A news story of sorts is slowly circulating its way through social media, spread largely by Protestants with a certain animosity toward Catholics (as several friends have indicated after seeing it on their Facebook news feeds). When you see it, don't believe it.
The news story purports that on April 25, 2014, Giorgio Cardinal Salvadore, whom the article describes as "a spokesperson for the Vatican" announced that the Catholic Church is no longer expecting the Second Coming of Jesus Christ because "'he was probably drinking wine' at the time when he made the comments."
This is, of course, absurd and completely false. How do I know. Because Cardinal Salvadore does not exist. See for yourself and check the list of living Cardinals.
There is, however, a Salvatore Cardinal De Giorgi. the Archbishop Emeritus of Palermo, who retired in 2006 and was certainly not a Vatican spokesman in April of 2014. In fact, he was too old to vote in the conclave that elected Pope Francis. Curiously, despite not seeming to have died (at least I did not find a mention of his death), he isn't listed among the living Cardinals. I'm not quite sure what to make of that.
It's the oldest trick in the book. Take a foreign name and tweak it a bit so that it still sounds like a name, attribute a position to him he never had, and assign words to him he never spoke. If it's a fictitious character, he can't really accuse you of slander or libel and he can't defend himself. That, and people who will simply assume the false words are true because the name and the position sound true.
Remember: You can't believe everything you see on the Internet. Especially from people who hate Catholics.
You are always going to run into people who try to blame the Catholic Church for odd reasons.
ReplyDeleteJust like a former Catholic I knew, tried to blame the Catholic Church for worshiping Saints but not Jesus.
Hearing this made you wonder, how well did this person follow their faith?