Saturday, January 4, 2014

Is Pope Francis' Papacy a New Front for the Left?



Is Pope Francis' Papacy a New Front for the Left?
by Kate O'Hare 3 Jan 2014
If you live in the English-speaking world, you have two choices in dealing with Pope Francis, who normally speaks in Italian and writes in Spanish: either translate him yourself or rely on the official Vatican translations.

However, it's become increasingly apparent in recent weeks that the English translations shouldn't be taken at face value, especially if they deal with hot-button subjects.

About a month ago, Breitbart News ran a piece looking at issues with the Vatican's English version of Pope Francis' first solo written document, the Apostolic Exhortation titled Evangelii Gaudium, or "The Joy of the Gospel." Helping in this was Joe Garcia, a bilingual Catholic businessman in Florida, who has degrees in corporate and international finance.

As has previously happened with an Apostolic Exhortation from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI, Garcia became frustrated with the poor quality of the English translation and undertook a new one of his own from the Spanish original. He was on a bit of a translation hiatus for the holidays, but you can track his progress here.

But Garcia has come to some conclusions, including that the most egregious translation errors apparently always come in the most controversial sections of documents and that they inevitably alter the language in a leftward direction. He's so confident in this that he issues a challenge:

I would defy anyone to show me where a controversial translation has leaned toward the political right or toward theological traditionalism. I would like to have somebody show that to me, where in the last 40 years, a papal document or papal remark has gotten misinterpreted to the favor of those who are more traditionally disposed or who are more politically rightward-disposed.

If the issue were just poor language skills, one might expect errors to tilt as much in one direction as the other. According to Garcia, they don't. "It's the dog that doesn't bark," says Garcia.

And those translation errors--if they are indeed errors--find their way into the American media and blogosphere, which has an impact that is out of proportion to the actual number of Catholics worldwide who speak English as a first language. At the same time, on the Church's scale of countries with staggering social problems, Western nations, especially English-speaking ones, hardly rank at the top.

Garcia says:

It's benign neglect in a Vatican that happens to be focused on the poor and the outcast, etc. I perceive they see the Anglosphere as an oasis of prosperity in a world that has a lot of misery and oppression. So I think they tend not to pay attention to what goes in the Anglosphere, in particular the U.S.

I honestly don't really think that the U.S. Catholic population is particularly on the Vatican radar.

The Vatican, though, is in Western Europe, which has been on a steady march for decades to the political left. It would be naive to assume that this influence hasn't reached into the Vatican. The voices of politically liberal Catholics--who focus on the Church's social-justice message while cherry-picking its moral and theological teachings--are very loud in the U.S., and there's every reason to think they have like-minded allies within the Holy See.

While Pope Francis may have changed the Church's tone and emphasis in dealing with moral issues, he hasn't backed away from any Church doctrine. He's also spoken strongly on such uncomfortable (for moral relativists) subjects like abortion, sin, and the influence of Satan.

Garcia thinks its likely that people in the Vatican whose sympathies lean left have been massaging the English translations where possible to both soften the pope's moral imperatives and sharpen his social-justice concerns.

In the case of Evangelii Gaudium, the flashpoints are economic. Garcia has finished translating those sections, which have caused several right-wing commentators and pundits--including radio giant Rush Limbaugh--to become very upset at Francis' apparent criticism of things like "trickle-down economics" and "unfettered capitalism."

As it turns out, the first troublesome phrase is the result of an inaccurate translation and a misunderstanding of Francis' frame of reference as an Argentine; and the second phrase never appears in Evangelii Gaudium at all, but instead is "unfettered consumerism," an entirely different thing.

Here's a sample of what Garcia's re-translation looks like:

54. In this context, some people continue to defend trickle-down "spillover" theories which assume suppose that all economic growth, encouraged by a free market, for which a free market is [most] favorable, will inevitably succeed in bringing about greater justice and inclusiveness by itself brings about greater equity and social inclusion in the world. This opinion, which has never been confirmed by the facts, expresses a crude and naïve trust in the goodness of those wielding confidence in the generosity of those [people] who wield economic power and in the sacralized workings mechanisms of that ruling the prevailing economic system. Meanwhile, the excluded are still waiting. To sustain a lifestyle which excludes others, or to sustain enthusiasm for that selfish egotistical ideal, a globalization of indifference has developed. Almost without warning [i.e. practically] being aware of it, we end up being incapable of feeling compassion at the outcry of the poor for others,[of] weeping for other people’s pain at the anguish of others, and feeling a need to help them and [we end up] being disinterested in helping care for them, as though all this were someone else’s an alien responsibility and not our own which does not concern us. The culture of prosperity deadens well-being anesthetizes us; we are thrilled if the market offers us something new to purchase we lose our composure [literally, "lose our calm"]if the market offers something we have not yet purchased; and in the meantime all those lives stunted truncated for lack of opportunity [economic] possibilities seem a mere spectacle; they fail to move us which in no way alters us.

Not only have translation discrepancies and either willful or ignorant media misinterpretations infuriated the right, they've often made the left positively giddy. For the left, no matter which direction Francis is spun, it's a win.

Says Garcia:

Mark Twain used to say that a lie travels halfway around the world by the time the truth puts on its shoes. And that is an excellent strategic vision that people have on the other side.

They know that by the time a fool like me can sit there and translate 224 pages of Vaticanese, the meme of "capitalism is bad, and rich people are worse," has already spun around the world three or four times. They're counting on it either way.

And it's not just about economics.

If Francis is portrayed as a liberal who rejects Church dogma--which Time magazine originally claimed in its Man of the Year story, until it didn't--the left wins. Better yet is if that spin yields praise from those who normally are foes of the Church.

Says Garcia, "The people whose following of Pope Francis is strictly through the mainstream media, as conservative as they may be, they hate it that people with whom we vehemently disagree on many important issues are speaking charitably of the pope." He adds, "If NARAL is speaking kindly of Pope Francis, obviously the guy has to have horns and a pitchfork."

If Francis is portrayed as an out-of-touch fool who's suddenly "shocked" at the notion of gay couples adopting children and prompted a bishop to preach against it, the left wins. Forget the fact that the adoption issue came up in heavily Catholic Malta, nearly the last place Francis would have expected it to be raised. The pope had already confronted same-sex marriage and adoption in Argentina; only the venue was surprising to him this time.

And what can be better than atheist editor Eugenio Scalfari (the 89-year-old who didn't record or take notes of his interview with Francis and wrote it up from memory, imagination, or both, causing a media convulsion) of Italy's La Repubblica newspaper stating the pope has "abolished sin"?

Thankfully, the Vatican quashed that one quickly.

Evangelii Gaudium was pulled down briefly from the Vatican homepage and re-posted with a few cosmetic changes. Garcia says he also has noticed an incremental improvement in newer English translations. These are baby steps in the right direction, but they'll only continue if the heat stays on.

"If feet can be held to the fire," says Garcia, "and the world is watching, and the world says, 'By the way, we're watching, and we're not going to stop,' then, at some point, we're going to find out exactly where we have a problem."

Roman Catholic Church
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Note: Pope Francis I is the pope for the Roman Catholic Church.
Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus for the Roman Catholic Church.
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papal knighthood is an honor conferred by pope from the Roman Catholic Church.
K. Rupert Murdoch is a papal knighthood knight, and the title of his biography is “The Man Who Owns the News”.
HITLER'S LEGACY
The power of the press can be used to deliberately lead people astray, and to make them believe whatever propagandists want them to believe. In honor of the first man to use them I call modern propaganda and information-management techniques "Hitler's Legacy".
John J. Studzinski is a papal knighthood knight, a director at the Human Rights Watch, and a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank).
Open Society Foundations was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), the Catholic Relief Services, the American Constitution Society, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).
George Soros was a benefactor for the Human Rights Watch, a contributor for MoveOn.org, is the founder & chairman for the Open Society Foundations, and the chairman for the Foundation to Promote Open Society.
Foundation to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Human Rights Watch, Media Matters, the International Rescue Committee, the Robin Hood Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the Aspen Institute (think tank).
Chuck Hagel was the chairman for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and is the secretary at the U.S. Department of Defense.
Richard R. Burt is a director at the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and was a U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Rozanne L. Ridgway was a co-chair for the Atlantic Council of the United States (think tank), and a U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Nazi Party was a political party for Germany.
Adolf Hitler was the leader for the Nazi Party, and the fuhrer for Germany.
Kenneth F. Hackett was the president of the Catholic Relief Services, and is the U.S. ambassador for the Holy See.
Ilyse Hogue was a director for MoveOn.org, is a senior adviser for Media Matters, and the president for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Caroline Fredrickson is the president of the American Constitution Society, was the Washington legislative director for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the general counsel for NARAL Pro-Choice America.
Karen Finney is a board member for NARAL Pro-Choice America, and a frequent commentator for MSNBC.
Harold E. Ford Jr. is a political commentator for MSNBC, an overseer at the International Rescue Committee, and a 2008 Bilderberg conference participant (think tank).
Clifford S. Asness is a director at the International Rescue Committee, was a leadership council member for the Robin Hood Foundation, and supported same-sex marriage in New York.
James S. Crown is a trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Lester Crown was a lifetime trustee at the Aspen Institute (think tank), and is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
R. Eden Martin is the president of the Commercial Club of Chicago, and counsel at Sidley Austin LLP.
Michelle Obama was a lawyer at Sidley Austin LLP.
Barack Obama was an intern at Sidley Austin LLP.
Newton N. Minow is a senior counsel at Sidley Austin LLP, and a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago.
Francis E. George is a member of the Commercial Club of Chicago, a
Cardinal for the Roman Catholic Church, an archbishop for the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Chicago, and a trustee at the Catholic University of America.
Carl A. Anderson is a trustee at the Catholic University of America, a board member for the Vatican Bank, and was an advisory board member for the Wheelchair Foundation.
Vatican Bank is the bank for the Vatican and the Roman Catholic Church.
Ernst von Freyberg is the president for the Vatican Bank, and a member of the Order of Malta.
Order of Malta is the order of the Roman Catholic Church.
Mikhail Gorbachev is an advisory board member for the Wheelchair Foundation, the founder of Green Cross International, was the general secretary for the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the president for the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).
Global Green USA is the US affiliate for Green Cross International.
John B. Emerson was a council of advisors member for the Global Green USA, and is the U.S. ambassador for Germany.
Nazi Party was a political party for Germany.
Adolf Hitler was the leader for the Nazi Party, and the fuhrer for Germany.
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Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) is the pope emeritus for the Roman Catholic Church.
Pope Francis I is the pope for the Roman Catholic Church.

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