Pope's sister prayed he wouldn't be picked; now she's proud, from afar

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Another_Mary

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cnn.com/2013/03/18/world/americas/argentina-pope-sister/index.html

Okay, not Big News. But I was wondering about the translation of his sister’s comments, which must have been in Spanish.
“I prayed that the Holy Spirit would intervene and not listen to me. And it didn’t listen to me,” she said, laughing. “It did what it wanted.”
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I don’t think Spanish has an “it”. Everything is either masculine or feminine. So what’s with the Holy Spirit being an “it”. :confused:

Makes one wonder what gets lost in translation…
 
Another_Mary said:
cnn.com/2013/03/18/world/americas/argentina-pope-sister/index.html

Okay, not Big News. But I was wondering about the translation of his sister’s comments, which must have been in Spanish.

I don’t think Spanish has an “it”. Everything is either masculine or feminine. So what’s with the Holy Spirit being an “it”. :confused:

Makes one wonder what gets lost in translation…
Click to expand...
En el nombre del Padre del hijo y del Espiritu Santo Amen

del is short for “de el” or “of him” literally. Feminine would be “de la”.

When I typed “it” into my Spanish translator however, it came up “el” but with an accent grave over the word.

“It” is confusing … pardon the wordplay. The Holy Spirit is not an “it” (like a stone or a tree) but is a person of the Trinity. While the Holy Spirit is rarely referred to in the form of a gender reference as the Father and the Son are … Mary’s having “conceived by the Holy Spirit” might have something to do with the fact that the Holy Spirit is not referred to in the feminine.

Calling the Holy Spirit “he” isn’t done much either since the Holy Spirit is a Spirit – but the English language (as well as Spanish) likes to ID every “person” as he or she – with “it” hardly being used even when the sex and other ID factors of a person are unknown (someone … but we don’t quite know who).

Glad I cleared THAT up for everyone. Lol. :whacky:
 
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