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
Soros-Funded Catholic Group Denounces Rush Limbaugh's
Disagreement with Pope (Past Research)
Saturday, November 30, 2013
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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the Hitler Youth?
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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.
Was Pope Benedict XVI (Joseph Ratzinger) A Nazi? Why Join
the Hitler Youth?
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Cline
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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