Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Thousands of Catholic books pulped over contraception error

Thousands of copies of a new book about the Catholic Church's teachings will have to be pulped after a translation error suggested that the Vatican had radically changed its views on contraception. 

The book was officially launched on Wednesday at the Vatican, but the event was overshadowed by the embarrassing error, which will mean that around 30,000 copies will have to be scrapped. 

The book, called YouCat – short for Youth Catechism – was originally written in German and contains a question and answer format about whether Catholic couples are entitled to plan the size of their families by "regulating conception".

The answer provided was yes, because the Church sanctions 'natural family planning', in which married couples chart a woman's menstrual cycle to determine when she might be capable of conceiving.

But in the Italian edition of the book, the question was translated as whether married couples could "use contraceptive methods."

Again the answer was yes, implying that the Church had overturned its entrenched opposition to condoms, the pill and all other forms of contraception.
The book, with a preface by Pope Benedict XVI, has been translated into 13 languages in preparation for World Youth Day in Madrid in August, a gathering expected to attract more than a million young Catholics from 170 countries.

The translation mistake is just the latest in a series of public relations debacles to hit the Holy See.

In November, ambiguities in the translation of a book about the Pope, Light of the World, suggested that he believed that condoms were morally justifiable in some circumstances, for instance in preventing the transmission of a deadly disease such as Aids between a prostitute and a client.

The remark caused global confusion as to whether it signalled a shift in the Church's blanket ban on condom use, forcing the Vatican to explain in much greater detail exactly what the Pope meant.