Three French dioceses have edited a photo of a priest in a cassock to make it look as if he is wearing jeans.
The apparently doctored image appeared in a fundraising poster produced by dioceses in the south of France.
Four dioceses – Perpignan, Montpellier, Nimes and Carcassonne – made a video to solicit donations for an annual collection. The video featured a priest wearing a cassock meeting young people and taking a selfie with them.
French blog Le Salon Beige said that as part of the campaign, a still shot from the video was turned into a poster. However, in the dioceses of Perpignan, Montpellier and Nimes the picture was altered to add jeans to the priest and blur out the buttons on the top of his cassock.
The picture appeared unedited in the Diocese of Carcassonne.
Writing on the New Liturgical Movement website, editor Gregory DiPippo said: “If, as this rather sad little episode seems to indicate, a diocese becomes not merely reluctant to show a priest as a priest, but positively embarrassed by the idea, it should at least be honest and admit that the money collected in its fundraising appeal will be used to pay the lawyers who handle its receivership.”
Bishop to Putin: now justify voters’ confidence in you
Catholics are praying that Vladimir Putin will “cope adequately” with coming challenges and “justify the confidence of voters”, a Russian bishop has said.
Bishop Clemens Pickel of St Clement, the head of the Russian bishops’ conference, made the remarks in a congratulatory message to Putin after his fourth re-election as president.
Meanwhile Mgr Igor Kovalevsky, secretary general of the Russian Bishops’ Conference, said the Church was ready to work with civil authorities following the election.
He told CNS that Russian Catholics would not “draw political conclusions” from the election. He also said Catholics were not expecting “great revolutionary changes” during Putin’s fourth six-year term.
The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe said the election had not offered a real choice after the banning of Putin’s principal opponent, Alexei Navalny.
Mgr Kovalevsky said: “We don’t expect any change in Russian laws. But there are positive signs, especially in our ties with Russia’s Orthodox Church, with whom we’re now cooperating well.”
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