VATICAN CITY (ChurchMilitant.com) – The Holy See Press Room has purged Pope Francis’ shocking eschatological diatribe against the media and replaced it with a sanitized version after the pontiff attacked sensationalist reports using the crude terminology of “coprofilia” and “coprophagy”.
Speaking to journalists from the Catholic News Service (CNS) of Casa Santa Marta, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his foundation, Francisco recalled a previous occasion in Argentina, where he spoke to journalists in the written press and used the same terms to denounce “sins” that plague journalism.
Encyclopedia.com, an online resource referring to academic sources like Oxford University Press, defines coprofilia as “the condition of desire for sexual gratification and sexual arousal derived from the smell, taste or sight of feces or the act of defecating”.
According to Encyclopedia.com, coprofilia, previously linked almost exclusively to homosexuality, “is considered the most taboo consensual sexual activity and is commonly insulted as much or more than violent or non-consensual acts, such as rape and pedophilia”.
Case Reports in Psychiatry defines coprophagia as “a rare and distressing disorder characterized by symptoms of compulsive stool consumption”. The term is used for dogs that eat their own feces or other species, according to the Encyclopedia of Animal Behavior.
On Monday, Francisco told reporters from CNS – the official news agency of the United States bishops’ conference – in a private audience “so as not to forget these four sins: misinformation, slander, defamation and co-family”.
Those lips that daily utter the sacred words of consecration of Our Lord, have spoken publicly words that refer to the worst sexual depravity.
According to Vatican News, the pontiff defined “disinformation” as “giving one side without the other”. Nuances are seen when journalists report both sides. But misinformation is a sin because it leads to error.
Pope Francis, however, did not address the failure of the Holy See Press Office to respond to media inquiries and requests for clarification.
The grave sin of “slander” consists in damaging a person’s reputation “with a lie”, while “defamation” tainted the person by recalling a past that no longer exists, continued Francisco.
Finally, the pope denounced “coprofilia”, describing it as “the love of dirt”, which is motivated by the fact that “scandals sell”. People often have a “coprophagy” addiction or consumer scandals, he added.
A Vatican source told Church Militant that an Argentine priest close to Francisco begged the pontiff not to use crude and contemptuous terms that might be suitable for the streets of Buenos Aires, but not for consumption by the international media and the global Church.
A Google image search for the word “coprofilia” immediately produces images of Pope Francis along with indecent images of people indulging in inhuman psycho-sexual disorder.
Francis told the CNS delegation that the role of Catholic journalists in the United States was to promote unity and “try to get people to talk to each other, to reason together and to seek the way of brotherhood”.
How wonderful it would be if the Petrine Office were restored to the sanctity and honor it maintained during the days of the Council of Chalcedon.
Criminalizing the division in the Church, the pope observed: “But if the media throw gas into the fire on one side or the other, it doesn’t help.”
“There may be traditionalist groups in the United States, but they also exist here in the Vatican,” noted Francisco, alluding to his family theme of traditionalists causing divisions in the Church. He noted, “It can be cured.”
The CNS tried to explain Francisco’s unpleasant references, noting that the pope described “coprofilia” as “a love of dirt” because “the scandal sells”.
“As the divinely instituted successor of St. Peter and Vicar of Christ, Pope Francis shares the teaching office of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” popular Catholic writer Nick Donnelly told Church Militant. “His words must expose and elucidate the most sublime mysteries of the Holy Trinity, before which seraphim protect their faces with their wings.”
“But those lips and tongue that daily utter the sacred words of consecration of Our Lord in persona Christi within the Church, words that refer to the worst sexual depravity have been spoken publicly ”, lamented the deacon of the diocese of Lancaster, England.
Elaborated Donnelly:
Where was the concern for the care of souls? Where was the respect for modesty? Where was the vocation to holiness? How wonderful it would be if the Petrine Office were restored to the sanctity and honor that it maintained during the days of the Council of Chalcedon, when the bishops hailed the wise words of Pope St. Leo I shouting “Peter spoke!”
The pontiff appeared to be recycling the comments made about the media’s “four temptations” in a December 2016 interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly Tertio – an online record of which was preserved without being edited by the Holy See Press Room.
But if the media throw gas on the fire on one side or the other, it doesn’t help.
In the interview, Francisco uses both terms referring to “fecal” psychological disorders and says:
I believe that the media must be very clear, very transparent, and not fall – without offense, please – from the disease of coprofilia, which is always trying to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even if they are true. And since people are prone to coprophagia, it can cause a lot of damage.
A year before he was elected pope, then Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio told the Italian newspaper La Stampa: “Journalists sometimes run the risk of becoming ill from coprofilia and, thus, promoting coprophagy, which is a sin that stains all men women – that is, the tendency to focus more on the negative than on the positive. “
The interview came in the wake of the VatiLeaks scandal – with leaked documents exposing Vatican infighting and financial corruption.
The British Times called the Bergoglio controversy “a bizarre attack on journalists covering Church scandals”.
“So basically, Pope Francis is saying that journalists who talk shit about the bureaucracy of the Catholic Church are at risk of eating shit. Perhaps a fair point ”, quipped Business Insider.
— Campaign 31877 —
Got a news tip? Send news to our tips line.
We count on you to support our reporting. Please donate today.