Francis and Lombardi are both Jesuits. Why did neither of them deny the published content of the phone call if it was false? I understand doctrine was not determined by a personal phone call, but discipline, for that particular sinner, was lacking.
I think Pope Francis is sometimes impulsive in his communications, and naive about how it will play out in public. Since he's not going to disclose line-by-line what he said the woman, and how it conceivably differs from what her husband put on Facebook, he subsequently had to face the natural consequences of his blathering.
The most he could do for damage-control was to say, "This is not doctrine or discipline." OH-kaaayyy.
I miss Pope Brenedict's self-discipline and precision.