News reports describe Pope Francis' tough statement against abortion. Turns out the statement is just a part of one sentence in a 2500 word speech, or about .8%. Also some outlets translate the description of abortion as "horror," when the official Vatican translation is "frightful." What does one line really say?
First, to avoid flame from fellow travellers, I am a strong supporter abortion rights. I am not catholic, but have, like many progressives, found Francis and his project to reshape the church interesting and hopeful.
Articles appeared in my Google News page describing Pope Francis attacking the "horrors of abortion" in his speech to the Vatican diplomatic corps. This struck me as an unusual phrasing for Francis, the pope who says the church must not obsess about such issues. Then, there were the articles that used frightful, instead of horror.
So, like a good DailyKos follower, I found the speech's English translation on the Vatican's website. I learned two things. First, only one phrase in one sentence mentions abortion, about .8% of the speech. This is nested with references to child war casualties, child soldiers and trafficking. Second is that the word horror is not in the official Vatican english translation of the italian text. Abortion is called frightful.
Here is the italian text:
Ad esempio, desta orrore il solo pensiero che vi siano bambini che non potranno mai vedere la luce, vittime dell’aborto
Google Translate will render
orrore as horror. But the Vatican translated as:
For example, it is frightful even to think there are children, victims of abortion, who will never see the light of day
Translation is a subtle business, direct word substitution alone will not work. The vatican translators chose frightful because it conveyed Francis' intent in the use of
orrore.
There is a difference between horror and frightful. Horror has connotations of evil intent, that someone is doing something terribly wrong, a something that must be condemned. Frightful, however, implies emotional upset, not some evil project, it is instead more accidental or unfortunate. Frightful is a more pastoral, less judgemental construction. Horror makes a better story. For journalists, it creates drama with Francis appeasing conservatives. For conservative Catholics, horror puts the best spin on a pope that has left much for them to desire.
Ultimately, there is no change in church doctrine, nor is one likely any time soon. However, this one phrase is not a sop to conservatives, but a voicing of Francis' efforts to refocus the church from judgement and exclusion to caring and acceptance.
8:48 AM PT: Links to the text of the speech.
Original Italian http://www.vatican.va/...
English http://www.vatican.va/...