[ebb tide]

Why would people who are in their own words irreconcilably angry at some organization lie about it?

The bigger question is why has the Vatican not denied these recent pastoral counsels, if indeed, they did not occur?

[HiTech RedNeck]

It would put the pope into an ethical pickle, is my guess. This was supposed to stay confidential, so it isn’t as easy as saying “I never told her that.” Also the Roman practice seems to be one of great deference to what they call the “deposit of faith” i.e. already recorded teachings whether biblical or post-biblical. That’s the answer often given to the question of “Well, why don’t they excommunicate the badly disobedient Ms. XXX?” I.e. “We already wrote that such a person excommunicates herself, so why say it again.”

Of course as a Crazy Evangelical, I’d assert that, yes, this kind of attitude results in some unseemly situations!

[JennysCool]

why has the Vatican not denied these recent pastoral counsels, if indeed, they did not occur?

Quite possibly because the Vatican knows that God will set things right, in His time, not the mass media's agenda.