By Charles Lewis
Catholic Register
November 2, 2011
http://www.catholicregister.org/columns/guest-columnists/item/13239-the-pope-may-be-infallible-but-vatican%E2%80%99s-pr-people-aren%E2%80%99t
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| Pope Benedict XVI greets the crowd as he arrives to lead the Angelus prayer from the window of his apartment overlooking St. Peter's Square at the Vatican Oct. 30. |
The Vatican bureaucracy has been known to make a mess out of public relations. This is not my own unique discovery. Last September I attended a course for journalists at the Vatican and this was a major topic of discussion.
Even journalists from the Catholic press could not believe how poorly the Vatican handles the dissemination of information. There were journalists based in Rome who spoke of the gross incompetence of the Church in trying to explain itself to the world.
For me, as a religion reporter at the National Post, this communication problem has meant wasting hours trying to figure out exactly what the Vatican means rather than writing about the essence of an intended message. It is very hard in a secular paper to give the Church a fair shake when the Church itself confuses the hell out of people.
A year ago the Vatican released long-awaited procedures for dealing with sex abusers. The document itself was fine but then someone at the Vatican decided to throw in a curve ball. Attached to the same document on sexual abuse was a statement reiterating the Vatican's ban on female ordination.
There was no reason the Vatican had to release both statements on the same day — at least none that would make sense to anyone with even a small understanding of public relations. For almost every press service in the world, it appeared as if the Vatican was saying the ordination of women was as heinous as the sexual abuse of children. That was not the Vatican's message, of course, but that's how it looked.
Earlier this year the Vatican's own newspaper leaked an excerpt from a new book by Pope Benedict in which it appeared the Holy Father was condoning the use of condoms. He was not. But that did not matter because the excerpt was released without context or explanation. The Vatican press machine was caught flat-footed and managed to confuse everyone further with press conferences that contradicted each other.
In both these cases, and like many other cases, Catholic commentators bent over backwards to defend the Church. They blamed a thoughtless, secular press for not understanding the Church. At worst, there were accusations of anti-Catholicism.
Last month, the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace issued a statement on the global financial crisis. It was a confusing mess of contradictions. It spoke about not getting involved in politics and not wanting to devise highly technical solutions to fix the economic situation — but then proceeded to do the opposite. It suggested creating a global economic authority and world central bank. There was no indication of how such monster bureaucracies would work or how the proposals jibed with Church teaching.
George Weigel, the highly distinguished American author and commentator, slammed the press over its coverage. First, he said, the press was treating the release like it was a papal encyclical instead of a "note" by a low level Vatican department. Second, the press did not understand that creation of a central bank and economic authority were mere suggestions. Finally, the press should not have described the release as a "Vatican" document.
Weigel was not alone in trying to explain away this mess.
Anything that comes out of the Vatican is not going to be far off the current thinking in Rome. Even a low level council, run by a cardinal, is not going to wing it. There was no warning that came with the note that said, "Please do not take this seriously."
I think these commentators are afraid of adding fuel to the fire of anti-Catholicism, so they defend the Church regardless of how ineptly it handles a situation. But when these things happen, the best of our Catholic commentators should be critical instead of defensive. Indeed, it is our Catholic commentators that can analyse the faults in a document without slamming the entire Church.
The Vatican is a human institution. It is still possible for it to make mistakes or put forth suggestions that are confusing and even absurd. As one Catholic commentator told me, the document did not even appear to be Catholic.
Questioning the idea of one world central bank or a single global economic authority is not akin to doubting the Holy Trinity or the Assumption of Mary or our teaching on birth control or abortion. Not every word out of the Vatican carries the same weight. Catholic commentators should know that better than anyone.
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