A Near-Perfect Deception at the Vatican - Made with Photoshop

What was intended as a promotional campaign for eleven booklets published by the Vatican Publishing House highlighting certain aspects of Pope Francis’ theology, turned into a nightmare for the Holy See Secretariat for Communications. The story of an almost perfect crime, in five acts.
Act 1. The Prefect Calls on the Pope Emeritus
On January 12, 2018, the prefect of the Holy See Secretariat for Communications, Monsignor Dario Viganò, wrote to the pope emeritus Benedict XVI asking for a “short and dense theological page” promoting eleven booklets from various theologians that offer a positive view of Pope Francis’ theology.
On February 7, Benedict XVI responded on two sheets of paper slipped into an envelope marked “confidential and personal,” according to Vaticanist Andrea Tornielli, who adds that those closest to Joseph Ratzinger formally advised against making this letter public.
Act 2. The Prefect, in His Elation, Mentions the Letter to the International Press
On March 12, the eve of the 5th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, Mgr. Viganò saw fit to ignore the confidentiality of the letter, and read to journalists a passage in which the pope emeritus said he approved
...this initiative that wants to oppose and react to the senseless prejudice that Pope Francis would be a purely practical man, deprived of a particular theological or philosophical formation, while I would have been only a theology theorist who would not have Including much of a Christian's concrete life today.
And Benedict XVI went on:
These booklets demonstrate that the pope is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation and, therefore, this helps see the interior continuity between the two pontificates, even with all the differences of style and temperament.
These remarks, relayed “urbi et orbi” seemed to support the idea of a profound continuity between the two pontificates, without the slightest rift…
Act 3. Sleuths Sense a Manipulation
The next day, Vaticanist Sandro Magister echoed a certain unease shared by the international press: in the photo sent to the journalists on March 12, the last two lines of the first page were blurred, and the entire text of the second page, except for the signature, was hidden by the pile of the 11 booklets.
The Associated Press, owner of the copyright for the photograph, voiced its surprise at this procedure, saying it went “against its code of ethics.”
On March 13, in response to these protests, the Vatican published an enriched, supposedly “full”, text of the letter, in which Benedict XVI said he only writes about books he has read, and he has more important things to do than read these ones. And the text ends with: “I am sure you will understand, and cordially greet you.”
But journalistic frauds are like trains passing each other; one fraud may hide another as it goes by…
Act 4. The Art of Confessing One’s Faults
Four days later, on March 17, Sandro Magister – him again! – remarked on his blog Settimo Cielo, that the surprising position of the signature on the second page leads to believe that the preceding text is a good deal longer than what was published, and that according to “incontrovertible” sources, from “those close to Benedict XVI”, the hidden paragraph was actually a strong criticism of certain authors in the collection, known for their heterodox positions in the eyes of Catholic doctrine.
A few hours later, the Holy See, “at Benedict XVI’s request”, according to the religious journalist for The Figaro, Jean-Marie Guénois, gave in and published the true full text of the letter, that expresses the astonishment – and even indignation – of the pope emeritus at being asked to praise one of the volumes written by a theologian who has violently attacked the magisterium. And the reader also learns, not without surprise, that in the last sentence, the word “refusal” had been removed: “I am sure you will understand my refusal.”
The result was disastrous: so much for Mgr. Vigano’s praise of the continuity between the two pontificates!
Act 5. The Tarpeian Cliff Execution Site: So Close to the Capitol Hill.
On March 21, the guillotine of justice came down: the pope accepted Mgr. Dario Viganò’s “spontaneous” resignation from his charge as prefect of the Holy See Secretariat for Communications.
It is clear that claiming there is an “interior continuity” between the two pontificates by means of a shamelessly manipulated letter, really only overexposes Benedict XVI and Francis, and risks opposing and discrediting them: it is Mgr. Viganò’s fault, and that is enough to disqualify him.
And what discredit, too, for the Secretariat for Communications, and the Holy Father himself, who asked on January 24, 2018, in a message to journalists, that they “contribute to our shared commitment to stemming the spread of fake news and to rediscovering the dignity of journalism!”
“Making reforms in Rome is like cleaning the Egyptian Sphinx with a toothbrush,” joked the sovereign pontiff in his speech to the Roman Curia on December 21, 2017, warning them against
...that unbalanced and debased mindset of plots and small cliques that in fact represent – for all their self-justification and good intentions – a cancer leading to a self-centredness.
The bi-millenary Tradition of the Church indisputably remains the best therapy for this sort of sickness...
Sources: La Croix / Vatican Insider / La Vie / Famille Chrétienne / Le Figaro / Settimo Cielo / Vatican News / FSSPX.News – 3/22/2018