at the time. In a certain way, the translational differences between the MBP and the Aklat ng Pagmimisa sa Roma reflect the differences in the liturgical norms of translation between Comme le prévoit (1969) and Liturgiam authenticam (2001).