Dirty Old Man: Bergoglio's Interview Was Even More Bizarre and Disgusting than the Headlines Suggested

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Yesterday, faithful Catholics all over the world were greeted by these news headlines:

Pope Francis compares fake news consumption to eating faeces

Fake news is like getting sexually aroused by faeces, Pope says

Pope Francis says fake news is like eating faeces

Now, Pope defenders used to always complain that the Pope was mistranslated. This time the Pope was mistranslated, at least slightly, and at least in those headlines. But it was not with any intention to mislead. Here's what the Pope actually said in an interview with the Belgian Catholic weekly, Tertio:

Disinformation is probably the greatest damage that the media can do, as opinion is guided in one direction, neglecting the other part of the truth. And then, I believe that the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey – without offence, please – to the sickness of coprophilia, which is always wanting to communicate scandal, to communicate ugly things, even though they may be true. And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm.

One of the humorous things here (if it's possible for there to be any) is that the Pope used two words (or their equivalents in Spanish) that headline writers knew most people would not know or understand. From the OED:

coproˈphilia n. [Greek ϕιλία affection] marked attention to defecation and to excreta.

coˈprophagy n. the eating of excrement (Coprophagia would thus denote the condition or tendency of desiring or feeling impelled to eat excrement.)

So the headline writers had to come up with a substitute. It's unclear to me why most of them chose "faeces" (English spelling) or "feces" (American spelling) over, say, "excrement," but they did. Curiously the only example I could come up with of "excrement" was:

Pope Francis Compares 'Fake News' to Excrement - Breitbart

Yes, that Breitbart. Maybe that was to make things more understandable to the white supremacists.

Other right-wingers chose another alternative:

Poop Talk With Pope Francis | The American Conservative

As you can see from the OED definitions, some of the headlines went too far. Technically "coprophilia" merely means "marked attention to" not necessarily "being sexually aroused by." See, the conspiracy to slander the Pope by mistranslating his words has even spread to liberal publications.

This is all weird, creepy and disgusting. But if you read his actual words (which probably few did) it gets even weirder, creepier and more disgusting.

the media should be very clear, very transparent, and not fall prey – without offence, please – to the sickness of coprophilia

Without offense, please? 

Without offense, please?

I'm about to make about the most disgusting charge one could possibly make against anyone, using disgusting language too disgusting for most people even to understand, and I don't want you to take offense?

Also, I'm wearing the white cassock of the Pope and doing an interview with a Catholic publication.

No offense.

But here's the worst part:     

And since people have a tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia, it can do great harm.

Since people have the tendency towards the sickness of coprophagia...

People?

Which people?

What is he talking about?

What is he TALKING about?!

People have a tendency to be attracted to eating excrement.

Is this what one learns in Jesuit seminaries?

Out of charity I won't bring up projection.

As some commentators pointed out, this wasn't the first time Bergoglio had publicly mentioned both coprophilia and coprophagia in the same breath. He did it also in 2013.

Journalists sometimes risk becoming ill from coprophilia and thus fomenting coprophagia: which is a sin that taints all men and women, that is, the tendency to focus on the negative rather than the positive aspects.

Here he even put forward a scientific theory - coprophilia foments coprophagia. Again, one wonders where he learned this. But as one sometimes says with popes, maybe it's just his personal opinion.

Let me speak seriously now: If Bergoglio were anything else but the Pope, everyone would be in unanimous agreement that he was almost certainly a disgusting and perverted old man. Someone to pity, yes, but first and foremost someone to keep your children away from. 

Normal people don't use the words "coprophilia" and "coprophagia" as metaphors for enjoying the spreading of false gossip. They don't. They just don't. Normal Catholics don't. Normal Argentinians don't. And, yes, even normal Jesuits don't.

Bergoglio is deranged. The sooner his pontificate ends, the better.