word of the day

The Irish Church lies in creative – and evil – ways

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From Patsy McGarry’s “Church ‘lied without lying’” (Irish Times: 26 November 2009):

One of the most fascinating discoveries in the Dublin Archdiocese report was that of the concept of “mental reservation” which allows clerics mislead people without believing they are lying.

According to the Commission of Investigation report, “mental reservation is a concept developed and much discussed over the centuries, which permits a church man knowingly to convey a misleading impression to another person without being guilty of lying”.

It gives an example. “John calls to the parish priest to make a complaint about the behaviour of one of his curates. The parish priest sees him coming but does not want to see him because he considers John to be a troublemaker. He sends another of his curates to answer the door. John asks the curate if the parish priest is in. The curate replies that he is not.”

The commission added: “This is clearly untrue but in the Church’s view it is not a lie because, when the curate told John that the parish priest was not in, he mentally reserved the words ‘…to you’.”

…

Cardinal Desmond Connell had explained the concept to the commission as follows:

“Well, the general teaching about mental reservation is that you are not permitted to tell a lie. On the other hand, you may be put in a position where you have to answer, and there may be circumstances in which you can use an ambiguous expression realising that the person who you are talking to will accept an untrue version of whatever it may be – permitting that to happen, not willing that it happened, that would be lying. It really is a matter of trying to deal with extraordinarily difficult matters that may arise in social relations where people may ask questions that you simply cannot answer. Everybody knows that this kind of thing is liable to happen. So mental reservation is, in a sense, a way of answering without lying.”

…

In Mr Madden’s case, emphasised he did not lie to the media about the use of diocesan funds for the compensation of clerical child sexual abuse victims.

[Cardinal Connell] explained to [Andrew] Madden [a sexual abuse victim, that] he had told journalists “that diocesan funds ARE (report’s emphasis) not used for such a purpose; that he had not said that diocesan funds WERE not used for such a purpose. By using the present tense he had not excluded the possibility that diocesan funds had been used for such purpose in the past. According to Mr Madden, Cardinal Connell considered that there was an enormous difference between the two.”

1 Henry VI: Lucy lists Talbot’s titles

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):

LUCY:

But where’s the great Alcides of the field,
Valiant Lord Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury,
Created, for his rare success in arms,
Great Earl of Washford, Waterford and Valence;
Lord Talbot of Goodrig and Urchinfield,
Lord Strange of Blackmere, Lord Verdun of Alton,
Lord Cromwell of Wingfield, Lord Furnival of Sheffield,
The thrice-victorious Lord of Falconbridge;
Knight of the noble order of Saint George,
Worthy Saint Michael and the Golden Fleece;
Great marshal to Henry the Sixth
Of all his wars within the realm of France?

1 Henry VI: giglot

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 7):

JOAN LA PUCELLE:

Once I encounter’d him, and thus I said:
‘Thou maiden youth, be vanquish’d by a maid:’
But, with a proud majestical high scorn,
He answer’d thus: ‘Young Talbot was not born
To be the pillage of a giglot wench:’

giglot: A wanton; a lascivious or light, giddy girl.

1 Henry VI: moody-mad

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 2):

TALBOT:

If we be English deer, be then in blood;
Not rascal-like, to fall down with a pinch,
But rather, moody-mad and desperate stags,
Turn on the bloody hounds with heads of steel
And make the cowards stand aloof at bay:

moody-mad: furious with anger

1 Henry VI: churlish

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (IV: 1):

GLOUCESTER:

What means his grace, that he hath changed his style?
No more but, plain and bluntly, ‘To the king!’
Hath he forgot he is his sovereign?
Or doth this churlish superscription
Pretend some alteration in good will?

churlish: Of, like, or befitting a churl; boorish or vulgar.

1 Henry VI: lavish tongue

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (II: 5):

RICHARD PLANTAGENET:

This day, in argument upon a case,
Some words there grew ‘twixt Somerset and me;
Among which terms he used his lavish tongue
And did upbraid me with my father’s death.

lavish tongue: unrestrained expression or language, a standard Elizabethan dramatic cliche

1 Henry VI: pursuivants

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (II: 5):

MORTIMER:

And these grey locks, the pursuivants of death,
Nestor-like aged in an age of care,
Argue the end of Edmund Mortimer.

pursuivants: 1. An officer in the British Colleges of Heralds who ranks below a herald.

2. A follower or attendant.

[Middle English pursevant, attendant, from Old French poursuivant, from present participle of poursuivre, to follow, from Vulgar Latin *prōsequere. See pursue.]

(Mortimer’s grey hair is the herald of death)

1 Henry VI: quillets

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (II: 4):

WARWICK:

Between two hawks, which flies the higher pitch;
Between two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;
Between two blades, which bears the better temper:
Between two horses, which doth bear him best;
Between two girls, which hath the merriest eye;
I have perhaps some shallow spirit of judgement;
But in these nice sharp quillets of the law,
Good faith, I am no wiser than a daw.

quillets: Subtilty; nicety; quibble; fine or subtle distinctions

1 Henry VI: bruited

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (II: 3):

COUNTESS OF AUVERGNE:

Victorious Talbot! pardon my abuse:
I find thou art no less than fame hath bruited
And more than may be gather’d by thy shape.

bruited: A din; a clamor; proclaim with noise, announce loudly

[From Middle English, noise, from Old French, past participle of bruire, to roar, from Vulgar Latin *brūgīre (blend of Latin rūgīre and Vulgar Latin *bragere, to bray, of Celtic origin).]

1 Henry VI: subverts

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From William Shakespeare’s Henry VI, part 1 (II: 3):

TALBOT:

These are his substance, sinews, arms and strength,
With which he yoketh your rebellious necks,
Razeth your cities and subverts your towns
And in a moment makes them desolate.

subverts: To bring about the downfall of: bring down, overthrow, overturn, topple, tumble, unhorse.