Paul KeenanItaly – An interview with Pope Francis which caused consternation when it appeared on the Vatican’s website has been withdrawn as it emerged that the interviewer involved made up some content attributed to the Pontiff.
Eugenio Scalfari (89) penned his interview only after his meeting with the Pope, during which no notes or recordings were made. The subsequent draft, released in October, quoted the Pope on the subject of good and evil as saying: “Everyone has his own idea of good and evil and must choose to follow the good and fight evil as he conceives them. That would be enough to make the world a better place.”
Despite criticism, the Vatican at first insisted the overall content of the piece was accurate, but then, last week, it was removed from the website. Vatican spokesman Fr Federico Lombardi explained that “the information in the interview is reliable on a general level, but not on the level of each individual point analysed”.
Now Scalfari has stated that at least some of the interview is inaccurate.
“I am perfectly willing to think that some of the things that I wrote and attributed to him are not shared by the Pope,” he said this week.