So the official transcript changed what the pope said. Actually, no it didn’t. It didn’t change what the pope said, because there is an audiovisual record of what he said, and it’s all over the internet. He said:
“the great majority of our sacramental marriages are null”
However, in the official written transcript released yesterday, the words “great majority” have become “part of” or “a portion”. This wasn’t a correction, because a correction gets published as a correction. This was an attempt to change what was actually said, and not in a subtle way.
If I were to say that a great majority of the earth’s surface was covered by land, you would call me out on it, due to the fact that my claim is demonstrably false. Upon being called out, if I then claimed that what I actually said was that a portion of the earth’s surface was covered by land, which is demonstrably true, would that be okay? Would that be a subtle change? Wordsmithing? Or would I be directly inverting what I had actually said, turning an obviously false statement into an obviously true statement, all the while maintaining this is what I said in the first place.
I held off writing about this because I couldn’t find the actual transcript anywhere. None of the commentary I’ve found links to it, the closest one being Steve at 1P5 linking to a tweet with a screen capture in Italian HERE. I wanted to find the actual complete transcript, because hearing that they “corrected” the bit about nullity, and then seeing it be called out by some and dismissed by others, I also wondered about the even bigger bombshell on cohabitation which is getting much less attention.
Finally, I found the transcript. The normal daily bollettino doesn’t show it, it only shows the address itself, not the Q&A. But you can find it HERE.
The whole episode is revealing on three levels.
First, it always amazes me the ease with which liars gonna lie. It’s as if habitual liars actually believe their own bullshit. Like Hillary Clinton claiming she’s never knowingly lied…. she actually might believe that in her own brain. +Lombardi goes out there day after day, actually believing what he is saying, and believing it’s believable to say it.
Second, the Pollyannas persist in their perfunctory poppycock. John Allen even had the nerve to publish an astonishingly condescending article, excoriating the critics and praising the revision, calling it a “retouching” HERE. Tell me, is completely inverting the meaning of what was said, without calling it a correction, really mere “retouching”?
Third, all this focus on the nullity comment has drawn attention away from, perhaps intentionally, the actual flaming heresy proclaimed by Francis in the same Q&A. What does the transcript say? Because the video clearly shows him saying this:
“I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, and I am sure that this is a real marriage, they have the grace of a real marriage because of their fidelity”
Guess what? That’s exactly what the transcript says.
e sono sicuro che questo è un matrimonio vero, hanno la grazia del matrimonio, proprio per la fedeltà che hanno
They forgot to delete the heresy.
So +Lombardi needs to issue a correction. Certainly what the pope really meant was:
“I’ve seen a lot of fidelity in these cohabitations, but I am sure that this is a trial marriage, they lack the grace of a real marriage despite their fidelity”
Otherwise, a wholesale revision of the CCC is going to be needed, utilizing buckets of wite-out.
Oh wait, someone already thought of THAT.
Maybe they can call it Catechism of the Francis Church.
Jorge Bergoglio is no longer deserving of even being recognised as a putative pope. He is a heretic and, thus, not a pope.