Hawzah News Agency (Vatican City, Italy) - Even Pope Francis isn’t immune from fake news. He was mocked last week in a spoof interview printed on a fake front page that looked like it came from the Vatican’s official publication, L’Osservatore Romano.
The Ersatz news page was sent anonymously to several cardinals, bishops and monsignors as part of a strategy in the mounting opposition against the liberal pontiff by conservative Catholics, the Italian press reported.
The front-page “interview” mocks the pope over his liberal stances and is marked with headline jokes like “cherchez la femme.”
When he is asked in the article if divorced and remarried Catholics can still receive the sacrament of Communion — which has not been allowed in the past — fake Francis answers both yes and no. The piece is headlined “He Answers!” (Ha risposto!)
The fake news incident followed the appearance of several posters plastered to walls in Rome earlier this month attacking the Pope’s recent positions against conservative Catholics.
Catholic conservatives have been emboldened to take on Francis in part by the Trump administration and Catholic Steve Bannon. When Bannon was editor of the conservative web site Breitbart, he cultivated relationships with right-wing leaders of the church, including Cardinal Burke.
Francis is known for his kinder, gentler Vatican administration, more welcoming to divorced Catholics. He has also lashed out at inaction on climate change, and has been quick to criticize national policies he sees as harsh — including not-so-veiled criticisms of Donald Trump’s call for a wall on the border between Mexico and America. “I appeal not to create walls but to build bridges,” he said — again — last week during one of his weekly catechism lessons, though he was careful never to use Trump’s name. He added: “A Christian would never say ‘you will pay for that.’ Never.”
As for the fake front page, not everyone was upset by it. Some found it funny or made fun of it.
According to the Associated Press, the real editor-in-chief of L’Osservatore Romano, Giovanni Maria Vian, shrugged off the spoof front page, quipping: “We were only sad because the layout wasn’t as nice as ours.”