Vatican press: We were mistranslated

The Catholic World News, which last week issued a translated story from the Vatican press that appeared to condemn Israel for attempting to staff a tsunami rescue mission with military personnel, has issued a revision to the story and an apology for what it says was a crucial mistranslation.

While the original story appeared to fault Israel as "too often preoccupied with making war" the new version casts that aspersion in a wider frame and faults Sri Lanka for having rejected the Israeli offer.

Israel had planned to send a 150-strong contingent to Sri Lanka to assist with the emergency response effort there, but the Sri Lankan government vetoed the trip, apparently on the grounds that some 60 of the team were IDF soldiers.

The mission would have included about 80 tonnes of food and medical supplies worth $US100,000 and was supposed to depart Israel last Monday, only hours after the disaster struck.

But according to the original story from the CWS, the Vatican press said that Israel had decided to withold aid rather than reconstitute the mission.

The mission was eventually sent, but on a much reduced scale.

Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano was said in the CWS story to have singled out Israeli military leaders for declining a request for emergency medical help.

The Vatican paper was credited with having said that in what "should be a time for unconditional solidarity," some world leaders seem incapable of escaping a "small-minded approach that restricts their horizons."

Israel news outlets and others were quick to respond critically. Haaretz said the Sri Lankan president's military secretary later sent a notice to Israel's foreign and defense ministries expressing support for the arrival of a much smaller 50-member Israeli delegation.

"We are not opposed to a plane loaded with medical supplies, food and blankets that will be accompanied by a medical team comprised of 50 IDF people, as the Israeli Foreign Ministry requested in a letter," the Sri Lankan military secretary said.

Now, it seems, the Vatican press was actually criticising the Sri Lankan government.

The revised CWS story, datelined 28 December, states:

The Vatican newspaper has denounced a decision by Sri Lanka to reject emergency aid offered by the Israeli government. Sri Lanka declined the Israeli aid because it would have been furnished by a military team.

Calling for "a radical and dramatic change of perspective" among people "too often preoccupied with making war," L'Osservatore Romano chastised the government of the stricken Asian nation for putting unnecessary restrictions on an Israeli offer to furnish medical help.

The Vatican paper observed that in what "should be a time for unconditional solidarity," some world leaders seem incapable of escaping a "small-minded approach that restricts their horizons." The suffering caused by the tsunami has created "a mass of deaths, across borders," L'Osservatore observed. The fact that the devastation swept across different societies, cultures, and nations should help to reinforce the universal perspective, the paper suggested.

http://www.nbr.co.nz/home/column_ar...d=1&cname=Media