"I'm sorry you..." apologies and the pope

My wife and I have worked out  a system where one apologizes to the other when they do something that hurts the other one's feelings. This can be a bit challenging, especially if you don't think the situation warrants an apology (I think this is one of those Mars/Venus differences  -- woman tend to be more interested in the feelings of others regardless of value judgments of right or wrong. Me -- I've got a pretty strong sense of justice that clouds my empathy).

So initially when I apologized, I would often say something like "I'm sorry you took that the wrong way" or "I'm sorry your feelings were hurt." Of course the "I'm sorry you..." part isn't taking personal responsibility for the action at all. It's an apology loophole; the words sound like an apology, but the meaning isn't there. We've agreed that "I'm sorry you..." apologies don't count as a true apology. And in fact we now use them as a joke way to apologize in our little amusing banters.

I bring this up because a couple years ago, the Pope tried to get away with an "I'm sorry you..." apology to Muslims for an offensive quote he cited in a recent speech.

I am deeply sorry for the reactions in some countries to a few passages of my address which were considered offensive.

And here I thought this guy was supposed to be infallable.

Comments

[Joe]

Of course the Pope is infallible. That means that you must be wrong.

[D Philip Haine]

Joe is right. Popes don't kill people, condoms kill people!

"For over a decade now, [Joseph Ratzinger] has been one of the primary defenders of priests who go to the poorest, most vulnerable people in the world and tell them condoms are the cause of AIDS. In the past year, I have sat in two Catholic churches thousands of miles apart and listened while a Catholic priest told illiterate people with no alternative sources of information that condoms come pre-infected with AIDS and are the reason people die of it. In Bukavu, a crater-city in Congo, and in the slums ringing Caracas, Venezuela, people believed it. They told me they "would not go to Heaven" if they used condoms, and that condoms contain tiny invisible holes through which the virus passes – the advice their priest had doled out."