The Vatican has been caught plundering Wikipedia for background on 22 new cardinals announced by the Pope.
The Telegraph: By Nick Squires, Rome
The Vatican put out a press release following Benedict XVI’s announcement of the new ‘princes of the Church’, but much of it appeared to have been lifted word for word from Wikipedia.
One giveaway was that Vatican officials did not even bother to amend the online entries, solemnly informing that the new appointees were all Catholics – a somewhat redundant detail given the context.
The hasty cut-and-paste job was spotted by a sharp-eyed blogger, Sandro Magister, a journalist from the news magazine Espresso and an expert on the Vatican.
Typical of the profiles sent to journalists was one about Willem Jacobus Eijk, a Dutch archbishop, who was described in the Vatican briefing notes as “distinguishing himself by having greatly improved the situation of the dioceses of Groningen, which had experienced turbulent times.” The sentence was taken directly from the Wikipedia entry in Italian on the archbishop, as was the observation that he had “a strong leaning towards conservatism, particularly in regards to abortion and homosexuality”.
Father Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said his staff had simply been trying to help correspondents when they released details on the cardinals following the Pope’s announcement last Friday.
We have been and should always acknowledge Wikipedia, whenever we pick up material from there.
Actually nothing should be used from Wikipedia – that should be just the starting point of research. There is lot of miss- and incorrect information without any references at Wikipedia. Material should always be used from the original publication with proper reference(s).