AmericanPapist Comments
Excerpt from the new TXT translation of the Mass:
Priest: The Lord B with U
Ppl: & also with U
Things the Holy Father (and his subordinates) should never do:
Abbreviate text messages, because they look ridiculous.
Andrew-I thought it was cute! :-) B-syds Papaz a B-Z man. Y shud he not sav tym?
VERY cool!!!
I want to get those even though Im not at WYD!
I'm with Andrew. Abbreviations in the right context are a convention of the medium and as such are fine. These gratuitous abbreviations only call attention to themselves as lame attempts to sport the tags and emblems of coolness. Any kid with a brain can spot the condescension and any kid with a sense of dignity should despise it.
Andrew & Romulus: 4 crying out loud. These r txt mesgs, not encyclicals. Let Papa have sum fun w/ 'em. U both R way 2 concerned about NOTHING!
Anna Maria -- sorry if I sound obsessed, but speaking as a former youth, I find it hard to believe that what young people want from the Church is feeble attempts to emulate the pop culture. For the same reason "youth" mass always struck me as bogus and embarrassing. I'm making a big deal out of it only because my own experience as an untaught young Catholic is that my hunger was for holiness and authenticity -- not for fads arising from a toxic and transitory anti-culture.
Kids are longing for the Real Thing, and will embrace the challenges it brings because it promises holiness. Kids won't take the Church seriously until she takes herself seriously.
Finally: I doubt the text abbreviations are the Holy Father's idea, if only because their torturing of language is ugly and incoherent, and he has great appreciation of reasoned beauty as an indicator of God.
Thanks for the mention, though it looks like you've got an incorrect link there. From Down Under.
Apologies - fixed!
Romulus: First off I'm sorry that I trivialized yours and Andrew's concerns re. txt mess. abbrev.. I agree that sometimes there are well intentioned but not always effective attempts to incorporate current trends and fads into cathechesis--remember the post Vatican II era? I'm 41 and do remember liturgical dances et al during the Mass. Even back then I thought it was, with all due respect, LAME! I particularly cannot stand "rock" music during Mass. However, I believe that sometimes one can use current means of communication to teach the faith-- EWTN and other networks come to mind. So there needs to be a fine balance betw. being current and being authentic IMO. God Bless!
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