Vatican Furious over ‘False’ News Reports - East Idaho News
World

Vatican Furious over ‘False’ News Reports

  Published at

Getty W 022313 PopeBenedictCuba?  SQUARESPACE CACHEVERSION=1361640519811Joe Raedle/Getty Images(VATICAN CITY) — In an impromptu briefing on Saturday morning, Vatican spokesman Federico Lombardi responded again to the worldwide distribution of “unverified, unverifiable, or even false” news stories.

Lombardi declined to say which specific news stories objects to, but he appeared to be referring to the report, first carried by Italy’s Panorama and La Repubblica, claiming Pope Benedict XVI is resigning rather than face the fallout of a scandal involving gay clergy who are supposedly being blackmailed.

Foreign news outlets have picked up the story on Saturday, attributing only the Italian press accounts.

“It is deplorable that there be a widespread distribution of news stories often not verified or verifiable – false even – that seriously damage people and institutions,” Lombardi said.

Lombardi accused the news media of meddling in the papal election — just monarchs, nobles, and dictators sought to do in centuries past.

In the past, he said, it was the state that tried to pressure the cardinal’s decision. “Now there is an attempt to do this through public opinion.”

Copyright 2013 ABC News Radio

SUBMIT A CORRECTION