Vatican ‘censored Benedict’s letter to conceal differences with Pope Francis’ - Times of London

Vatican ‘censored Benedict’s letter to conceal differences with Pope Francis’
Tom Kington, Rome
March 14 2018, 5:00pm,
The Times

Religion
Pope Francis is less of a hardliner than Benedict, right
Pope Francis is less of a hardliner than Benedict, right
OSSAVERTORE ROMANO/REUTERS

The Vatican has been accused of censoring a letter from the former pope, Benedict XVI, to disguise apparent differences of opinion between him and his successor, Pope Francis.

The row comes as a growing number of opponents of Francis’s liberal papacy depict his predecessor, who now lives in retirement in a cottage in the Vatican garden, as a muzzled champion of their brand of conservative faith.

Benedict, 90, shocked the world by standing down in 2013, before taking up a secluded existence at the Vatican with his books and piano.

His successor dropped Benedict’s traditional doctrinal brand of Catholicism to focus on mercy rather than dogma, enraging hardliners who have accused him of heresy over his push to allow Communion for Catholics who divorce and remarry.

In an apparent effort to stop conservatives turning Benedict into a focal point for resistance, Father Dario Edoardo Viganò, the Vatican’s chief of communications, published a letter from the former pope which stated that a series of new books on Francis’s theology exposed “the stupid prejudice according to which Pope Francis is just a practical man devoid of specific theological or philosophical formation”. Benedict added: “The little volumes demonstrate, rightly so, that Pope Francis is a man of profound philosophical and theological formation, and they therefore help in seeing the interior continuity between the two pontificates, albeit with all the differences of style and temperament.”


That prompted newspaper headlines in Italy about Francis having Benedict’s support. However, Sandro Magister, the Vatican correspondent for L’Espresso, noticed that the version of the letter publicly released by the Vatican was missing a crucial paragraph that had been read out by Mr Viganò at a press conference. A Vatican source also admitted that lines from the paragraph that were visible in a photo of the letter had been blurred.

In the missing excerpt Benedict said that he had not read the books, adding: “Unfortunately, even if only for physical reasons, I am not able to read the 11 little volumes in the near future, all the more so because I am under other obligations to which I have already agreed.”

Marco Tosatti, an expert on the Vatican, said: “That appears to be in total contradiction to what he had just written.” Mr Tosatti said he believed that Benedict and Francis were “far apart” on doctrinal issues. “Benedict sees that Francis totally contradicts what he and Pope John Paul II stood for.”