The New York Times reports this morning on Attorney General Alberto Gonzales' statement yesterday about the dismissal of US Attorneys:
Under criticism from lawmakers of both parties for the dismissals of federal prosecutors, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales insisted Tuesday that he would not resign but said, "I acknowledge that mistakes were made here."
The mea culpa came as Congressional Democrats, who are investigating whether the White House was meddling in Justice Department affairs for political reasons, demanded that President Bush and his chief political adviser, Karl Rove, explain their roles in the dismissals.
But this was no mea culpa. "Mea culpa" means "mine is the fault," not "mistakes were made."
According to Wikipedia:
The origin of the expression is in a part of a traditional prayer in the Mass of the Roman Catholic Church known as Confiteor (Latin for "I confess"), in which the individual recognizes his or her flaws before God. The "mea culpa," as the Confiteor has come to be known popularly, is not simply a confession of sins, but rather an admission of one's flawed nature and the willingness to make amends for it.
The full text is:
Mea culpa,
Mea culpa,
Mea maxima culpa.
Meaning,
Mine is the fault, mine is the fault, mine is the greatest fault.
This confession of personal moral accountability before God is the precise opposite of Gonzales' statement, which uses the passive voice to evade rather than accept accountability.
If a Jew may suggest this, I think the New York Times owes an apology to the Roman Catholic Church for blasphemously suggesting that one of its most sacred rites -- confession -- is equivalent to a lame attempt to subvert the constitution of the United States.