The gospel of infamous Los Angeles rapper Tupac Shakur made its way to Sri Lanka this holiday season, as the explicit lyrics of his song “Hail Mary” were mistakenly printed in the programme of the 2016 Catholic Joy to the World Festival at the Nelum Pokuna Theatre.
Instead of reciting the medieval Catholic prayer of the same name, parishioners were gifted the opportunity to contemplate the sordid themes of gang violence, sex, and drug use.
These staples of American rap music have little in common with the Hail Mary prayer, which begins as such: “Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with thee/blessed art thou amongst women, and blessed is the fruit of thy womb.”
Journalist Jithendra Antonio tweeted pictures of the blunder, tagging both Pope Francis and CNN, and international news outlets then picked up the story.
The festival is one of Sri Lanka’s largest carol services, and it was billed as a fundraiser for poverty alleviation projects that the Archdiocese of Colombo and the St. Joseph Vaz Trust are jointly carrying out.
The Tupac lyrics were reportedly printed in well over 1,000 programmes.