I’m assuming this is a translation snafu. I know. I know. The old joke is that anytime the pope says anything outlandish it’s dismissed as a translation issue. But regardless of who in the Vatican did this, it’s kind of indicative of the mindset.
I mean, BCE? Really?
For those unclear, BC is “before Christ.” Modern secularist demand that we write BCE (Before Common Era” whatever that means. But to think that people in the Vatican in charge of translating the pope’s words are so secularized as to make this mistake is quite telling.
This is not something to be dismissed. Either Christ is the center of everything or he’s not. Make up your mind.
August 29, 2024 at 6:15 am
“so secularised”? No.
Merely a certain ‘collegiality’ that one excercises towards ‘the other’, with a default ‘plausible deniability’ in ones efforts if the readers faith is somehow ‘tinged’.
August 29, 2024 at 2:32 pm
The CE and BCE is the same white-washing the atheists always accuse Christians of. The date for the birth of Christ is based on pagan this or that….or the solstice…or whatever silliness they hang their hypocrisy on.
August 29, 2024 at 3:48 pm
How woke can you go?
August 29, 2024 at 4:25 pm
Hang in there people. These are the times that Saints are made 😉
August 30, 2024 at 1:23 pm
Apparently, this occurs only in the English translated version. In French and Italian it does not (according to Anthony Stine at Return to Tradition). Which then begs the question, why is that so, and what is the purpose or signaling to the English-speaking community?
August 30, 2024 at 1:40 pm
From Lifesite News:
“While many have swiftly criticized the Vatican for employing the terminology, the BCE term only appears in the English translation, with the seven other language versions of the Pope’s letter using the “B.C.” term. The French version refers to the sixth and third centuries “before Jesus Christ,” as do the Italian, Polish, Portuguese, Spanish, German, and Arabic translations.
“The sole use of the “BCE” term in the English translation would appear to be the result of the officials in the Secretariat of State and the Holy See Press Office tasked with preparing the Pontiff’s discourses and writings for public consumption.
“News releases and papal statements from the Vatican come as part of a coordinated effort between office-based officials in the Secretariat of State and staff at the press office. The press office in turn is under the auspices of the Dicastery for Communication.
“The predominant language of the Vatican is Italian. English is a widely spoken additional language among a number of clerical and lay officials, particularly with the continued growth of English-speaking Catholic media based at the Vatican.
“Despite this, numerous minor inaccuracies and errors regularly appear in the Holy See Press Office’s online releases, with the English translation often being notably out of date and less detailed when contrasted with the daily Italian listings.
‘I would classify this under ‘dumb’ rather than ‘evil.’ It’s most likely that the English translator is some woke bureaucrat,” commented Crisis Magazine Editor-in-Chief Eric Sammons. “But it does reflect badly on the Vatican that such people are hired in the first place. Well-run organizations vet their people carefully.’
“Problems between various language translations of Vatican texts is not a recent problem, and predates the current pontificate. However, with the Dicastery for Communications receiving one of the largest budgets in the Holy See (some tens of millions of euros), particular attention is justly being given to the proper use of such a sum of money.”
August 31, 2024 at 9:27 am
Interesting. However, this still looks like “evil” rather than merely “dumb”, only at a lower level. “Dumb” would be using Google translate to make the translation — software like that might, conceivably, “autocorrect” B.C. to B.C.E. Heaven help us when they start using AI to translate Vatican documents.
Just yesterday I was listening to Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil, and I wanted to identify the 5th movement. It was listed as Nïne otpushchayeshi, so I put that into Google translate with “detect language”. You can try it yourself; the result is, “Don’t push me anymore.” The correct translation is “Nunc dimittis”, “Now lettest (Thou Thy servant depart in peace.)” Entering the pre-reform Russian characters yields, “Goodbye” — closer, but still wrong.
August 31, 2024 at 6:37 pm
Doesn’t occur in the Spanish version, either.
August 31, 2024 at 12:59 pm
Time to re-Christianize the secular culture once again:
BCE – Before Christian Era
CE – Christian Era