The Vatican is in a stupor

[Laurence Horn]

At 2:01 PM -0400 6/26/10, Mark Mandel wrote:
>WAG: Possibly a loan-mistranslation/confusion based on something
>cognate/similar to "stupefied" in the sense of 'amazed, dumbfounded'???
>I.e., thinking "How can something like this have been allowed to happen?"
>
>m a m

Yes, I think the reporter (or whoever) reached down the wrong
nominalization from the shelf, intended to pull "stupefaction" rather
than "stupor" as what was expressed.

LH

>On Sat, Jun 26, 2010 at 11:07 AM, Joel S. Berson <Berson at att.net> wrote:
>
>>  Belgian police hold members of the Belgian Bishops' Conference for
>>  nine hours while searching for documents related to sex abuse cases,
>>  and drill into the tombs of two Cardinals, former Archbishops.  In a
>>  statement, " the Vatican said its secretary of state 'expressed great
>>  stupor at the way in which the seizures were conducted yesterday by
>>  Belgian authorities and indignation at the fact that two tombs were
>>  violated.' "  [NYTimes, June 26.]
>>
>>  Did the Vatican mean "[in] A state of insensibility or lethargy"?  Or
>>  perhaps dementia, namely anergic stupor or delusional stupor? Or
>>  "Admiring wonder"?  Or "Stupidity, dullness of
>>  comprehension"?  [Editorial comment: perhaps "stupidity" for having
>>  tolerated what known abusers have perpetrated.]
>>
>>  Well, perhaps "apathy or torpor of mind (now only, torpor or
>>  prostration of mind due to sorrow, painful surprise, or the
>>  like)"  But even this "prostration of mind due to ... painful
>>  surprise" is characterized as apathy, torpor (the latter being
>>  "Absence or suspension of motive power, activity, or feeling;
>>  {dag}inertia (obs.)" or "Intellectual or spiritual lethargy; apathy,
>>  listlessness; dullness; indifference".  [Editorial comment:  a
>>  revealing allusion to indifference?]
>>
>>  Ultimately, it seems that being in a stupor and having indignation is
>>  an oxymoron.  Unless being held for nine hours put the bishops into a
>>  stupor and noisy drilling into the tombs awakened them to indignation.
>>
>>  Joel
>>
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>
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