On 9 September 2017, Pope Francis weakened the congregation's authority with his "motu proprio" titled "Magnum principium", ensuring that, starting 1 October 2017, the nation's Conference of Bishops will manage local liturgical translations. Since 2001, the Congregation had greater authority over a nation's liturgical translations. On October 22, 2017, the Vatican released a letter that Pope Francis had sent to the Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacrament, Cardinal Robert Sarah, clarifying that the Vatican and its departments would have limited authority to confirm liturgical translations recognized by a local Conference of Bishops, thus retracting a commentary which Sarah had published on 13 October 2017.