Yvette Schneider writes,
The New Civil Rights Movement has learned through a source within the Apostolic Nunciature, the Vatican embassy, that Kim Davis’ meeting with the Pope was arranged – contrary to theories espoused in the media – by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.
This is sensational news, if true. Have any of you seen this reported anywhere else? Schneider was reporting this in the early afternoon today (Friday, 2 October) as well as I reckon.
And haven't I been telling you all this? It seems obvious to me that the papal nuncio Viganò (who is by no means a savory character) is being scapegoated in order to draw a veil over the involvement of an American bishop or bishops as the real drivers of the meeting with Kim Davis.
And a meeting it clearly was, despite the meme the Vatican statement this morning has successfully established, of some kind of large gathering that Mat Staver and Kim Davis are misrepresenting as a meeting: there is more to this story than we're being told on the Vatican side, and I'm rather amazed to see so many people now parrotting the Vatican statement this morning as if it's a full, forthcoming, and reliable description of what happened here.
I am fully aware that Mr. Staver is truth-challenged, and perhaps Ms. Davis is as well. But I think it's more than a little naive to believe that the Vatican, a wily old institution with centuries of experience in manipulating the truth and managing images, is also incapable of bending the truth.
Given what we have learned of the abuse crisis and its cover-up — from the very top of the church — it beggars belief that we should take what the Vatican tells us at face value, either. For my money, people who care about the church and its mission have an obligation to call its leaders to be what they are frequently loath to be — transparent and accountable.
