The Vatican has confounded many bloggers by posting the Pope's WYD addresses, translated into all relevant languages, almost as soon as they are delivered. Usually bloggers refer to other blogs and websites which manage to translate the pope's addresses and homilies days before the slow wheels in Rome begin to turn.
My guess is that this speedy turnaround is due in part to the spiffy WYD organisation - done with usual Australian flair; partly too due to the very determined and obvious use of new media, right down to SMSs from the Pope, to communicate the message of WYD (itself part of the Catholic church's broader embrace of new communications technology not to mention that the target audience here is youth); and also because the Pope is not particularly fluent in English and more likely to need and keep to his prepared speeches and less likely to extemporize - reducing the need to adjust official translations to reflect that.
Let's not to mention his English accent is sometimes difficult to understand, even for native English speakers.
Still, my guess is that even with the full text of addresses readily available, even to the press, we will continue to get the misquoting and cherry picking characteristic of the advocacy which passes itself off as journalism these days.
My guess is that this part of yesterday's address at the Ecumenical Meeting will be completely twisted by some:
Dear friends in Christ, I think you would agree that the ecumenical movement has
reached a critical juncture. To move forward, we must continually ask God to
renew our minds with the Holy Spirit (cf. Rom 12:2), who speaks to us
through the scriptures and guides us into all truth (cf. 2 Pet 1:20-21;
Jn 16:13). We must guard against any temptation to view doctrine as
divisive and hence an impediment to the seemingly more pressing and immediate
task of improving the world in which we live. In fact, the history of the
Church demonstrates that praxis is not only inseparable from, but
actually flows out of didache or teaching. The more closely we
strive for a deeper understanding of the divine mysteries, the more eloquently
our works of charity will speak of God’s bountiful goodness and love towards
all. Saint Augustine expressed the nexus between the gift of understanding and
the virtue of charity when he wrote that the mind returns to God by love (cf.
De Moribus Ecclesiae Catholicae, XII, 21), and that wherever one sees
charity, one sees the Trinity (De Trinitate, 8, 8, 12).
My guess is that this is the key paragraph that will be cherry picked in this address and presented in a way that (falsely) indicates the Pope believes improving the world in which we live is more important than doctrine.
