Did you hear that last week’s bombshell La Repubblica interview with Pope Francis was based on the recollections of the 89-year-old journalist who did the interview without taking notes or recording it? The Vatican press secretary confirmed this, but said that the gist of the interview was accurate. 

Mark Movsesian says:

Is this any way to run a newspaper?

No, it most emphatically is not. But neither is it any way to run a Vatican press operation. Francis is the Pope, not a parish priest. He should never go into these sessions with journalists without at least having a secretary on hand to tape the interview. It’s far too important. I’m shocked that he did so. When I was on the editorial board of the Dallas Morning News, we would have politicians come in sometimes for board meetings, and they would record the session. That was fine with us. If the paper subsequently misquoted anything the politician said during the meeting, he would have the recording there to show that we were wrong. The Pope must do this going forward, or he is going to cause a world of trouble for himself. Francis’s willingness to make himself vulnerable is one of his most attractive qualities, but he has to be more responsible, for his own protection.