Lombardi: It's Time U.S. Cardinals Stop Talking to the Press

Vatican Insider
March 6, 2013

http://vaticaninsider.lastampa.it/en/the-vatican/detail/articolo/conclave-22936/


The director fo the Holy See Press Office expressed irritation today at U.S. cardinal's on-the-side press briefings. In the afternoon, prayers were said in St. Peter's Basilica and tomorrow cardinal electors are due to attend two General Congregation sessions

“Parallel” news briefings organised by U.S. cardinals at their headquarters - the Pontifical North American College of Cardinals, on Rome’s Janiculum Hill – are to stop. The news came out after American cardinal electors announced their decision this morning and just as the Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, was holding his daily news conference on the pre-Conclave General Congregations, in the Holy See Press Office.

The news stunned the over 5 thousand accredited journalists who are covering the Conclave and the preparatory meetings. The American cardinals’ decision to hold daily briefings with the media seemed to signal a new willingness to open up to and show trust in the media, establishing a more transparent relationship with the press, without having to resort to the traditional anonymous source strategy which dominates Vatican news coverage.

“Concern was expressed in the general congregation about leaks of confidential proceedings reported in Italian newspapers. As a precaution, the cardinals have agreed not to do interviews,” the U.S. prelates’ spokesman, Sister Mary Ann Walsh, said in a short statement.

During today’s press conference, Fr. Federico Lombardi answering questions about the cancellation of U.S. cardinals’ meetings with the press in an irritated tone. “Ask them,” he said bluntly. Before this, Lombardi had underlined that the Conclave and the preparatory discussions leading up to it, are not be confused with congresses of Synods of Bishops. In the pre-Conclave Congregations, “cardinals reflect in order to arrive at certain conscientious conclusions


that will help them in choosing the new Pope. Confidentiality is a Conclave tradition,” he recalled. Of course, he added, no one would dream of telling cardinals how to deal with the press. But Lombardi also reiterated that it is the College of Cardinals’ job to give guidance.

Thomas Reese, the former director of Jesuit weekly magazine America who has come to Rome to report on the Conclave for the National Catholic Reporter, referred to this as a slap in the face to American cardinals. “I wouldn’t call it censorship,” he said. The transparency shown by U.S. cardinals have made them scapegoats, Reese explained, even though it is actually the Italian cardinals who are responsible for the news leak who offer information to journalist “friends” as anonymous sources.

All other news communicated by the Vatican spokesman faded into the background: The College is now waiting for just two more cardinal electors to arrive: the Archbishop of Warsaw, Kazimierz Nycz and the Archbishop of Ho Chi Minh City, Jean-Baptiste Pham Minh Man. They are expected to be in Rome by tomorrow.

Each cardinal taking part in the Congregations was asked to keep their speeches down to around five minutes long given that so many registered to speak. The Conclave start-date has still not been announced  which confirms the impression given over the past few days that cardinals are in no hurry  and want to take all the time they need to reflect and discuss. In fact, tomorrow, cardinals have decided to hold a double session.

Today, the American association of paedophilia victims, SNAP, presented its “Dirty Dozen” list, a list of cardinals that should not be elected to the papacy given their handling of reported cases of sex abuse. The cardinals accused are: Maradiaga (Honduras), Rivera (Mexico), Ouellet (Canada), Turkson (Ghana), Pell (Australia), Bertone e Scola (Italy), Sandri (Argentina), Duka (Czech Republic), O'Malley, Dolan and Wuerl (U.S.). In response to this, Lombardi said that it is “not up to SNAP to say who should attend the Conclave or not.” “It is up to the cardinals themselves to judge what is right, without asking for advice,” he added.

Meanwhile, Benedict XVI’s Fisherman’s Ring has been destroyed as required by Catholic Church law and preparation work is still going on in the Sistine Chapel, where false flooring is being laid down ahead of the Conclave to prevent anyone from placing any bugs around.