Patterico's Pontifications

9/22/2006

Pope Benedict’s Speech Was Not Altered

Filed under: General — Patterico @ 8:42 pm



Pope Benedict’s speech was not as radical and offensive as originally quoted. In the speech, Benedict actually said:

[H]e addresses his interlocutor with an astonishing brusqueness, for us an astounding brusqueness, bluntly on the central question about the relationship between religion and violence in general, saying: “Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached”.

Benedict was originally quoted without the bold language, which tends to distance Benedict from the person he is quoting. The omission of the bolded material made the statement seem more inflammatory than it actually was. (It was still rather provocative, though the violent reaction was of course typical (literal) Islamic overkill.)

Slate’s Tim Noah has done an annotated version of the Pope’s speech that claims that the critical bolded language was added after the fact.

But it wasn’t. Stuart Buck shows beyond all doubt that Noah is wrong. Buck’s proof includes video.

The Vatican simply did an inadequate translation, which was later amended for accuracy.

Chalk up another victory for the blogosphere — except that you need to write Noah to get him to correct it. Reach him at chatterbox@slate.com.

2 Responses to “Pope Benedict’s Speech Was Not Altered”

  1. sometimes astounding brusqueness is the very best mode of communication.

    assistant devil's advocate (bd2929)

  2. […] I mentioned to you the other day that Slate’s Timothy Noah had incorrectly accused Pope Benedict of altering his speech after the fact to include language distancing himself from a controversial viewpoint on Islam. I noted that Stuart Buck had proven conclusively that the distancing language was in Benedict’s original, and encouraged you to write Slate/Noah to seek a correction. I don’t know if any of you did, but someone apparently did. The correction has been issued (see here and here). Thanks again to Stuart Buck for noting this. […]

    Patterico’s Pontifications » Slate Error on Benedict’s Speech Corrected (421107)


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