Skip to main content

A clarification of wounded Churches

In a recent Vatican statement, non-Catholic "Churches" have been called "wounded". At least that is how the Latin has been translated into English. However, "wounded" is an inadequate word for the Latin defectus which was used in the official Latin version of the document.
Significantly, the official Latin version refers to the defectus which they suffer, and defectus is not Latin for “wound.” That would be vulnus, a word the Vatican chose not to employ.

The Latin text is the official text for a reason. The Latin term defectus has a unique precision that no single English term can capture.

True, we get the English word “defect” from it. But this signification of “deficiency” does not capture the Latin term's full meaning, which is twofold. In the Latin, the one term (from the verb deficio) connotes both a “revolt” and a “lack.” The Latin dictionary describes the verbal action: “to do less than one might; to fail.”

Remember this is Latin, so call to mind a Roman army in order to grasp the concrete, dual meaning implied here. If a portion of the army “rebels,” then the portion thereby becomes “weakened” or “enfeebled” because it has cut itself off from the whole.

Hence my preferred translation of defectus is “self-wounding.” This best translates, I think, the attenuated state brought about by anyone's “rebellion” from a healthy unity...
Related Links:

Comments

  1. The problem with this is that we are hundreds of years on from the initial acts of the reformation, thus, people such as myself are not rebelling against anything because we were never part of the RCC in the first place.

    We can't be rebelling if, for many of us (and the groups we are involved in), it was never an authority to begin with. I can't defect from something I was never a part of.

    The situation is wholely and completely different from the initial reformation.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I think that they would view it at an institutional level, and are probably engaging in some form of reductionism to create the other - "protestantism" - which is therefore by their own definition (in comparison to the standards they set, which they just happen to meet) "defectus". Hence while you may ascribe to a group which started post-reformation, by not being catholic and being broadly categorisable as "protestant", you are "defectus".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Servant, I agree. Especially with you, in particular. However, there are many people that I've come across on-line that maintain that state of rebellion. So, that part of it is relevant for some.

    Also, while you are not in an active state of rebellion, you are (through no fault of your own) cut off (from our point of view) from the main body because of the original rebellion.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Please be respectful. Foul language and personal attacks may get your comment deleted without warning. Contact us if your comment doesn't appear - the spam filter may have grabbed it.