We need your help now
Support from readers like you keeps The Journal open.
You are visiting us because we have something you value. Independent, unbiased news that tells the truth. Advertising revenue goes some way to support our mission, but this year it has not been enough.
If you've seen value in our reporting, please contribute what you can, so we can continue to produce accurate and meaningful journalism. For everyone who needs it.
Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
By continuing, you are indicating that you accept our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy.
THE VATICAN’S COMMUNICATIONS chief has resigned amid a controversy over the alleged manipulation of a letter written by retired pope Benedict XVI about his successor Pope Francis.
Monsignor Dario Vigano — who has carried out sweeping reforms of the Vatican’s media operations — stepped down over the row that has become known as ‘lettergate’.
The 55-year-old was accused of manipulating a private letter by Benedict XVI to help publicise part of the celebrations marking Francis’ five years as pope.
At a presentation on 12 March of a collection of books on Francis’ theology, Vigano read a letter from Benedict XVI praising the “deep philosophical and theological training” of his successor.
While Benedict XVI’s tenure as pope was perceived to be more doctrine-focussed, Francis’ more pastoral approach has riled some of the more conservative factions within the Catholic Church.
Nevertheless, in his letter, Benedict hit out at what he saw as the “foolish prejudice” of those who suggested that Francis was “a practical man without any particular theological or philosophical education”.
The press release from the event similarly featured Benedict’s praise for the current pontiff, as if the letter was written for the anniversary. But it turned out that Benedict’s letter was in fact simply a private response from a month earlier to a request to review the 11 volumes in the collection.
And in his response, Benedict actually said he would not have time to write the review.
In the final section of the letter, Benedict also criticised the Vatican’s choice of German theologian Peter Hunermann to write one of the volumes of the Theology of Pope Francis.
The retired pontiff, also a German, accused Hunermann of leading “anti-papal activities” during his eight-year papacy.
Following the presentation of the books, the Vatican published a photo of Benedict’s letter, but only of the first page containing his praise of Francis.
The first two lines of the part containing his refusal to write a review were blurred to make them illegible.
‘Poor judgement’
The row raged for several days, eventually forcing the Vatican to publish the entire letter on Saturday.
This led to Vigano’s resignation today, which Francis accepted in a letter.
“After carefully reflecting and thinking over the reasons for your request … I respect your decision and I accept with some difficulty your resignation,” Francis wrote.
Vatican observers nevertheless sought to play down the affair.
Greg Erlandson, editor of the independent Catholic News Service, said the incident sounded “more like a matter of poor judgment than deception” on the part of Vigano.
He pointed out that, at the book presentation, Vigano had read out the lines that were subsequently obscured in the photo.
“For those who attended the news conference, the context of Pope Benedict’s comments was clear,” he said.
Nevertheless, Vigano’s attempts to reform the Vatican’s media operations were not appreciated by everyone, Vatican expert Marco Politi said.
Vigano “is paying not just for his error, but also for the internal war that has broken out due to his impetuousness and the battle caused by his reforms”, Politi told AFP.
Vigano is a former director of the Vatican’s official TV station, CTV (now called Vatican Media), and was appointed as prefect of the newly established Secretariat for Communication in June 2015.
He was entrusted with cost-cutting and modernising the Church’s media output and brought the previously disparate strands of the Vatican’s media operations — TV, radio and newspaper Osservatore Romano — under his command.
The Catholic Church editing things to suit their own narrative !?! Say it ain’t so…
@Vigo the Carpathian: can’t believe that…….
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: Ratzinger collected a huge amount of statements and evidence relating to child rape by priests and covered it up during the reign of JPII, these documents have been requested numerous times by the Italian police and judiciary but Ratzinger, and to this day The Vatican, refuse to release them from their archives. Their reputation is more important than the victims of child rape. This is also common knowledge and verifiable fact. Put your fingers in your ears all.you like, doesn’t change the truth.
No matter what the Catholic Church did or didn’t do, other organisations wouldn’t get a look in at all the good they did. Because the Church is made up of people and that includes the priests and hierarchy, it will always fall short because people are not perfect and “there is so much bad in the best of us etc….
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: Trying to convince yourself there Sighle. You’ve no idea how many times I’ve heard other people verbatim say what you did. Indoctrination is a powerful tool of the wolves in sheeps clothing. I hope that one day you will be cured.
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: it’s difficult to balance institutional child abuse with ‘good deeds’, particularly when these ‘good deeds’ were for the most part self serving; i.e. the main function of rcc schools is to indoctrinate and control, not to educate.
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: Other organisations aren’t riddled with protected rapists and child abusers… or apologists for them.
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: yes you’re right I’m wrong, I didn’t watch that documentary “lead us not into temptation “, about the cover-up of child abuse and the role that that man played in covering it up, yes you’re right it’s propaganda tut tut tut
@lochinvar56: pope Francis is pope, who I’m speaking about is not the pope so don’t tell me about manners and calling someone by their full name, it’s actually through manners that I call him Benny or slimy get and nothing worse, thank you
@Suzanne Bell: Absolutely not fact. Saying something and gossiping does not make something fact.
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: you are brainwashed by this evil organisation
OK, bye.
@Suzanne Bell:
Hate Speech
@Sighle A. Ni Chuana: absolutely true fact, the fbi in America were pursuing him when he was made leader of the fairy believers and thus “immune to prosecution” lunacy rule imo, get your head out of the sand now and again or clouds I suppose is more accurate! He covered up multiple cases of child abuse while in USA and letters prove the same as priests and bishops confirmed they told him about it and wrote to him but Vatican surprise surprise withheld all files letters and buried them!
@Suzanne Bell: That is totally untrue and is part of the anti-Church propaganda floating around.
People going nuts becausw somebody dared not to type the official imaginary title of the retired secretary to the man in the sky.
@Aine O Connor: Hate speech?
Is that your response to every criticism of the Church of of Ratzinger? How exactly is insulting someone based on their slimy actions “hate speech”? It was a statement of fact as far as I can tell.
You live in a bubble, Aine. Wake up and smell the coffee. Nobody else is obliged to use your silly titles, we live in a Republic now, not a theocracy.
@Suzanne Bell:
Try reading the Community Commenting Guidelines. They clearly state do not attack the author, people mentioned in the article or people commenting on the subject .
Since you call Emeritus Pope Benedict a slimy little git and me an idiot I would suggest that you tone down your obvious ranting.
The Catholic Church created an absolute effin mess around the time of the Galileo affair even though the technical objections of the Pope at that time remain as valid today as they were back then.
For as long as societies have existed, the ability to make predictions accurately has always accorded some special status within a group and the Church was no different. It was when the ability to predict astronomical events accurately met with secular predictions that the tension arose and the Pope at the time of Galileo contended that the system for predicting astronomical events could not also be used to prove the Earth moves around the Sun while turning at the same time. He was correct but because the issue couldn’t be resolved until our century there are few if any who can go through the ins and outs of the thing notwithstanding that the present Church simply doesn’t care.
It may be fine gushing morals while ignoring that the physical connection between the individual and Universal exists but the Church seems intent on doing exactly that.
@Aine O Connor: what are you talking about you idiot, it’s fact or are you telling me you hate speech?
@Aine O Connor: go join a convent if the views of the real world upset you so much, actually an enclosed order would be ideal AND maybe if you read exactly what I wrote, I didn’t say “slimy little git “, I said slimy get, thank you, don’t try put words in my mouth
Pope Palpatine still lurks in the basement, avoiding justice. He must be gone full Gollum by now.
Use precise geolocation data. Actively scan device characteristics for identification. Store and/or access information on a device. Personalised advertising and content, advertising and content measurement, audience research and services development.
These cookies are necessary for the website to function and cannot be switched off in our systems. They are usually only set in response to actions made by you which amount to a request for services, such as setting your privacy preferences, logging in or filling in forms. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not then work.
These cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.
These cookies enable the website to provide enhanced functionality and personalisation. They may be set by us or by third party providers whose services we have added to our pages. If you do not allow these cookies then these services may not function properly.
These cookies allow us to count visits and traffic sources so we can measure and improve the performance of our site. They help us to know which pages are the most and least popular and see how visitors move around the site. All information these cookies collect is aggregated and therefore anonymous. If you do not allow these cookies we will not be able to monitor our performance.
Cookies, device or similar online identifiers (e.g. login-based identifiers, randomly assigned identifiers, network based identifiers) together with other information (e.g. browser type and information, language, screen size, supported technologies etc.) can be stored or read on your device to recognise it each time it connects to an app or to a website, for one or several of the purposes presented here.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times an ad is presented to you).
Information about your activity on this service (such as forms you submit, content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (for example, information from your previous activity on this service and other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (that might include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present advertising that appears more relevant based on your possible interests by this and other entities.
Advertising presented to you on this service can be based on your advertising profiles, which can reflect your activity on this service or other websites or apps (like the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects.
Information about your activity on this service (for instance, forms you submit, non-advertising content you look at) can be stored and combined with other information about you (such as your previous activity on this service or other websites or apps) or similar users. This is then used to build or improve a profile about you (which might for example include possible interests and personal aspects). Your profile can be used (also later) to present content that appears more relevant based on your possible interests, such as by adapting the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find content that matches your interests.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on your content personalisation profiles, which can reflect your activity on this or other services (for instance, the forms you submit, content you look at), possible interests and personal aspects. This can for example be used to adapt the order in which content is shown to you, so that it is even easier for you to find (non-advertising) content that matches your interests.
Information regarding which advertising is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine how well an advert has worked for you or other users and whether the goals of the advertising were reached. For instance, whether you saw an ad, whether you clicked on it, whether it led you to buy a product or visit a website, etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of advertising campaigns.
Information regarding which content is presented to you and how you interact with it can be used to determine whether the (non-advertising) content e.g. reached its intended audience and matched your interests. For instance, whether you read an article, watch a video, listen to a podcast or look at a product description, how long you spent on this service and the web pages you visit etc. This is very helpful to understand the relevance of (non-advertising) content that is shown to you.
Reports can be generated based on the combination of data sets (like user profiles, statistics, market research, analytics data) regarding your interactions and those of other users with advertising or (non-advertising) content to identify common characteristics (for instance, to determine which target audiences are more receptive to an ad campaign or to certain contents).
Information about your activity on this service, such as your interaction with ads or content, can be very helpful to improve products and services and to build new products and services based on user interactions, the type of audience, etc. This specific purpose does not include the development or improvement of user profiles and identifiers.
Content presented to you on this service can be based on limited data, such as the website or app you are using, your non-precise location, your device type, or which content you are (or have been) interacting with (for example, to limit the number of times a video or an article is presented to you).
With your acceptance, your precise location (within a radius of less than 500 metres) may be used in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
With your acceptance, certain characteristics specific to your device might be requested and used to distinguish it from other devices (such as the installed fonts or plugins, the resolution of your screen) in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
Your data can be used to monitor for and prevent unusual and possibly fraudulent activity (for example, regarding advertising, ad clicks by bots), and ensure systems and processes work properly and securely. It can also be used to correct any problems you, the publisher or the advertiser may encounter in the delivery of content and ads and in your interaction with them.
Certain information (like an IP address or device capabilities) is used to ensure the technical compatibility of the content or advertising, and to facilitate the transmission of the content or ad to your device.
Information about your activity on this service may be matched and combined with other information relating to you and originating from various sources (for instance your activity on a separate online service, your use of a loyalty card in-store, or your answers to a survey), in support of the purposes explained in this notice.
In support of the purposes explained in this notice, your device might be considered as likely linked to other devices that belong to you or your household (for instance because you are logged in to the same service on both your phone and your computer, or because you may use the same Internet connection on both devices).
Your device might be distinguished from other devices based on information it automatically sends when accessing the Internet (for instance, the IP address of your Internet connection or the type of browser you are using) in support of the purposes exposed in this notice.
The choices you make regarding the purposes and entities listed in this notice are saved and made available to those entities in the form of digital signals (such as a string of characters). This is necessary in order to enable both this service and those entities to respect such choices.
have your say