a-brave-new-lie

Carlos Caso-Rosendi

The publishers of some fish wrapper or other “found” some “private letters”  that turned out to be published since 2010 in a widely available book.

LAST MINUTE NOTE:  an alert reader reminds me that I got the wrong lie. This is a new falsehood involving Anna Teresa Timinieska, and NOT  Wanda Półtawska.

A few years ago The DaVinci Code made up a relationship between Jesus and Mary Magdalen. Calumny is nothing new; Padre Pio was accused of having sexual relations with Eunice, a friend and helper; St Francis and St Clare had to suffer in the same way. Now the “father of lies” is using his minions to assassinate the reputation of St. John Paul II by insinuating that he has “something” with Wanda Półtawska, a philosopher friend of many years.

The scoundrels pretended to discover a set of “private letters” between the Pope and Półtawska. And that is simply not true. Dr Półtawska herself published a book with all the letters in 2010. The book was translated into several languages — see here the image presenting the cover of the Portuguese edition — and many in the Catholic and non-Catholic commented on its contents. See for example: Wanda Póltawska, John Paul’s Window into Women, an article published by the National Catholic Register.

Those allegedly “private letters” found in a “public library” in the Vatican were not made public by those planting that despicable bit of disinformation because they would have violated the copyright of a book published by the very persons they intend to calumny! The book with the complete correspondence has been available for years, Sherlock!

I suggest that if they need to publish salacious material to sell that canary cage liner to someone, that they “investigate” the “spicy” life of Bill and Hillary.

I could not find the book in the Amazon catalog but here is the data for the Portuguese version, available in any large library: Półtawska, Wanda, Diário de uma amizade – A família Półtawski e Karol Wojtyła, published by Paulus, São Paulo 2010.

Where is Dan Brown’s “Opus Dei albino monk” these days? I could hire him for a hit or two.

Up to this point I was genuinely confused because the whole story was old hat. A reader alerted me to the fact that the new allegations involved a different female philosopher, the American (of Polish origins)  Anna Teresa Timinieska, who passed away in 2014. As it was to be expected, this is yet another dubious story. After writing at length about the matter the author reveals in the last paragraph:

“This is an extraordinary relationship,” he said. “It’s not illicit – nonetheless, it’s fascinating. It changes our perception of him.”

Oh, well! Much ado about nothing. But for those who read the titles and read the article in a hurry, the impression remains that St John Paul II was some sort of serial adulterer. Nice journalism you have there! Here I quote the last few paragraphs of that story as published in The Telegraph. You can read it complete HERE.

There is still a bit of this story that has not been told. The National Library of Poland allowed us to see John Paul’s letters to Anna-Teresa, who died in 2014 – but, we discovered, that they also have the letters she sent to him, which we have not been allowed to see.
However, it is nonetheless a compelling story, offering new insight into an already remarkable Pope. “We are talking about Saint John Paul,” says Bernstein. “This is an extraordinary relationship,” he said. “It’s not illicit – nonetheless, it’s fascinating. It changes our perception of him.”
There is still a bit of this story that has not been told. The National Library of Poland allowed us to see John Paul’s letters to Anna-Teresa, who died in 2014 – but, we discovered, that they also have the letters she sent to him, which we have not been allowed to see.
However, it is nonetheless a compelling story, offering new insight into an already remarkable Pope. “We are talking about Saint John Paul,” says Bernstein. “This is an extraordinary relationship,” he said. “It’s not illicit – nonetheless, it’s fascinating. It changes our perception of him.”

Not really, it does not change my perception of the great Karol Wojtyla but it confirms in my mind that the BBC is a trashy outfit. I have only two words for them: Jimmy Saville.