Vatican corrects omission in pope's quote about McCarrick
NICOLE WINFIELD,Associated Press3 hours ago
Pope Francis arrives for his weekly general
audience, in St. Peter's Square at the Vatican, Wednesday, May
29, 2019. (AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino)
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The Vatican
communications office on Wednesday corrected the Italian transcript of
Pope Francis' comments about disgraced ex-Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.
Earlier, it had omitted Francis' claim that he didn't remember if he had
been told in 2013 of McCarrick's penchant for sleeping with
seminarians.
The omission gave the impression that Francis flatly denied knowing
anything about McCarrick, whereas the full comment, provided initially
only in the Spanish version, makes clear he didn't remember. That
distinction is at the root of the scandal over the Vatican's years-long
cover-up of McCarrick.
The Vatican's communications coordinator, Andrea Tornielli, said
Wednesday the discrepancy was due to the quick turnaround time for
translating a lengthy interview from Spanish into Italian, and that the
original Spanish was considered the text of reference
.
Within minutes of being asked by The Associated Press, the full and
corrected version of the quote appeared on the Italian site of the
Vatican news portal, Vatican News. The interview was conducted May 21 by
Valentina Alazraki, longtime Vatican correspondent of Mexico's
Televisa.
The issue concerns claims by the retired Vatican ambassador to the
U.S., Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, that he told Francis in a June 2013
private audience that McCarrick had "corrupted a generation" of
seminarians while he was a rising star in the U.S. church.
Francis in February defrocked McCarrick after a church investigation
found that he had sexually abused minors as well as adult seminarians.
The scandal has caused a credibility crisis in the Catholic hierarchy
because it was an open secret for years in the Vatican and U.S. church
circles that the retired archbishop of Washington pressured seminarians
to share a bed with him. The accusations he abused a minor only surfaced
in 2017.
Until the interview released Tuesday, Francis had refused to respond
to Vigano's claims, telling journalists to investigate it themselves.
In the Spanish version of the interview, Francis said he "knew
nothing, obviously, nothing nothing" about McCarrick. "I have said it
many times, that I didn't know, no idea. And when this guy (Vigano) said
that he told me about it that day, that he came ... I don't remember if
he told me about this. If it's true or not. No idea!"
The initial Italian version omitted Francis' reference to not
remembering if Vigano told him about McCarrick, and only quoted Francis
as saying he knew nothing about McCarrick.
Vigano's allegations have been used by Francis' conservative critics
to attack him, since they seemingly show Francis disregarded information
that McCarrick preyed on seminarians and rehabilitated him from
restrictions imposed by Pope Benedict XVI in 2008.
As a result, Francis' claim to not remember if Vigano told him about
McCarrick now amounts to his defense against such criticism.
Last year, the Vatican
communications office published a doctored photograph and a partial
quote from a letter penned by retired Pope Benedict XVI that
misrepresented its complete meaning. The then-prefect of the
communications office had to resign as a result.
13 comments:
Anonymous
said...
So I guess the Vatican won’t bother to release their extensive investigation into the affair, if the Pope already told them what the conclusion should be? It’s a typical bureaucratic response: mistakes were made, but nobody made them.
This is actually worse: the pope is saying he might have been told one of his cardinals was sleeping with seminarians, and he doesn't remember hearing it?
Sad to say, this actually is believable. It suggests one or both of the following:
- When the subject came up, the pope just wasn't really listening; he may even have asked questions, but the subject matter wasn't terribly important to him. His mind was already on to something else. Result: what was told to him barely registered.
- The pope is aware of lots of immorality among clergy, so this report wasn't shocking and again, didn't really register.
Please, someone tell the Holy Father this is terrible, and he needs to show some real humility on this subject. Be completely candid, if he made mistakes, own up to them, and stop being defensive and trying to blame others.
Off topic but I thought you would be interested in this story. Cardinal Cupich ordained 8 men to the priesthood and two of them (25%) of those ordained were from St. John Cantius. There first Masses were EF. I imagine that had to frost him and the other lefties in the Archdiocese.
correction. One of the priests said the EF, the other the OF. The OF is done there ad orientem and I assume he said it in Latin, but Bee would know for sure.
As Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes would say "I zee noting." The problem is, the pope as top administrator should have known about an issue of such serious magnitude. It is pure incompetence not to have known or not to remember it. As a matter of fact, in the secular world, a CEO caught up in a scandal of this magnitude would be forced to resign, something Vagano suggested the pope do volintarily. But then Vagano has also called the pope a liar on this. So which is worse, being a liar or being incompetent?
Lifesite has an interview with Viganò about all this. The article implies that when Francis said he would not say anything on the plane and told the press to do their own digging, he was referring not to Viganò’s accusations, but Viganò himself. In other words, he wouldn’t disparage Vigano’s credibility, he wanted the press to do it for him.
I wonder if Peter did the same when challenged by Paul? Sic his henchmen to did up dirt?
Let me add something else; although it's been said before, it merits repetition:
The way the Holy Father and others in the Vatican are handling this is clericalism on steroids. Questions are treated as an intrusion. The faithful are given the silent treatment and expected to be fine with that. The pope claims the right to answer questions only if he wants to, only when he wants to, if at all -- and that's supposed to be good enough. Asking for details is rude and disrespectful. Everyone should just trust the pope and his advisors! And how will the bishops be held accountable? By themselves!
Holy Father, if you are really against clericalism, THIS IS CLERICALISM.
It seems this guy McCarrick was the go to for the liberals in the Vatican concerning the Church in the U.S. Might it be they looked the other way in regards to his homosexual abuse in order not to lose a leftist ally?
NICOLE WINFIELD,Associated Press
3 hours ago
13 comments:
So I guess the Vatican won’t bother to release their extensive investigation into the affair, if the Pope already told them what the conclusion should be? It’s a typical bureaucratic response: mistakes were made, but nobody made them.
Methinks, someone realized that reasonable people did not believe Francis.
Disgraceful.
This is actually worse: the pope is saying he might have been told one of his cardinals was sleeping with seminarians, and he doesn't remember hearing it?
Sad to say, this actually is believable. It suggests one or both of the following:
- When the subject came up, the pope just wasn't really listening; he may even have asked questions, but the subject matter wasn't terribly important to him. His mind was already on to something else. Result: what was told to him barely registered.
- The pope is aware of lots of immorality among clergy, so this report wasn't shocking and again, didn't really register.
Please, someone tell the Holy Father this is terrible, and he needs to show some real humility on this subject. Be completely candid, if he made mistakes, own up to them, and stop being defensive and trying to blame others.
Father McDonald,
Off topic but I thought you would be interested in this story. Cardinal Cupich ordained 8 men to the priesthood and two of them (25%) of those ordained were from St. John Cantius. There first Masses were EF. I imagine that had to frost him and the other lefties in the Archdiocese.
http://www.newliturgicalmovement.org/2019/05/first-masses-at-st-john-cantius-in.html#more
correction. One of the priests said the EF, the other the OF. The OF is done there ad orientem and I assume he said it in Latin, but Bee would know for sure.
As Sgt. Schultz in Hogan's Heroes would say "I zee noting."
The problem is, the pope as top administrator should have known about an issue of such serious magnitude. It is pure incompetence not to have known or not to remember it. As a matter of fact, in the secular world, a CEO caught up in a scandal of this magnitude would be forced to resign, something Vagano suggested the pope do volintarily. But then Vagano has also called the pope a liar on this. So which is worse, being a liar or being incompetent?
Amen Fr. Martin!
Lifesite has an interview with Viganò about all this. The article implies that when Francis said he would not say anything on the plane and told the press to do their own digging, he was referring not to Viganò’s accusations, but Viganò himself. In other words, he wouldn’t disparage Vigano’s credibility, he wanted the press to do it for him.
I wonder if Peter did the same when challenged by Paul? Sic his henchmen to did up dirt?
It looks like Russian interference to me.
Let me add something else; although it's been said before, it merits repetition:
The way the Holy Father and others in the Vatican are handling this is clericalism on steroids. Questions are treated as an intrusion. The faithful are given the silent treatment and expected to be fine with that. The pope claims the right to answer questions only if he wants to, only when he wants to, if at all -- and that's supposed to be good enough. Asking for details is rude and disrespectful. Everyone should just trust the pope and his advisors! And how will the bishops be held accountable? By themselves!
Holy Father, if you are really against clericalism, THIS IS CLERICALISM.
https://www.catholicworldreport.com/2019/05/29/uncle-ted-and-me/
It seems this guy McCarrick was the go to for the liberals in the Vatican concerning the Church in the U.S. Might it be they looked the other way in regards to his homosexual abuse in order not to lose a leftist ally?
Fr. Fox (@ 5:02), you are...
Right. On. Target.
Yes, indeed, Fr. Fox!
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