No Snopes Here

Does Pope Francis think
women are unfit for politics?
Under the above heading the Association of Catholic Priests posted the following on their website:

In today’s (August 3rd) Independent Eilis O’Hanlon quotes Pope Francis as saying the following in 2007, apparently in the context of a presidential election in Argentina:

“Women are naturally unfit for political office. Both the natural order and facts show us that the political being par excellence is male. Scripture shows us that woman has always been the helper of man who thinks and does, but nothing more”.

Can anyone authenticate, or give a context, to this statement. If he really did say it, and if it means what is appears to mean, we could be in deeper trouble than we think

Having ascertained at Snopes that the quote was a malicious fraud, I set out on Twitter in pursuit of Eilis O'Hanlon.

I came across her talking to Donal O'Keeffe where she was admitting that the Pope had not said what she said he had.

I asked her about a correction and, to my surprise, she pleaded ignorance of how this might be dealt with online and suggested I write in a letter. In other words, she wanted me to correct her mistake. This left me very taken aback, I need hardly say.

You can see the "progress" of my conversation with her below.

Arising out of this conversation, the ACP was able to reassure its readers in the following terms:

Sunday night: Eilis O’Hanlon has admitted on Twitter that there was no proper authentification for her quote. Sunday Independent!!!

As I pointed out on the ACP site:

I can only assume that she saw my intervention as a male attack and in some way a defence of the Pope’s view on women priests. Neither of which is the case. Sloppy journalism and a Pope in error are two separate and distinct issues.

Today, I have calmed down, at least sufficiently to do this post :)

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Update 11/8/2013
Anyway, it went on. You can follow some of it here if you have the energy. Highlights mentioned below.

The next day I got a cryptic tweet telling me it was Monday. What, in Jaysus name, I wondered was that all about? Did she take Monday off? Had she discovered something nobody else knew? Would she not be coming back till Tuesday?

Then all was explained. The Sunday Independent was only published on Sunday. So she could not [apologise][correct the error] till the following Sunday, and I was suffering from premature indignation. Must be the hormones then.

Anyway, today is Sunday, and ne'er a bit of a correction in the air. So it looks like it was a case of buy a bit of time and that obnoxious person will go away, or perhaps be distracted by the testicle eating fish which seem to have taken her fancy in the meantime.

From Premature Indignation on Monday to Testicle Eating Fish on Sunday, that must surely be my longest organism to date.

And, I don't go away. So stay tuned.

Hover the cursor, if you dare. Males only.