Hong Kong Diocese revises translation of letter to Chinese Catholics

Published: 2007-08-03

HONG KONG (CNS) -- The Hong Kong Diocese has revised the Vatican's Chinese translation of Pope Benedict XVI's letter to Catholics in China. Cardinal Joseph Zen Ze-kiun of Hong Kong told the Asian church news agency UCA News that the original Chinese text contains many mistakes and that the revision was to "help those (Chinese) who don't know foreign languages understand the letter's original intentions." The cardinal, who presided over sessions at three parishes in mid-July to explain the papal letter's content and context, spent a week revising the Chinese translation with experts. The revised text, which contains 20,086 characters including footnotes, was published in the July 15 issue of Kung Kao Po, the diocesan Chinese weekly. In addition, 30,000 booklets of the revised text in traditional Chinese characters and another 30,000 in simplified characters were printed for free distribution. The Vatican issued the papal letter June 30 in the original Italian and in English, French and traditional and simplified Chinese translations. The Chinese versions each had 19,763 characters.

Copyright (c) 2007 Catholic News Service /U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service .