Vatican paper raps Sri Lanka on Israeli aid (correction)

Catholic World News ^ | Dec. 30, 2004 | N/A

[ArrogantBustard]

The following is a corrected version of a story that appeared on CWNews.com earlier this week, in which a crucial error in translation caused a serious misinterpretation of the news. CWNews apologizes for the error.

Vatican, Dec. 28 (CWNews.com) - The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by Sri Lanka to reject emergency aid offered by the Israeli government. Sri Lanka declined the Israeli aid because it would have been furnished by a military team.

Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano chastised the government of the stricken Asian nation for putting unnecessary restrictions on an Israeli offer to furnish medical help.

The Vatican paper observed that in what "should be a time for unconditional solidarity," some world leaders seem incapable of escaping a "small-minded approach that restricts their horizons." The suffering caused by the tsunami has created "a mass of deaths, across borders," L'Osservatore observed. The fact that the devastation swept across different societies, cultures, and nations should help to reinforce the universal perspective, the paper suggested.

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Glossary Terms: Vatican newspaper

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[ArrogantBustard]

Well, now! Just as we determined yesterday, the original L'Osservatoro Romano was mistranslated by someone, for whatever reason, and every self-so-called "News Service", and "Newspaper" in the world, including all too many members of this forum, just ran with the errors.

fortunately, a few folks still believe in fact checking.

[ArrogantBustard]

ping!

[dennisw]

fortunately, a few folks still believe in fact checking.......


Get real. I wanted to e-mail them but they don't reveal any e-mail address. I figured it might be their fault and posted as much. I also said it might be L'Osservatore Romano or the Vatican's fault.

[Cicero]

It could have been just plain ignorance that caused the mistranslation. Frankly the professional quality of journalists has been going downhill for decades. About all they learn these days is how to be politically correct.

But of course they were all delighted to go with this story, if for no other reason than to fan divisions between Catholics and Jews. I doubt if many will print a retraction.

[Lady In Blue]

ping

[timpad]

I'm coming late to this one. I guess in all the news around the disaster, I just missed it.

I've looked around a bit, and it seems that the original translation got it precisely backward. The Vatican, in truth, was criticizing Sri Lanka for refusing Israeli aid because of the military character of the relief.

Have I got it right? If so, that's one doozy of a mistranslation.

[BroncosFan]

Thanks.

[reagandemocrat]

Apparently so.

RD

[ArrogantBustard]

That's it. When one of "us" dug up the "L'Osservatore Romano" as an Italian language PDF, and posted the quotes, it was obvious what had happened. I don't have straight who first printed the mistranslation ... it appeared in the Jerusalem Post, Reuters and/or AP, at least one British outlet, and several New York papers. None of them appear to have bothered to check the original.

Disgusting.

[timpad]

Thanks. I'm glad I missed it now. Pack journalism at its worst. What a colossal blunder.

[ArrogantBustard]

I think the real problem is that somebody mistranslated it and then nobody (in the mainstream press) bothered to check it out, even though it was quite odd.

It's the lack of fact checking, the "pack journalism" as timpad put it, that disgusts me. I'm particularly disgusted by the "pack-journalism" mentality so many on this forum exhibited.

[ArrogantBustard]

It was also "mistranslated" by at least one English language Catholic paper.

That would be Catholic World News ... they didn't mistranslate it ... they quoted a mistranslation they found in the Jerusalem Post (IIRC). At least CWN has had the decency to correct the record. We'll see if anyone else does. J Post? NY Post? NY Times? BBC? AP? Reuters? How 'bout it, folks?

[ArrogantBustard]

You need to read this. So does Mona Charen.

[ScaniaBoy]

So then once again FreeRepublic beat MSM - well done! - but this is starting to be a repetitive occurrence.

[dennisw]

It was also "mistranslated" by at least one English language Catholic paper.

That was the source of the mistranslation. The CWN news site. Everyone (JPost, Israel Insider etc.) else used them as source. That's how it appears

[dennisw]

That would be Catholic World News ... they didn't mistranslate it ... they quoted a mistranslation they found in the Jerusalem Post (IIRC).

You have it the wrong way around. The CWS monitors the Vatican and is more likely to have someone who has translated in the past from Italian to English. As this article required.

The Jerusalem Post does not monitor the Vatican

[Conservative til I die]

Let's see if the anti-Catholic bigots on FR issue an apology. I won't hold my breath.

[Conservative til I die]

Guess you're not going to let it go, huh.