[Brian Kopp DPM]

How can anyone honestly know Pope Francis' meaning? I'm tired of being told its all just a misunderstanding, that people are lying about what the Pope said, that the media is spinning what the Pope said.

If any of that were true, the Pope and the Vatican possess more than adequate means of clarifying what the Pope meant and really said, but every time this kind of nonsense happens, all we get from the Vatican is spin and prevarication.

For the Record: The Essential Rule of Interpretation of Pope Francis

We had missed the chance to quote this when it first appeared in The Atlantic a couple of months ago, so we post it here for future reference -- since, despite its immense relevance, for the present and for future historians, it is buried deep inside a very extensive article on Benedict XVI.

Fr. Bernd Hagenkord SJ
Head of the German-language Section of Vatican Radio

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“Francis knows exactly how power is spelled,” says Bernd Hagenkord, a Jesuit who is in charge of German programming for Vatican Radio. “He’s a communicator in the league with Mother Teresa and the Dalai Lama. They say he’s being unclear, but we know exactly what he means.”

[fatima]

So call him up ,I have a few friends at the Vatican.I can give you numbers.