The photographer that took the picture of Justice Antonin Scalia giving an “obscene gesture” (seen at right) speaks. Peter Smith claims Scalia’s insistence it was not an obscene gesure is inaccurate.  First from Scalia’s letter to the Boston Herald.

Your reporter, an up-and-coming “gotcha” star named Laurel J. Sweet, asked me (o-so-sweetly) what I said to those people who objected to my taking part in such public religious ceremonies as the Red Mass I had just attended. I responded, jocularly, with a gesture that consisted of fanning the fingers of my right hand under my chin. Seeing that she did not understand, I said “That’s Sicilian,” and explained its meaning - which was that I could not care less.

The original report of the entire incident, and as reported by Laurel Sweet of the Boston Herald, said the following occurred in the exchange:

“That’s Sicilian,” the Italian jurist said, interpreting for the “Sopranos” challenged.

“It’s none of their business,” continued Scalia, who was the keynote speaker at yesterday’s Catholic Lawyers’ Guild luncheon. “This is my spiritual life. I shall lead it the way I like.”

The conduct unbecoming a 20-year veteran of the country’s highest court - and just feet from the Mother Church’s altar - was captured by a photographer for the Archdiocese of Boston newspaper The Pilot, whose publisher is newly minted Cardinal Sean O’Malley.

Sweet was determined to write that Scalia made an obscene gesture.  The actual photographer though notes something that was never reported in the first place.

“The judge paused for a second, then looked directly into my lens and said, ‘To my critics, I say, ‘Vaffanculo,’ ” punctuating the comment by flicking his right hand out from under his chin, Smith said.

The Italian phrase means “(expletive) you.”

Smith further says Scalia’s account is “inaccurate and deceptive of him to say there was no vulgarity in the moment.”  So why wasn’t the line including Vaffanculo in the original report if it actually happened?  Would that not have added to Sweet’s attempt to malign the judge?

Buried at the bottom of the story and on the second page in the Internet addition is what could be some clarity to the entire situation.

“There is no answer to ‘what it really means,’ because those gestures have different meanings in different locations, even in neighbouring locations,” said Janet Bavelas, a University of Victoria, British Columbia, psychologist who has studied human gestures [ed. what a waste of countless years].

The gesture typically means “I don’t know” in Portugal, “No!” in Naples, “You are lying” in Greece and “I don’t give a damn” in northern Italy, France and Tunisia, said David B. Givens of the Center for Nonverbal Studies in Spokane, Wash.

Sicily is not Northern Italy, France or Greece, but from what has transpired and given Sweet’s own reporting on the incident, the gesture’s meaning was more in line with “I don’t give a damn.”

This is a man who at this point in his life does not have to answer to anyone in terms of politics.  He’s on the Supreme Court until he decides to retire.  Why would he care what some critics of him speaking in a church have to say about his own faith and politics?  And still, why were reporters asking him political questions while in a church regarding the very same policies?

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