Vatican questions accuracy of new newspaper interview with Pope Francis

July 14, 2014

The director of the Holy See Press Office has issued a statement questioning the accuracy of statements attributed to Pope Francis in the July 13 edition of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.

On July 10, Pope Francis spoke with 90-year-old journalist Eugenio Scalfari for an hour, and the conversation reportedly touched on pedophilia, the Mafia, and priestly celibacy. In October, the newspaper published what appeared to be a transcript of an earlier interview between Scalfari and the Pope; Scalfari later said that he had reconstructed the Pope’s comments from memory.

“Many of my collaborators who fight with me reassure me with reliable statistics that say that the level of pedophilia in the Church is at about 2%,” Pope Francis reportedly said in the new interview. “This data should hearten me, but I have to tell you that it does not hearten me at all. In fact, I think that it is very grave.”

“Even we have this leprosy in our house,” the Pope reportedly added; “even bishops and cardinals” are pedophiles. “And others, more numerous, know but keep silent.”

On priestly celibacy, the Pope was quoted as saying, “Maybe you do not know that celibacy was established in the 10th century, that is, 900 years after the death of our Lord.” After referring to married Eastern Catholic priests, the Pope reportedly said that “the problem [of celibacy] certainly exists, but it is not of great extent … There are solutions and I will find them.”

Following the publication of the new report, Father Federico Lombardi issued the following statement:

In the Sunday edition of La Repubblica an article by Eugenio Scalfari was prominently featured relating a recent conversation that took place with Pope Francis. The conversation was very cordial and most interesting and touched principally upon the themes of the plague of sexual abuse of minors and the Church’s attitude toward the Mafia.

However, as it happened in a previous, similar circumstance, it is important to notice that that words that Mr. Scalfari attributes to the Pope, “in quotations” come from the expert journalist Scalfari’s own memory of what the Pope said and is not an exact transcription of a recording nor a review of such a transcript by the Pope himself to whom the words are attributed.

We should not or must not speak in any way, shape or form of an interview in the normal use of the word, as if there had been a series of questions and answers that faithfully and exactly reflect the precise thoughts of the one being interviewed.

It is safe to say, however that the overall theme of the article captures the spirit of the conversation between the Holy Father and Mr. Scalfari while at the same time strongly restating what was said about the previous “interview” that appeared in La Repubblica: the individual expressions that were used and the manner in which they have been reported, cannot be attributed to the Pope.

Let me state two particular examples. We must take into consideration two affirmations that have drawn much attention and that are not attributed to the Pope. The first is that among pedophiles are also “some cardinals”; and the second regarding celibacy: “I will find solutions.”

In the article published in La Repubblica, these two affirmations are clearly attributed to the Pope but curiously, the quotations were opened at the beginning but were not closed at the end. We must ask ourselves why the the final quotations are not present: is this an omission or explicit recognition that this is an attempt to manipulate some naïve readers?

 

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Further information:

• Il Papa: "Come Gesù userò il bastone contro i preti pedofili" (La Repubblica)
• Pope Francis reportedly promises "solutions" to priests' celibacy (CBS News)
• Pedophilia and mafia in Pope's conversation with journalist (Vatican Radio)
• Pope says about two percent of priests are pedophiles: paper (Reuters)
• Fr. Lombardi's Statement on 'La Repubblica' Article (Zenit)
• Italian journalist admits inaccuracies in controversial papal interview (CWN, 11/22/13)