Social media doesn’t always get it right. This was certainly the case with yesterday’s Twitter rampage about Pope Francis supposedly refusing to accept a crucifix from Bolivian president Evo Morales – but is that what really happened?

The National Catholic Register (NCR) is reporting on the episode which took place shortly after the Pope’s July 8th arrival in Bolivia.

As is customary, the President made a courtesy visit to Morales at the Palace of the Government in the Bolivian administrative capital of La Paz. Pope Francis gifted his host with a mosaic of the Marian icon of the Salus Populus Romani, who is the patroness of Rome. President Morales in turn presented Francis with a crucifix in the shape of a communist hammer and sickle.

In a video of the exchange, Francis appears to shake his head and then interrupt the presentation to say, “No esta bien eso” which means “that’s not right” in English. Because of marred audio of the exchange, it’s not clear what the pope actually said although he appeared to be genuinely caught off guard by the gift.

It wasn’t until later that Francis was told that the cross was a reproduction of the one carved in the 1970’s by Father Louis Espinal Camps, a Spanish Jesuit missionary in Bolivia who was killed in 1980 during the Bolivian dictatorship.

Better known as Father Espinal, he is a controversial figure who some claim was a communist who was too involved in politics, but who others say was a martyr with the same spirit as El Salvador’s Blessed Oscar Romero. Francis obviously admired Espinal because he made it a point to stop en route to the presidential palace to pray at the place where Espinal’s body was found after his kidnapping and murder 35 years ago.

At first, the gift of the crucifix seemed to be a political statement by Morales, a leftist socialist who has often sparred with the country’s Catholic bishops. As a result, everyone rushed on to Twitter to accuse Morales of politicizing the Pope’s trip.

However, at a July 9 press briefing by Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said that the pope had not been aware of the origin of the crucifix, or that it had been created as a symbol of dialogue and commitment to freedom and progress for Bolivia.

Father Lombardi also added that the pope’s remark at the time of the gifting was probably more like “I didn’t know” rather than “that’s not right.”

“You can dispute the significance and use of the symbol now, but the origin is from Espinal and the sense of it was about an open dialogue, not about a specific ideology,” Lombardi said.

UPDATE: 7/13/15

According to Vatican Insider, Father Federico Lombardi has acknowledged that Pope Francis left the crucifix and a matching medalian at the feet of Our Lady of Copacabana, patron saint of Bolivia, while celebrating Mass at the private residence of the  Archbishop Emeritus of Santa Cruz de la Sierra.

He accompanied this gesture with the following words: “The President of the nation was kind enough to offer me two decorative honours on behalf of the Bolivian people. I thank the Bolivian people for their affection and the President for this courteous gesture. I would like to dedicate these two decorations to the patron saint of Bolivia, the Mother of this noble nation, so that she may always remember her people and from Bolivia, from the shrine where I would like them to be, that she may remember the Successor of Peter and the whole Church and look after them from Bolivia.”

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