A letter allegedly sent by Pope Francis to the Argentinian President, Cristina Fernández, has caused great confusion and expectation, to the point that in less than 24 hours its authenticity has been denied twice.
The letter, without an official seal, written in an informal tone and with spelling mistakes, surprised the Argentinian government on Thursday, who accepted the letter with discretion at first and announced that the Pope had sent it as a protocolary letter for the anniversary of Argentina's de facto independence, celebrated on May 25.
According to the website of Fox News, the confusion caused by the letter has been on the rise since yesterday morning when the government in Buenos Aires published the alleged letter on its website, and later, Guillermo Karcher, the Pope's Secretary of Protocol and Argentinian priest who has been living for 21 years in the Vatican, said from Rome that the letter was fake and it had been "an artist who made this collage", and considered that "it was made with very bad taste."
"Cristina: I'm glad to send you my greetings and warmth with the motive of the national celebration, along with my heartfelt congratulation to all Argentinians, for whom I pray to the Lord and María Santísima de Luján, for them to find a peaceful way to live, of constructive dialogue and mutual collaboration, and that solidarity grows everywhere, along with concordance and justice, reads the content of the short and enigmatic letter uploaded by the Argentinian government.
The letter is signed with a simple "Francis", apparently written by the Pope himself, something that has raised suspicions since it doesn't match the Pope's protocol.
The Letter is Official
But the biggest surprised happened shortly after on that same Thursday. The Secretary General of the Argentinian Presidency, Oscar Parrilli and the Secretary of Cults, Ricardo Olivieri, stated to the Argentinian press that the letter arrived through "normal" and "habitual" diplomatic channels, but didn't know whether it was real or not.
According to newspaper La Razón, following Karcher's statements, the Argentinian government investigated what happened. Olivieri got in contact with the Nuncio's office, which confirmed that the letter left from the Vatican diplomatic delegation "with correct, habitual and current procedures."
Despite this, on Friday, the Argentinian government still doubts the authenticity of the document, owing to its informal tone.
The incident, however, seems to continue, since Italian Jesuit Federico Lombardi, also confirmed that the letter is real and attributed the misunderstanding to a "confusion", according to Spanish newspaper El País.
According to the same source, priest Karcher acknowledged that he made a "mistake" and cleared up that "It's not a letter, but rather a telegram, that's the thing."
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