ROME
Crux
By John L. Allen Jr.
Associate editor October 15, 2015
ROME — Crux owes Cardinal Wilfrid Fox Napier of Durban, South Africa, an apology. Although it’s coming later than it should, this piece is intended to deliver it.
Although it largely got lost amid a bigger controversy this week over a letter signed by several cardinals objecting to elements of the process at the 2015 Synod of Bishops, a smaller row broke out Tuesday over a Crux piece published the day before in which Napier was quoted as saying he shared concerns over a drafting committee for the synod’s final document, “challenging Pope Francis’ right to choose them.”
The interview was conducted by my Crux colleague, Inés San Martín, on Monday, who recorded it on her smartphone and then transcribed it. I listened to the recording and confirmed the transcript. What both of us heard was the following:
“One of the concerns was, and this I really would share, is the choice of the people that are drawing up the document, challenging Pope Francis’ right to choose them. If we’re going to get a fair expression of what the synod is about, what the Church in Africa really would like to see happening, we wouldn’t like to see the same kind of people on that committee that were there the last time, that caused us the grief that we had.”
At about 9 a.m. Tuesday, Napier called San Martín to say he had not challenged the pope’s right to make the appointments. Since that part of the recording was a bit unclear, we removed the line from the story.
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