This isn’t the first time Pope Francis has used the word.
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France television writing culture
Published on 05/05/2023 21:52
Reading time: 1 min
Pope Francis attends a meeting with the academic and cultural world at the Faculty of Informatics and Bionics at the Catholic University “Peter Pazmany” on the last day of his visit to Budapest, Hungary, on March 30. (PHOTO ONLY)
Pope Francis’ official Twitter account on Friday, May 5, caused hilarity and misunderstanding among the French-speaking users of the social network, calling on the faithful to practice “jaculatory”, short and intense prayers.
“If you don’t have much time to pray, a wise spiritual practice called ejaculation prayers, very short prayers that we can repeat many times during the day to stay ‘connected’ with the Lord, can help you,” the tweet reads French from the @Pontifex_fr account with 1.8 million subscribers.
The jaculatories – from the Latin “jaculor”, meaning to shoot, throw an arrow – are short and fervent prayers, according to the Le Robert dictionary. The Italian term is “giacatory” and the English language speaks of “aspirations”.
“A Simple Translation”
Some netizens suspected a hack into the Pontifex account, while others believed they saw a bad translation. At the request of AFP, a Vatican source indicates that the Pope’s Twitter account is managed by the Dicastery (equivalent to a ministry for the Holy See) for communications. “French is a simple translation” of the original tweet in Italian, said this source.
As early as October 2022, Francis had mentioned these forms of meditation in Italian during a Sunday prayer for the Angelus. The official French translation conjured up “a learned spiritual practice which we have somewhat forgotten today and which our elders, especially grandmothers, know well: the so-called ejaculation”. “The name is a bit dated, but the substance is good,” the text added.
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