Only Evidence of Pope Smoking a Photoshopped Picture

Posted by Rachael on 10 January, 2009
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This item was filled under [ Interesting and Fun!, Multimedia, Musings, Portfolio ]

As far as I can tell, no one else has written about this incident. Consider this an exclusive.

In my last post, a Wall Street Journal article I cited on Europe’s smoking culture said straight out that Pope Benedict XVI was known to smoke, named alongside Prince Harry and a French soccer star. I looked around to see if I could find photos or information to back the claim up. The prince and the soccer star smoking claims were easy to verify; a simple Google images search proved it. But the allegation about the Pope however, was not.

I found out that Derek Clontz wrote in a post last June that he had an exclusive photo of the Pope smoking, with detailed commentary from the photographer. The post also cited “a red-faced Vatican insider” that supposedly said to Clontz exclusively that the Pope was curious and experimenting.

Here’s the photo:

(I normally do not put up photos that aren’t licensed under Creative Commons, but for this one I’ll make an exception. You’ll see why. Photo originally posted on derekclontz.com, which he attributes to “Celebrity photographer Giovanni Bertinello”)

I searched around and have not found “Giovanni Bertinello” to be, well, in existence. There are a few Giovanni Bertinellis hits- the most prominent is a Giovanni Batista Bertinelli, who helped build a chapel in San Giuseppe’s Church back in the 1700’s. I somehow doubt he’s moved on to a new career as a celebrity photographer.

In addition, if this Bertinello is as “famed” as the article claims, where is his other work?

Clontz seems to have actually talked to the photographer in depth. Here’s one bit from his piece:

“Celebrity photographer Giovanni Bertinello says the Pope extracted the fagg from a red-and-gold package “with trembling fingers” after telling aides he wanted to be “left alone to pray” in the small garden, where the famed lensman was hiding behind a ficus hedge.”

But look at this photo-

(I found this photo on a Google Image search of “pope smoking” posted on http://domesticvocation.blogspot.com, supposedly taken at the Easter Vigil in 2007)

Hmm…something about this photo looks familiar. That wave of smoke, that yellow robe, that expression on the pope’s face.

This link leads to the original picture on picasa, attributed to Franco Origlia/Getty Images. According to his profile on grazianeri.com, Origlia is one of the few permanent photographers accredited in the Vatican and has followed the Pope around on several important trips.

This looks like a simple case of Photoshop to me. Not even a very good one at that- when you look closer you can tell that that much smoke couldn’t have come from one cigarette that obviously hadn’t been smoked very long at all. Plus, there’s no smoke coming from the actual cigarette!

I looked around derekclontz.com but didn’t see anything else written on the subject except that one article. I’ve looked around online and though a couple articles and blogs mention it offhandedly, no one actually sources anything beyond Clontz’s blog post or an unnamed source.

Clontz’s “about” page on his blog labels him as a journalist of “international reach” with articles in “over 600 newspapers and magazines worldwide in a career that so far spans three decades.” He said he’s served on staff for publications including “GLOBE, Star, National Examiner, and The National Enquirer’s iconic Weekly World News.” I also noticed that a search for his name online turned up a search page on washingtonpost.com with no hits, as if he once had articles on their site, and no longer did.

Maybe the Pope does smoke, maybe he doesn’t. I’m not going to believe anything without an actual on the record source saying so or an actual, non-fixed-up photograph. I haven’t found any sign of that thus far.

I’m still waiting to get a response from Derek Clontz. I sent him an e-mail asking for more info on where he got the photograph and information. I also tried to contact the photo agency that Franco Origlia works for.

Some of the sites that have passed on this “story”:

http://guanabee.com/2008/06/the-pope-is-sahmoking.php

http://www.gadling.com/2009/01/03/europe-struggles-to-stub-out-smoking/
(This blog used the guanabee.com blog as its source.)

http://www.samesame.com.au/news/local/2728/The-Pope-Loves-Fags.htm
(this site actually uses the “smoking picture” without the cigarette in it.)

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123085631602247715.html
(This Wall Street Journal article mentioned the Pope’s smoking habits with no citation.)

http://wonkette.com/405224/wait-wtf-pope-ratzi-smokes-cigarettes
(This blog cited the Wall Street Journal article)

http://ggrenfell.blogspot.com/2009/01/what-do-barack-obama-and-pope-benedict.html
(Here’s the only site that even questioned the veracity of the photograph seriously. However, the blogger failed to take the second step and figure out the pic was photoshopped.)

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