Radical Catholic Traditionalism: a Translation of Gérard Leclerc's 'Lefebvristes: le retour'

Abstract

This thesis examines some of the difficulties and challenges associated with translating a work about the Catholic religion from French into English. I have chosen to translate excerpts from the book Lefebvristes: le retour by Gérard Leclerc which deals with radical Catholic traditionalism and its rejection of the Second Vatican Council. The first section of the thesis gives the background and context of the Council as well as a brief history of the group known as Lefebvrists and their schism from the Roman Catholic Church that occurred in 1988. The second section then examines some of the theoretical considerations involved in the translation, including why I chose to translate this book and a discussion of the difficulties encountered along with my strategies for resolving them. Particular attention is paid to the scarcity of works translated from French into English on the topic of the Lefebvrists, difficulties with terminology, intertextuality and ecumenical language. The thesis concludes with my translation of the introduction and chapters one, four and five of Leclerc’s book.