Pope Bans Yahweh; Will Others Follow Suit?

from Catholic News Service:

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- In the not-too-distant future, songs such as "You Are Near," "I Will Bless Yahweh" and "Rise, O Yahweh" will no longer be part of the Catholic worship experience in the United States.

At the very least, the songs will be edited to remove the word "Yahweh" -- a name of God that the Vatican has ruled must not "be used or pronounced" in songs and prayers during Catholic Masses.

This goes back to the Hebrew word called the Tetragrammaton. It's four letters -- consonants actually -- that are said to be God's name. And not to be said aloud. Except there aren't any vowels. So there's no way to know if it's supposed to sound like Yahweh, Yeewah, Yowee, etc.etc. etc. The word "Jehovah" is derived from the same four consonants. Jews drop the Hebrew word "'Adonai." in the spot where the four letters appear. It's usually translated as "Lord."

Since Jehovah is also a "mistranslation" do you think other denominations will also begin to drop this name?

What else will they use to reference the I AM if not those names?

Satanus, for some reason that rings a bell. I thought there might be some connection to St Leo and when I typed in a search...you would not believe all the stuff that has come up on JWs on the catholic forum. The lions are tearing them to bits. Take a look: http://www.catholic-forum.com/members/popestleo/index.html

(scroll all the way down. There is a long section on Catholic Critique of JWs)

It surprises me that they are being so vocal and so vehemently engaging in religion-bashing!

Does that mean the Catholic New Jerusalem Bible is going to be edited and/or banned?

http://www.catholic.org/bible/

Psalm 83:18 Let them know that you alone bear the name of Yahweh, Most High over all the earth.

We've been over this before...here's what I posted earlier on this:

http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/14/164865/3054729/post.ashx#3054729

The directive only applies to liturgical texts. Catholic scholars will still use "Yahweh" in textbooks, for example.

Do you think the pope will ban emails from yahoo, too? It's on the list.

That particular site is a personal site by someone who is a former JW now Catholic.

As for the "ban" on Yahweh....it only relates to the liturgy or worship service. A priest or deacon might well use "Yahweh" in the sermon during Mass if he was speaking in the historical context of the Old Testament. The fixed prayers and the songs of the Mass will follow the New Testament practice (and Jesus' practice as well) of using "Lord" or "Father" or "God" in prayers.

I get your point, but I don't think you see the big picture. Just like when WT makes changes, it's done in small increments. And so, they will stop singing a few songs that has yahee in it. And they will stop making reference to yahoo from the pulpit. Then, little by little, "god" begins to become de-personalized. The question to ask is...Why? Because this means that the focus will gradually be on "something else".