A Catholic church in Sri Lanka raised quite a lot of eyebrows after it displayed the lyrics of a song by rapper Tupac instead of the "Hail Mary" on a page in booklets distributed to the congregants last Dec. 11.
Church members distributed the booklets at a carol service that day. On one page, the church mistakenly printed the lyrics of Tupac Shakur's "Hail Mary" instead of the regular "Hail Mary," according to CNN.
The song is laced with profanities and carried lyrics such as "revenge is like the sweetest joy, next to getting [expletive]."
Andrew Choksy, one of the attendees of the Joy to the World service where the booklets were distributed, said he recognised the Tupac song straight away. Others were not familiar with the song, but were nonetheless shocked because of its content.
"A lot of people were in shock as whether it was a joke or someone would actually rap the song," he said. "A few of the older ladies in front of us could not stop looking at the printed booklet."
The traditional Christian prayer starts with, "Hail Mary, full of grace, the Lord is with you." But Tupac's song starts with: "And God said he should send his one begotten son to lead the wild into the ways of the man. Follow me; eat my flesh, flesh and my flesh."
The event was held in the capital Colombo and was organised by the Archdiocese of Colombo and the Joseph Vaz Trust. The print was an honest mistake, according to Father Da Silva from the archdiocese, and they have already taken the misprinted booklets back.
"The page was in the middle of the booklet. When people looked at this page, they saw it before the start of the show. Two people saw it and alerted us to it," he said.
Father Da Silva added the printer had been a "young boy" who had simply downloaded the wrong version of the song. "We are very sorry to say that this happened," he said.
