Fr. Lombardi Sj: Reason and Good Will in Reporting

Vatican Radio
February 14, 2012

http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=563044


The Director General of Vatican Radio, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, has published an Italian-language Note concerning the responsibilities of journalists working in various media, including print, television and radio, as well as the new media. Fr. Lombardi cites a recent series of real or presumed document leaks from the Vatican, which have stirred interest in the Italian press and garnered a degree of international media attention.

Fr. Lombardi encourages all those who cover the Vatican and the Church to exercise prudent discernment both in the choice of sources and in the use and diffusion of information, recalling the need to practice journalism out of a sense of love for and duty toward the truth.

Noting that there is a great deal of good to report, including the Church's efforts at atonement, healing and renewal in the wake of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, as well as the recent steps taken to reform internal finances, Fr. Lombardi says, "We all need to resist the temptation to give in to the spirit of confusion that the ill-intentioned would create, and rather continue to rely on our abilities to reason."