Vatican denies letter was intended to endorse Italian author's book on same-sex unions
Catholic World News - August 28, 2015
The Vatican press office has issued a statement to counter an Italian writer’s claim that Pope Francis praised her book defending same-sex unions.
Francesca Pardi, whose book Piccolo Uovo was among the gay-oriented books banned from city schools in Venice, had written to Pope Francis to protest. She received a polite response—not from the Pope but from an official of the Secretariat of State—saying that the Pope “is grateful for the thoughtful gesture and for the feelings which it evoked, hoping for an always more fruitful activity in the service of young generations and the spread of genuine human and Christian values.”
Pardi quickly made that letter public, and succeeded in prompting a series of media reports that the Pope had endorsed her book. The August 28 statement from the Vatican rejected that interpretation of the letter. “In no way does the letter from the Secretariat of State mean to endorse behavior and teachings not in line with the Gospel," the statement said. The Vatican statement added that the letter to Pardi was intended to remain private, which “unfortunately did not happen.”
14 comments:
When will the darkness that has depended on the Church end? Dear God please let this nightmare end soon.
"Pope Francis said..."
I had seen a report. Wondered how long it would be before the topic was posted here! Politeness and civility does not equate to acceptance, permission or change in doctrine.
"...in the service of younger generations and the spread of Christian values..." Really? A lesbian writing about same sex families? Why respond at all? Why not, in response, strongly condemn the book and the author? Just another example of the Pope's indifferentism.
It sounds to me like a boilerplate response by the Vatican Secretariat of State.
Hasn't anyone here received a response like this after writing to a member of Congress? This kind of thing does not serve the Holy Father well. A rudimentary search on Google or some other search engine should prevent something like this from happening.
Nothing surprises me anymore ...
Jan
George is right on this. We have no idea how many communications or letters the Vatican receives and what form letters in response are sent.
In this case it appears the Holy Father is a victim of mass communications and letters that are templates sent to various people. The current Holy Father as was the last one, is not often well served by his staff.
Yeah, yeah...
I have written letters to which I have received "form" replies. I have also worked as a secretary and I can tell you that there are different "form" letters to be sent depending on whether one wants to convey approval or censure. Do you honestly think that a member of the Mafia could write to the Holy Father defending nefarious activities and receive a response that he would be proud to show to the media? Do you think he would receive a "personal" blessing?
If the secretary sending it has mafia in family and an agenda, YES!!!!
"The Holy Father's secretary has written a letter that I find questionable in its form and intent. Therefore, the Holy Father is - choose one or many - 1) foolish, 2) heretical, 3) being used by demonic forces, 4) a communist plant, 5) intending to destroy the Church, 6) a Marxist, 7) indifferent, 8) [choose your own complaint]."
I choose #6 and #7.
Ellen:
This is where due diligence comes in. The Mafia person you refer would in many cases would be a publicly known figure(if the person is a member of some Italian mafia group). There would be no excuse in that case. On the other hand, how many people write to the Holy Father who are known to some of us but are unknown to officials in the Vatican? What is the volume of correspondence?
They may need to hire more staff to keep up with this sort of thing. If so, I hope they do just that.
I say it is #2 #5 and #6
I think it is all of the above.
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