The Holy Father’s Wednesday Audiences will now include Arabic

ARABIC TO BECOME A PART OF THE POPE’S GENERAL AUDIENCE

Vatican City, (VIS) – Beginning on Wednesday 10 October, during the Holy Father’s weekly general audience, an Arabic speaker will join the other speakers who provide a summary of the papal catechises in various different languages.

In this way, in the wake of his recent trip to Lebanon and the publication of the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation “Ecclesia in Medio Oriente”, the Holy Father intends to express his perpetual concern and support for Christians in the Middle East, and to remind everyone of their duty to pray and work for peace in the region.

A couple problems I can see with this are a) the audience will be longer and b) if they end using Arabic, some Arab-speakers will take it as an insult.

Sts. Nunil0 and Alodia, pray for us!

BTW… 22 October is the Feast of Sts. Nunilo and Alodia! Start planning.

About Fr. John Zuhlsdorf

Fr. Z is the guy who runs this blog. o{]:¬)
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6 Comments

  1. tzard says:

    I think the Arab-speaking Christians might take heart from this. They are under increasing persecution nowadays.

  2. Stvsmith2009 says:

    I get several visits to my blogs from the Middle East each week. Just in the last two days I have had visitors from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, United Arab Emirates, and Lebanon. Sometimes I get visits from Kuwait, Pakistan, and Qatar, too. That is one of the reasons I place news reports related to Christians in the region on my blogs. It lets them know that people here are aware of their plights, and trying to inform others about it as well.

  3. jules1 says:

    I think it is a great idea . And being a member of an Eastern Rite Church I can assure you no insult will be taken. Although, middle eastern politics is full of petty jealousies etc but when it come to the Holy Father and his guidance there is a great respect.

  4. AnnAsher says:

    I’m averse. I think we wouldn’t have to quibble over languages if the Holy Father only spoke in Latin.

  5. Will Elliott says:

    I’m averse. I think we wouldn’t have to quibble over languages if the Holy Father only spoke in Latin.

    That would work only if the rest of the world listened in Latin…

  6. Venerator Sti Lot says:

    After a millennium and more of successful Arab(ic-speaking) dominance, Arabic has become the every-day (and even a literary, scholarly, etc.) language of a lot of Christians, and in that sense I can imagine this would be welcome.

    Practically, how problematical might this be in terms of intelligibility (the last of the Holy Father’s remarks in his charming English which I heard, had been provided by someone with English subtitles!)?

    Among one’s planning for the Feast of Sts. Nunil0 and Alodia might be calling to remembrance St. Daniel of Ceuta and Companions on 13 October.

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