CV NEWS FEED // Catholic media outlets have recently drawn attention to the troubling and widespread use of both blasphemy and coarse language.
In a March 24 article for Angelus News, journalist Robert Brennan noted how normalized the use of profanities has become, compared with previous eras.
For example, a famous line from 1939’s Gone with the Wind caused a major controversy at the time of its movie premier.
“The scandal the film created when Clark Gable’s Rhett Butler tells Vivien Leigh’s Scarlett O’Hara, ‘Frankly my dear, I don’t give a damn,’ is also lost in the fog of popular culture’s tenuous memory,” Brennan wrote.
“Now, I hear members of Congress, on the floor of the House of Representatives, openly use the language of the street, or gutter, as the case may be, as if talking in a locker room,” he added later. “And before I went through a second draft of this column, I saw an ad campaign for a potential California gubernatorial candidate that had the candidate proudly using a compound word that had to be bleeped.”
Brennan stated that now that he has a 6-year-old child, he is striving to ensure that his own language is cleaner.
“I want to keep my baser nature in check,” he wrote.
In a recent YouTube video, Father Mike Schmitz also discussed the problem of crude language. He further explained that swearing in public, especially in front of small children, can be a sin due to its scandalous nature.
“When there’s a shared space, I think it’s worth considering, in love, the fact that other people are around,” he said, noting that it is an act of charity to speak virtuously instead.
Fr. Schmitz also noted that using language that degrades the marital act is sinful, since it treats something that is holy as something base.
Brennan also wrote of his concern with how casually people take the Lord’s name in vain.
He recounted a time when he defended honoring the Lord’s name. He spoke up to a group of younger people who had created a video about homelessness services and were
reacting dismissively to criticism they had received for it because they had taken the Lord’s name in vain.
Speaking to the group, Brennan backed the person who had raised the concern.
“I spoke up, telling them what they did was extremely offensive,” he wrote.
Brennan saidt the moment was challenging for him.
“These are good people. They are committed to doing good for others, and most of them put me to shame when it comes to corporal works of mercy. I felt isolated and validated at the same time, though,” he wrote. “I looked like a fool, standing up for the Lord’s name.”
But eventually, they did agree to reshoot the video.
Brennan said that now, when he hears somebody use the Lord’s name in public, he follows the example of a good priest, who, when hearing somebody use the Lord’s name casually in public, would “turn toward the sound, smile, and say a sincere ‘Amen.’”
The National Association of the Holy Name Society, which is dedicated to reverencing the name of Jesus, shares a reparation prayer for blasphemies:
“Jesus, help me to foster honor and reverence to your most Holy Name; Grant me the courage to publicly witness my faith and hope in You; Inspire me to help to atone for those who thoughtlessly or blasphemously use your Holy Name in vain; Accept the bow of my head at the sound of your Name as my silent Prayer.”
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