Pope Benedict Issues Most Important Document on Sacred Scriptures Since Vatican II

[Joe_5859]

And then didn’t do so until 42 days after the day they picked.

This happens with virtually every document the Church puts out, especially the bigger ones.

 

[benedictgal]

This happens with virtually every document the Church puts out, especially the bigger ones.

That is true.

 

[NewEnglandPriest]

And then didn’t do so until 42 days after the day they picked.

Sorry, my wording was actually backwards. They could have easily “backdated” the document. I don’t think it has much to do with “controversial” sections or problems in translation, I think its just the typical Vatican way of doing things. They don’t usually opperate with American style efficiency.

 

[TMC]

You’re suggesting they planned to release the document in September without translations, but at the last minute decided to hold it until they could complete the translations? I have more faith in their routine planning than that, and think that a more likely explanation was some unexpectedly thorny problem about the content of the document that was not ironed out until late.

No. I am not suggesting that at all. All that I am saying is that while the date of the signature is September 30th, there needs to be time to have the document translated so that it can all be released together as a whole. You need to have something official, probably in Latin, before anything can be translated.

Its a document about Sacred Scripture and they waited until the memorial of St. Jerome to release it. I think that’s straightforward enough. There’s no need to speculate on translation problems or controversial aspects, they simply picked an appropriate day to release it. No more, no less.

That is my understanding - there was no real delay. The document’s “official” publish date was set to September 30 to honor St. Jerome, but the fact that it was not actually released on that symbolic date does not necessarily imply that there was some problem that delayed publication.