{"id":394,"date":"2018-12-08T18:44:47","date_gmt":"2018-12-08T10:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=394"},"modified":"2018-12-24T22:16:13","modified_gmt":"2018-12-24T14:16:13","slug":"vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=394","title":{"rendered":"Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit"},"content":{"rendered":"<header class=\"entry-header entry-large\">\n<h1 class=\"entry-title\">Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered<\/h1>\n<div class=\"byline\"><a title=\"Posts by \" href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/author\/steveskojec\/\"> <img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"avatar avatar-24 wp-user-avatar wp-user-avatar-24 alignnone photo\" src=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/stevefox-32x32.png\" alt=\"Steve Skojec\" width=\"24\" height=\"24\" \/> <\/a> <a title=\"Posts by Steve Skojec\" href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/author\/steveskojec\/\" rel=\"author\">Steve Skojec<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" rel=\"bookmark\">March 14, 2018<\/a> <a title=\"Comments on Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered\" href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/#comments\"> 8 Comments <\/a><\/div>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered\" data-link=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" data-app-id=\"28182484\" data-app-id-name=\"post_above_content\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic-normal shareaholic-block shareaholic-badge-counter shareaholic-horizontal shareaholic-center-align\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading shareaholic-custom\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading-text ng-binding\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas2\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered\" data-link=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" data-app-id=\"28182484\" data-app-id-name=\"post_above_content\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic-normal shareaholic-block shareaholic-badge-counter shareaholic-horizontal shareaholic-center-align\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"pf-content\">\n<p>The Vatican <a href=\"http:\/\/www.ncregister.com\/blog\/edward-pentin\/full-text-of-benedict-xvis-letter-to-mons.-vigano\">published<\/a> parts of a letter from Pope Benedict this week, and the Catholic world suddenly lost its mind.<\/p>\n<p>The reason? Because the letter said that \u201cPope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation\u201d and that the 11-volume theological work on the theology of the pope \u201chelp to see the inner continuity between the two pontificates\u201d of Francis and Benedict.<\/p>\n<p>Almost immediately, people concerned by the disaster of the present pontificate began calling the letter a fake.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThirty five years,\u201d wrote one breathless Catholic on Twitter, \u201cof reading, analysing and writing about the works of Joseph Ratzinger provides more than enough experience to know he would never resort to such trite inchoate Bergoglian banalities inherent in that letter\u201d. It was a sentiment echoed across social media.<\/p>\n<p>Others speculated about Benedict being a \u201cprisoner\u201d of the Vatican, of the \u201cevil underground of\u2026inernationalists with money and power\u201d responsible for a coup that brought Benedict out of power, and so on. The name of George Soros appeared at least once in my feeds in connection with the latest developments.<\/p>\n<p>Essentially, every unproven theory people have had about why Benedict abdicated, who was behind it, and what he\u2019s now being forced to do has come back to the surface with a vengeance \u2014 all in the wake of a simple, brief letter about some books that, as it turns out, the former pope doesn\u2019t even have the time to read.<\/p>\n<p>And that last part is where the story gets interesting. At first, the letter was simply read at the presentation of the books on the theology of Pope Francis by Msgr. Vigan\u00f2 of the Vatican Secretariat for Communications, and excerpts were shared without the full text. Some reports say only parts of the letter were read at the presentation, others that it was read it in its entirety. The letter from Benedict, along with the books, appeared in a promotional photo sent to the media on Monday, March 12. Take a look and see if you see anything odd:<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"no-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera.jpg\" data-slb-active=\"1\" data-slb-asset=\"1379648161\" data-slb-internal=\"0\" data-slb-group=\"19946\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"aligncenter size-large wp-image-19947\" src=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-1024x683.jpg\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-1500x1000.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-425x283.jpg 425w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-650x433.jpg 650w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-1400x933.jpg 1400w, https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera.jpg 1280w\" alt=\"\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" data-attachment-id=\"19947\" data-permalink=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/foto_lettera\/\" data-orig-file=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera.jpg\" data-orig-size=\"1280,853\" data-comments-opened=\"1\" data-image-meta=\"{&quot;aperture&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;credit&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;camera&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;caption&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;created_timestamp&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;copyright&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;focal_length&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;iso&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;shutter_speed&quot;:&quot;0&quot;,&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&quot;,&quot;orientation&quot;:&quot;0&quot;}\" data-image-title=\"Foto_Lettera\" data-image-description=\"\" data-medium-file=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-300x200.jpg\" data-large-file=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/Foto_Lettera-1024x683.jpg\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The first thing you\u2019ll notice is that the stack of books, on the right, are covering all but the signature of the former pope. There is clearly some text there \u2013 we can see the words \u201cla saluto\u201d above the signature line, but that\u2019s all.<\/p>\n<p>But what people did not immediately notice \u2014 largely because soft focus around the edges of a photo is a common stylistic technique \u2014 is that the two bottom lines of the first page of the letter are blurred to the point that they are not readable.<\/p>\n<p>When Sandro Magister <a href=\"http:\/\/magister.blogautore.espresso.repubblica.it\/2018\/03\/13\/the-double-foolish-prejudice-the-complete-text-of-the-letter-by-benedict-xvi\/\">released<\/a> the full text of the letter, we were given to understand what is being hidden by clever staging and the application of some Photoshop filters. With the real text beside the image, one can make out the shape of the words, \u201cTuttavia non mi sento di scrivere su di essi una breve e densa pagina teologica perch\u00e9 in tutta la mia vita \u00e8 sempre stato chiaro che\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It is the opening line of a paragraph which reads, in English:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Nonetheless, I do not feel that I can write a brief and dense theological page about them because for my whole life it has always been clear that I would write and express myself only on books that I had also truly read. Unfortunately, even if only for physical reasons, I am not able to read the eleven little volumes in the near future, all the more so in that I am under other obligations to which I have already agreed.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Despite what nevertheless amounts to fairly hearty endorsement of Francis, the former pope was evidently demurring on a request made that he write something of more significance about the new set of theological texts, saying that he hasn\u2019t had time to thoroughly read the books he\u2019s being asked to help promote, and due to limitations of health and time, doesn\u2019t plan to.<\/p>\n<p>This is hardly a devastating letdown for Vatican PR. The two preceding paragraphs should have sufficed. Nevertheless, someone in the Vatican Secretariat for Communications apparently thought that Benedict\u2019s strongly positive words about his successor weren\u2019t unequivocal enough, and so the photo was doctored, and the less-than-emphatic section physically covered up.<\/p>\n<p>The even more surprising thing is that the Vatican has admitted it. They have conceded that they violated what the Associated Press called, in a <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/amp\/01983501d40d47a4aa7a32b6afb70661?__twitter_impression=true\">report<\/a> on this story published today, \u201cstrict standards that forbid digital manipulation of photos\u201d \u2014 standards followed by \u201cmost independent news media\u201d .<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\">The Vatican admitted Thursday that it blurred the two final lines of the first page where Benedict begins to explain that he didn\u2019t actually read the books in question. <\/span>He wrote that he cannot contribute a theological assessment of Francis as requested by Vigano because he has other projects to do.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican didn\u2019t explain why it blurred the lines other than to say it never intended for the full letter to be released.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Not long ago, my home was broken into\u00a0by someone known to our family while we were out of town. We had an immediate suspicion, and an arrest was made, which resulted in confession. When asked why he did it, the young man apparently tried to explain, among other poorly-thought-out reasons, that he \u201cdidn\u2019t think he would be caught\u201d \u2014 as though this somehow mitigated the stupidity of what he did. (You will be unsurprised to learn that this reasoning did not keep him from being convicted and serving time for his actions.)<\/p>\n<p>Essentially, that\u2019s what the Vatican is saying here: \u201cWe didn\u2019t plan to release the entire letter, so we didn\u2019t think we\u2019d get caught attempting to mislead the public.\u201d But they\u00a0<em>were\u00a0<\/em>caught, and they\u2019ve damaged their credibility yet again with a once-friendly secular media:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The missing content significantly altered the meaning of the quotes the Vatican chose to highlight, which were widely picked up by the media. Those quotes suggested that Benedict had read the volume, agreed with it and given it his full endorsement and assessment. The doctoring of the photo is significant because news media rely on Vatican photographers for images of the pope at events that are closed to independent media.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>There is nothing new in a story about the Vatican lying to the public. We\u2019ve written about this before, <a href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-cant-trusted\/\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/lies-unbecoming-vicar-christ-surrogates\/\">here<\/a> and probably other places besides. It is a tragically common theme, and one that has quite serious implications for the Holy See. If they can\u2019t be trusted to tell us the truth about something so small, what about more important things? Why should we accept anything they say \u2014 assertion or denial \u2014 as anything but another convenient falsehood to help advance whatever narrative they\u2019re trying to promote?<\/p>\n<p>Perhaps more disturbing is the effect all this dishonesty on the faithful. I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve ever seen so many Catholics reach the instantaneous conclusion that something coming out in the name of a pope was a phony \u2014 and it\u2019s hard to blame them. It was the reaction I had when Pope Benedict allegedly issued a <a href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/on-fatima-story-pope-emeritus-benedict-xvi-breaks-silence\/\">denial<\/a> in response to our story about the Third Secret and Fr. Dollinger. (I\u2019ve since come to believe that the denial may, in fact, have been real, but that\u2019s another story.)<\/p>\n<p>In this case, I\u2019ve suspected all along that this letter\u2019s expression of solidarity between the two popes was authentic \u2014 read <a href=\"https:\/\/remnantnewspaper.com\/web\/index.php\/articles\/item\/3786-et-tu-benedict-some-final-thoughts-on-joseph-ratzinger\">this excellent article<\/a> by Hilary White at\u00a0<em>The Remnant\u00a0<\/em>if you would like to understand why \u2014 but the admission of guilt on the part of the Vatican now removes most of my remaining doubt. Why would they go to the trouble to write a fake letter \u2014 and then doctor a photo of it \u2014 that doesn\u2019t endorse the thing they were using it to promote?<\/p>\n<p>What isn\u2019t fake is the anger and betrayal many Catholics feel \u2014 anger and betrayal that will only deepen because of the events of this week.\u00a0 (<a href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">source<\/a>)<\/p>\n<div class=\"printfriendly pf-alignleft\"><a class=\"noslimstat no-underline\" title=\"Printer Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\" href=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/#\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.printfriendly.com\/buttons\/printfriendly-button.png\" alt=\"Print Friendly, PDF &amp; Email\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div id=\"shr_canvas3\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered\" data-link=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" data-app-id=\"28182480\" data-app-id-name=\"post_below_content\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic-normal shareaholic-block shareaholic-badge-counter shareaholic-horizontal shareaholic-center-align\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-wrapper shareaholic-ui\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-animation-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading shareaholic-custom\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-heading-text ng-binding\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<article id=\"post-19946\" class=\"post post-19946 type-post status-publish format-standard has-post-thumbnail hentry category-church-news category-featured-2 category-featured-commentary with-featured-image\">\n<div class=\"container\">\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<div id=\"shr_canvas3\" class=\"shareaholic-canvas shareaholic-ui shareaholic-resolved-canvas ng-scope\" data-app=\"share_buttons\" data-title=\"Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered\" data-link=\"https:\/\/onepeterfive.com\/vatican-credibility-takes-another-hit-photo-of-benedict-letter-intentionally-altered\/\" data-app-id=\"28182480\" data-app-id-name=\"post_below_content\">\n<div class=\"ng-scope shareaholic-share_buttons\" translate=\"no\">\n<div class=\"shareaholic-share-buttons-container shareaholic-ui shr-no-print shareaholic-flat shareaholic-normal shareaholic-block shareaholic-badge-counter shareaholic-horizontal shareaholic-center-align\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<div id=\"disqus_thread\">\n<blockquote><p>Those who want to interact with this blog are invited to &#8220;Leave a Reply&#8221; below.\u00a0 A solid way to begin doing this is to offer &#8220;readback lines.&#8221;\u00a0 To do this, quickly glace back over the entire blog and pick out the one or two lines that have made a deep impression upon you.\u00a0 Copy them [CTRL-C] and then paste them\u00a0[CTRL-V] into an empty comment box below.\u00a0 If you wish, signal the emotion that you feel when reading your readback lines.\u00a0 The primary emotions are anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, surprise.\u00a0\u00a0 No need to further explain yourself.\u00a0 It is enough to identify the text important to you and to name the emotion(s) that it evokes.\u00a0 All of this normally takes less than a few minutes.<\/p>\n<p>I and others will &#8220;thank you&#8221; for your contribution.\u00a0 If you are tempted to say more, I urge you to hold back.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=298\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Your sense of safety and the safety of others is best protected by not getting overly wordy in the beginning.\u00a0<\/a> This will come after a few days or weeks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Leave a Reply~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n<\/div>\n ","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit: Photo of Benedict Letter Intentionally Altered Steve Skojec March 14, 2018 8 Comments The Vatican published parts of a letter from Pope Benedict this week, and the Catholic world suddenly lost its mind. The reason? Because the letter said that \u201cPope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/?p=394\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Vatican Credibility Takes Another Hit&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[28],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":432,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions\/432"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/Jesus4lesbians.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}