Last week, the media published a photo of the members of the Conference of the Episcopate posing together to accompany their traditional La Altagracia Day open letter to the Dominican people.
Shortly after, Diario Libre published a story revealing that the photo had been manipulated. The original photo had the former Papal Nuncio Josef Wesolowski, who is accused of pederasty, in it, next to Cardinal Nicolas Lopez Rodriguez. Fausto Mejia Vallejo, bishop for San Francisco de Macoris and Monsignor Francisco Jose Arnaiz, emeritus bishop for Santo Domingo, who is unwell, were absent. In the published version of the photo, Wesolowski’s headshot was replaced with an image of Monsignor Arnaiz.
The editor of El Dia speculates that the photo could have been altered in order to serve to present a monolithic position of the Roman Catholic Church of the La Altagracia Day letter. But he is critical of the Church for sending the photo and putting the media in the position of printing lies. He said this should not happen again or the general public would lose trust in the media or the Church, as well as in the values that they proclaim.
The photo was sent to the media by Carmelo Santana Jerez, secretary general of the Conference of the Dominican Episcopate.
www.diariolibre.com/noticias/2014/01/17/i443401_alteracin-piadosa-foto-conferencia-del-episcopado-dominicano.html