The Pope Benedict Letter That Wasn't

The blogosphere has been all aflutter with the news/rumors that a letter from Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI confirmed his beliefs that he and Pope Francis were essentially in alignment as far as philosophy and theology goes.  Some blogs evincing sedevacantist leanings went so far as to say that the pope emeritus is just another modernist, heretic, etc.  I personally have been slow to comment on this, both because of time-consuming personal matters and because I sensed that there was more to this than meets the eye.  Lo and behold, we find that the latter is true.

LifeSiteNews and other sources published the news today that the Vatican distorted the letter that Benedict XVI issued.  They obscured a paragraph to give the impression that the Pope Emeritus was giving endorsement to some books on the theology of Pope Francis.  In fact, that omitted paragraph states that the Pope Emeritus could not give an educated opinion because he hadn't read the works in question.

Now to the perpetually naive who find it impossible to imagine that the Vatican would stoop so low as to essentially falsify what Benedict XVI said, recall some recent history.  Recall the reason why Cardinal Baldiserri is known as "Book Thief Baldi".  Two years ago, many of us hypothesized that the sin-nods were dog-and-pony shows designed to foist some heresy on the Church.  We now know that heresy to be called Amoris Laetitia - or, as I call it, Amoralis Lamentia.  Cardinal Pell even called them out on it quite loudly.  So yes indeed, the Vatican of Pope Francis is well-practiced in all the skulduggery tricks of the trade.

Still, all this seems not to be enough for our sede friends.  They obviously don't appreciate the fact that Benedict XVI just politely told the Vatican mafia that they can take those books on Francis' theology with them as they take a flying leap.

There's no gainsaying that this stunt of the Vatican has backfired into a major fiasco for them.  Now the real question is, "will people understand the significance of this"?  This question should be answered not only by progressives but by sedes.