I received this picture a couple weeks ago in my email. I naturally missed it because it was sent by someone I have automatically filtered out of my inbox and into a holding folder where I may, or may not, check it at some point to see what other crap this particular individual has been forwarding.
Here’s the picture:
And here is the accompanying text in the email:
We don’t know why John Paul II wanted to hide this picture for years. The Vatican published this picture recently, for first time. This picture was taken by one of his security guards just when the Pope was attacked and was falling down in his Papamobil. You can see the pain in his face.
Take a look at the above picture. You can see Mother Mary holding John Paul II in Her arms when he was shot in 1981.
This happened on May 13, 1981. Pope John Paul II was shot as he arrived in St. Peter’s Square to speak to the people who had gathered there. When he was shot, he was holding the rosary, which he always carried. When he fell to the ground, out of nowhere, a woman rushed to his side and embraced him. That pic is shown above. The picture is said to have been taken by one of the gathered people who was busy taking Pope’s pics with his camera. The woman vanished as quickly as she appeared.. The gunman was apprehended in the square and sentenced to life in prison. The pope was critically wounded but survived after surgery and a long recovery. The surprising fact is that all the bullets passed just past his vital internal organs. When he recovered finally, the first thing Pope asked for was his rosary. When he got it in his hands, he said that he felt Mother Mary directing the bullet’s path through him. Sure, John Paul II was always in the habit of praying the rosary regularly. He had once said, “The best prayer I like is the Rosary.”
Joaquin Navarro Valls, who is the one spokesman from The Vatican, said that they made a lot of studies for years of this incredible picture and, of course, about the quality of the developing of the picture because when it was developed nobody could see very well because the image was not clear. Finally, and after so many controls and by looking and checking by all the experts in photography (around the world), they decided that there were no tricks in it and today they give us this beautiful gift from our Mother of God. You can see the Mother of God holding John Paul II in her arms. Beautiful, right?
This is a joke, right? It has to be.
This is very clearly, and very obviously a painting, yet this email is passing it off claiming it to be not only a real photograph, but even backed up by “all the experts in photography (around the world).”
Right. And whom are these experts we’re speaking of? Any names given for the supposed photography experts? Nope. Just the claims of some random person, from some random email, forwarding it on one gullible person at a time.
Is it any wonder spam is so overwhelmingly prevalent? These mass forwards are like every birthday, Hanukah, and Christmas present all wrapped up in one with a shiny red bow for the spam-bots and zombie computers silently collecting email addresses without the user ever being the wiser.
Oh, I should also mention that according to Truth or Fiction, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, mentioned in the email, has said this “photograph” was not released by the Vatican, nor was it taken by any security guard assigned to Pope John-Paul II.
