Pope-gate** the “heinous act” of leaking a daft sorry draft copy of the Pope’s proclamation may have been an insider job according to “Newser“.
“[it] may have been designed to steal some thunder from Thursday’s official launch, Vatican observers say—and some think it may have been masterminded by Vatican insiders, the Associated Press reports”
Looking at Associated Press they continue:
On Tuesday, the Vatican indefinitely suspended the press credentials of L’Espresso’s veteran Vatican correspondent, Sandro Magister, saying the publication had been “incorrect.”
Magister told The Associated Press that his editor, not he, obtained the document and decided to publish it.
“I just wrote the introduction,” Magister said in a text message, adding that he had promised the Vatican to keep quiet about the scoop.
Several Vatican commentators hypothesized that the leak was aimed at taking the punch out of Thursday’s official launch of the encyclical, in which the Vatican has lined up a Catholic cardinal, an Orthodox theologian, an atheist scientist and an economist to discuss the contents.
They noted that conservatives — particularly in the U.S. — attacked the encyclical even before it was released, chiding the pope for talking science in a church document and insisting that global warming isn’t a scientific reality. It would be in their interest, the argument goes, to fudge the pope’s message.
Italian daily La Stampa suggested that the leak might have come from “conservatives” inside Vatican, noting that Francis’ reform plans for the Vatican bureaucracy have been resisted by the more conservative old guard who would have an interest in sabotaging Francis’ labor of love.
**In case it is not entirely obvious, “Pope-gate” is a jibe at the way every scandal gets a “-gate” suffix.
