Vatican Communications Chief Quits Over 'lettergate' Row

The Vatican's communications chief resigned Wednesday amid a controversy over the alleged manipulation of a letter written by retired pope Benedict XVI about his successor Pope Francis.

Vatican City, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 21st Mar, 2018 ) :The Vatican's communications chief resigned Wednesday amid a controversy over the alleged manipulation of a letter written by retired pope Benedict XVI about his successor Pope Francis.

Monsignor Dario Vigano -- who has carried out sweeping reforms of the Vatican's media operations -- stepped down over the row that has become known as "lettergate". The 55-year-old was accused of manipulating a private letter by Benedict XVI to help publicise part of the celebrations marking Francis' five years as pope.

At a presentation on March 12 of a collection of books on Francis' theology, Vigano read a letter from Benedict XVI praising the "deep philosophical and theological training" of his successor. While Benedict XVI's tenure as pope was perceived to be more doctrine-focussed, Francis' more pastoral approach has riled some of the more conservative factions within the Catholic Church.

Nevertheless, in his letter, Benedict hit out at what he saw as the "foolish prejudice" of those who suggested that Francis was "a practical man without any particular theological or philosophical education.

" The press release from the event similarly featured Benedict's praise for the current pontiff, as if the letter was written for the anniversary.

But it turned out that Benedict's letter was in fact simply a private response from a month earlier to a request to review the 11 volumes in the collection. And in his response, Benedict actually said he would not have time to write the review.

In the final section of the letter, Benedict also criticised the Vatican's choice of German theologian Peter Hunermann to write one of the volumes of the "Theology of Pope Francis". The retired pontiff, also a German, accused Hunermann of leading "anti-papal activities" during his eight-year papacy.

Following the presentation of the books, the Vatican published a photo of Benedict's letter, but only of the first page containing his praise of Francis. The first two lines of the part containing his refusal to write a review were blurred to make them illegible.