[Ads-l] Pope Francis Quote

Laurence Horn laurence.horn at YALE.EDU
Wed Nov 19 14:56:44 UTC 2014


On Nov 19, 2014, at 7:30 AM, Shapiro, Fred wrote:

> I apologize for my coyness concerning why Pope Francis's "who am I to judge" quote is not eligible for my 2014 list of notable quotations of the year, and I hope this did not come across as obnoxiousness toward the people on this list who have been so helpful to me this year and in the past.  But I thought it was very obvious, from the 2013 date in Beth's original link and the words accompanying that link ("With those five words, spoken in late July in reply to a reporter's question about the status of gay priests in the Church ..."), that this was a 2013 quote.
> 
> Indeed, we discussed this quote, as a QOTY candidate, on this list in August 2013.  I reproduce my posting below, in order to indicate that I had another reason for not using this quote, namely that I was skeptical that Francis's words signalled any kind of major change in Church policy toward homosexuals.  It is still not clear that there has been any major substantive change; it may be that Francis is merely putting a humane face on the same old doctrines and policies.  I hope that is not the case.

So you're thinking maybe it wasn't actually a rhetorical question…

"Who am I to judge him?"
"You're the Pope"
"D'oh!"

LH
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> On Sun, Aug 25, 2013 at 5:27 PM, Shapiro, Fred <fred.shapiro at yale.edu> wrote:
> 
>>> "Se una persona è gay e cerca il Signore e ha buona volontà, ma chi
>>> sono io per giudicarla?" ("If someone is gay and is searching for the
>>> Lord and has good will, then who am I to judge him?") -- Pope Francis,
>>> July 28, 2013
> 
>> Others have suggested this quotation to me as a candidate for one of the most notable quotations of the year.  I would consider it as such if I believed it signaled some major change in the Church's attitudes toward homosexuality, but I have not regarded it as a serious candidate because I don't expect that it will signal any major change by the Church.
> 
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------
> The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org

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The American Dialect Society - http://www.americandialect.org



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