Spanish Bible Approved by the USCCB for use in the United States
  • GerardoCallejas
    Posts: 15
    Does anyone know what Spanish Bible is approved by the USCCB for use in the United States? Needed for work on Spanish mass antiphons. Thank you for any and all help.
  • monasteryliturgistmonasteryliturgist
    Posts: 280
    There isn't an entire bible that is approved for use. The Antiphons are proper to the USA Spanish Missal, the Psalms come from the Lectionary from Spain and the Readings come from the Lectionary from Mexico currently. The Bible approved in Spain can be found here https://www.conferenciaepiscopal.es/biblia/ I am pretty sure they use in mexico "Biblia Latinoamerica". Its not a good translation in my opinion. Also just to be aware that the USA is working on their own lectionary so if whatever you are working on is supposed to be for a long term thing, you might want to hold off a little.
    Thanked by 1GerardoCallejas
  • GerardoCallejas
    Posts: 15
    Alright. Thank you for your help.
    Thanked by 1monasteryliturgist
  • janetgorbitzjanetgorbitz
    Posts: 964
    Please feel free to use any of the Spanish antiphons I have prepared here: http://spanishpropers.com. The antiphons were taken from the USCCB Misal and the Responsorial Psalms and Aclamacion texts were taken from the USCCB lectionary online.
    Thanked by 1GerardoCallejas
  • RevAMG
    Posts: 162
    For what it's worth, the readings and psalms of the forthcoming U.S. Leccionario will use the translation of the Biblia de la Iglesia en América (BIA), itself a project of CELAM (Latin American and Caribbean Episcopal Council). Much of the additional elements (e.g., introduction, Gospel acclamations, etc.) will be derived from the Mexican Leccionario.
    Thanked by 2Paul F. Ford mattebery
  • GerardoCallejas
    Posts: 15
    Thank you Janet,

    i have sent you two private messages, please be sure to get around to them when possible.

    Thank you!
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,033
    Be aware that the psalm responses on the USCCB website do not always match those in the Spanish lectionary approved for the US.

    For example, the response for the 30th Sunday in Ordinary Time (Year A) on the USCCB website is "Tu, Señor, eres mi refugio," while in English (following the Latin) is "I love you, Lord, my strength." The approved Spanish lectionary for the US follows the latter text, not the former: "Yo te amo, Señor, mi fortaleza." The translation of the psalm verses are also different.

    This difference is due to the fact that the Spanish lectionary approved for the US takes the readings from one translation (approved for Latin America), and the psalms from another (approved for Spain). The lectionary on the USCCB website takes the entire lectionary from Latin America, so (from what I understand) the resp. psalms there are not approved for the liturgy in the US. In addition, the Latin American lectionary sometimes changes the psalm response for a given Sunday from the one given in the Latin - as with OT 30 A above (I'm not sure why).

    This was correct as of a few years ago - see this discussion on the Forum from 2018 - though things may have changed since then.
  • Marc Cerisier
    Posts: 517
    Psalms there are not approved for the liturgy in the US.


    My conversations with the USCCB disagree with this statement—going so far as saying that any Spanish-language lectionary that is approved in its native place is allowed to be used. The same applied to the missal before the US version was released. That said, in setting the Mexican psalms to music I can confirm that many questionable decisions were made, and I wish we stuck to the older mixed lectionary (formerly published by LitPress).
  • rich_enough
    Posts: 1,033
    @Marc Cerisier - Thanks for the clarification.

    I found the translation from Spain preferable - if only because I was doing Masses in both Spanish and English and these matched the English translation more closely. They also matched the psalms in the (OCP) missalettes in the pews, where the translations were explicitly recognized for liturgical use in the US (and so I assumed all others were not approved).
  • ronkrisman
    Posts: 1,390
    ... any Spanish-language lectionary that is approved in its native place is allowed to be used.

    That would be correct IF the USCCB had not approved Spanish as a liturgical language for use in the dioceses of the United States of America. But it did -- nearly 40 years ago -- and the person who gave you that information is mistaken. Having Spanish approved as a liturgical language for the territory of the USCCB means that said conference of bishops prepares and approves its own liturgical books in that language. A (second) USA leccionario was prepared and approved by the USCCB over a decade ago. Said leccionario was subsequently confirmed by the Apostolic See. But after that recognitio it was discovered that the Episcopal Conference of Spain had revised its translation of the psalter (and the translation that was used by the USCCB in its leccionario was the earlier unrevised version). And the USCCB has diddled for over a decade to rectify that situation.
    Thanked by 2rich_enough Paul F. Ford
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