Carefully Crafted Bad
Language
... but from the Vicar of Jesus Christ
on Earth?
Photo credit: By Bengt
Nyman - originally posted to Flickr as IMG_2356-1, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=11676038
The “Copro” Hits the Fan
In all candor,
we had never so much as heard of the word — and believe that,
outside of psychiatrist’s offices — no one else had either. Perhaps
we are deficient in our education or wanting in our vocabulary.
Nevertheless, in an interview with Belgian
Catholic weekly Tertio, Francis said of those whom he considers
his detractors — because they publish the growing tension between the
pontiff and orthodox Catholic media concerning the “Dubia” or
five simple questions that can answered in one word: “yes” or “no” relative
to his post-synodal exhortation Amoris Laetitia — the following
(quoting Reuters News):
“Using precise psychological terms, he said
scandal-mongering media risked falling prey to
coprophilia, or arousal from excrement, and consumers of
these media risked coprophagia, or eating excrement.”
Francis then added, “And since people have a tendency
towards the sickness of coprophagia, a lot of damage can
be done.”1 |
From a Pope?
A pope using this language
concerning those with whom he disagrees?
Everyone knows the four-letter word he
is using and instantly sees beyond the sanitized psychological nomenclature.
We know what he was “really” saying … and thinking … and are ...
ashamed of it.
Any parent who changes an infant’s diapers
and says, “Oh, my … there is so much copro in this diaper, but since
I am not hungry I will throw it away!” has serious verbal, linguistic,
and communication problems with the rest of the world — to say nothing
of an apparently widespread psychological disorder.
Let us, then, render this arcana into
terms comprehensible to the rest of the world:
“Using ordinary terms, he said scandal-mongering media
risked falling prey to being aroused by sh-t, and
consumers of these media risked eating sh-t.”
Francis then added, “And since people have a tendency
towards the sickness of eating sh-t, a lot of damage can
be done.”1 |
How
is that
for cutting through the
“bull-copro”?
Can you imagine a head of state (which
Francis is) using this language to denigrate his perceived detractors?
Good grief, even the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) defines
“indecent speech” as “language or material that, in context,
depicts or describes, in terms patently offensive as measured by contemporary
community standards for the broadcast medium, sexual or excretory
organs or activities.” 3 That is to say, were the interview
broadcast, the FCC would have banned Francis’s depiction of those
in disagreement with him as “indecent”! No, wait! He sanitized them,
so it’s okay. Or is it …?
Catholics, non-Catholics, atheists, and
anyone else living on this planet will likely respond in utter incredulity
with words we can only hint at: “H- -y Copro! Did the pope himself
really say that?!”
Sadly, yes …
To quote Lifesite News:
“So now, if the translation [Reuter’s] is correct, as
most of these usually are, if we dare to see and report
what are obviously newsworthy developments that do not
reflect well on the pope or his close collaborators, we
are “scandal-mongering,” “eating excrement” and being
sexually aroused by this excrement of reporting
uncomfortable truth. How can a pope, the Vicar of
Christ, make such vile accusations? Whatever happened
to, “Who am I to judge?” 2 |
Perhaps we live in parallel universes,
but Francis’s apparent conviction that “people have a tendency
towards the sickness of coprophagia” is startling. We had never
so much as heard of the word, let alone encountered the tendency
within ourselves or anyone else on the planet that we have met.
There is, however, another affliction
much more common, and we fear that the more our present pontiff speaks,
the more we are led to the frightening conclusion that Francis
is non compos mentis
(not of a
sound mind).
Like coprophilia and coprophagia — that he appears to see in others
as a broad tendency — it is a sickness of the mind.
This is not said disdainfully or sarcastically.
It is said with great pity — and great alarm.
Let us pray for his speedy recovery.
Geoffrey K. Mondello
Editor
Boston Catholic Journal
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Comments? Write us:
editor@boston-catholic-journal.com
_______________________________
-
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-pope-media-idUSKBN13W1TU
Wed Dec 7, 2016
-
https://www.lifesitenews.com/blogs/climate-of-fear-in-the-vatican-is-very-real
-
https://www.newseuminstitute.org/about/faq/how-does-the-fcc-define-indecent-speech/
Further Reading on the Papacy of Francis:
Totally
Faithful to the Sacred Deposit of Faith entrusted
to the Holy See in Rome
“Scio
opera tua ... quia modicum habes virtutem, et servasti verbum
Meum, nec non negasti Nomen Meum”
“I
know your works ... that you have but little power, and
yet you have kept My word, and have not denied My Name.”
(Apocalypse 3.8)
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