The AP's Nicole Winfield wrote March 14 that the Vatican has admitted "that it altered a photo sent to the media of a letter from retired Pope Benedict XVI about Pope Francis. The manipulation changed the meaning of the image in a way that violated photojournalist industry standards."
Winfield added that "The Vatican admitted Thursday [sic] that it blurred the two final lines of the first page … The Vatican didn't explain why it blurred the lines other than to say it never intended for the full letter to be released. In fact, the entire second page of the letter is covered in the photo by a stack of books, with just Benedict's tiny signature showing, to prove its authenticity."
The full text of the letter was published March 13 by Sandro Magister, an Italian journalist who has long followed the Vatican.
The text shows that Benedict's letter, dated Feb. 7, was written to acknowledge receipt of the gift of a series of 11 volumes on "The Theology of Pope Francis," and to respond to a request that the Pope Emeritus write a theological reflection on the books.
The series is published by Libreria Editrice Vaticana, the Vatican publishing house overseen by the Secretariat.
"I applaud this initiative which is intended to oppose and react to the foolish prejudice according to which Pope Francis would be only a practical man devoid of particular theological or philosophical formation, while I would be solely a theoretician of theology who could understand little of the concrete life of a Christian today," Benedict wrote.