Monday, March 3, 2014

In the Cazzo of Petrine Obscenity?


When Pope Francis was giving his Angelus blessing and homily at St. Peter's Square, he made a slip of the tongue whch sounded obscene to native speaking Italians. 

In English translation, the pontiff said:

If each one of us does not amass riches only for oneself, but half for the service of others, in this f–k [pause], in this case the providence of God will become visible through this gesture of solidarity,




The offending word is "cazzo" which is Italian for the male appendage, but it is commonly used as a synonym for  the "F" word.  His Holiness obviously meant to say "caso" which is example in this instance. Philologically, the mistake is easy for a Spanish speaker to make.

To me, what is really obscene is  that the chattering class is more intent on snickering over something that sounded dirty rather than concentrate on the message of sharing rather than not hording riches.

It seems that the Francis effect can only go so far.

h/t:  NY Post

Post Scriptus 03/04/2014  

After the Cazzo kerfluffle went through the press cycle for a day, Pope Francis used Twitter to share his humble mea culpa.



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