18, March 2018
Vatican bows to pressure, releases retired pope’s letter 0
The Vatican bowed to pressure Saturday and released the complete letter by Emeritus Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis after coming under blistering criticism for selectively citing it in a press release and digitally manipulating a photograph of it.
The previously hidden part of the letter provides the real explanation why Benedict refused to provide commentary on a new Vatican-published compilation of books about Francis’s theological and philosophical background that was released to mark his fifth anniversary as pope.
Benedict noted that one of the authors involved in the project had launched “virulent,” ”anti-papist” attacks against his papacy and teaching. He said he was “surprised” the Vatican had chosen the theologian to be included in the 11-volume “The Theology of Pope Francis.”
The Vatican’s Secretariat for Communications said Saturday it was releasing the full text of the letter due to the controversy over the “presumed manipulation” of information when the volume was launched Monday, on the eve of Francis’s anniversary.
It said its decision to withhold part of the letter at the time was based on its desire for reserve “not because of any desire to censure.”
The so-called “Lettergate” scandal has embarrassed the Vatican for the past week and fueled the growing chasm between supporters of Francis’s pastoral-focused papacy and conservatives who long for the doctrine-minded papacy of Benedict.
A Twitter hashtag #releasetheletter went viral among Catholic conservatives as the scandal widened.
The Secretariat for Communication, in particular, was accused of spreading “fake news” for having omitted key parts of Benedict’s letter and – as The Associated Press reported – digitally blurring a photograph of the document where Benedict begins to explain why he won’t comment on the book.
The scandal began when the prefect of the office, Monsignor Dario Vigano, read part of Benedict’s letter aloud at the book presentation Monday. In the parts Vigano chose to read, Benedict confirmed that Francis has a solid theological and philosophical training and he praised the book initiative for showing the “interior continuity” between the two papacies.
But Benedict’s full caveat was never made public in the press release or the photo, leaving the impression that the 91-year-old retired pope had read the volume and fully endorsed it, when in fact he hadn’t.
Source: Cruxnow
31, March 2018
Vatican scrambles to clarify pope’s reported denial of hell 0
The Vatican has attempted to clarify reported remarks by Pope Francis in which he appears to reject the existence of hell, contradicting the teachings of the Catholic Church on the issue.
In a brief statement released on Friday, the Holy See said that an article published by Italian newspaper La Repubblica on Wednesday and written by its founder, Eugenio Scalfari, was not “a faithful transcription of the Holy Father’s words,” describing it as “the fruit of his (Scalfari’s) reconstruction.”
According to the daily, Pope Francis held a private meeting with Scalfari before the Eastern weekend. During the meeting, the pontiff was reportedly asked about the fate of “bad souls.” He was quoted as responding, “They are not punished. Those who repent obtain God’s forgiveness and take their place among the ranks of those who contemplate him, but those who do not repent and cannot be forgiven disappear. A hell doesn’t exist, the disappearance of sinning souls exists.”
The Vatican said that the “literal words pronounced by the pope are not quoted” and that “no quotation of the article should be considered as a faithful transcription of the words of the Holy Father.”
The teachings of the Catholic Church affirm the existence of hell.
Pope Benedict XVI emphasized in 2007 that hell “really exists and is eternal, even if nobody talks about it much anymore.” Pope John Paul II also stated in 1999 that hell was “the ultimate consequence of sin itself… rather than a place; hell indicates the state of those who freely and definitively separate themselves from God, the source of all life and joy.”
The 93-year-old Scalfari — an avowed atheist — is known for priding himself on not taking notes or recording high-profile interviews, and this is not the first time he has been accused of misrepresenting Pope Francis. He was rebuked by The Vatican in 2014 for an article claiming the pope had abolished sin.
Pope Francis did raise controversy back in January, when he defended a Chilean bishop named Juan Barros who stood accused of protecting a pedophile priest close to him.
“There is not a single piece of evidence against him. It is all slander. Is that clear?” the pope said at the time when asked by reporters about Bishop Barros.
US Cardinal Sean O’Malley of Boston then described the pontiff’s remarks as “a source of great pain for survivors of sexual abuse by [the] clergy or any other perpetrator.”
Source: Presstv