UNITED STATES
Catholic Culture
By Phil Lawler Jul 20, 2015
Don’t let the understated headline fool you. There’s dynamite in this CWN headline story.
It’s not big news that the director of the Vatican press office admits he is “confused” by Pope Francis. We’re all confused. Join the club, Father Lombardi.
But when the Vatican’s chief spokesman reveals that he doesn’t know what’s on the Pope’s schedule—and no one else knows, either, except the Pope himself—that’s astonishing. Indeed all of the remarks by Father Federico Lombardi, as quoted in an otherwise unremarkable article in National Geographic are eye-opening. The papal spokesman limns a picture of a leader who doesn’t give clear directions, doesn’t communicate with his staff, and (at least in diplomatic affairs) doesn’t have a strategic vision.
“No one knows all of what he’s doing,” Lombardi says. “His personal secretary doesn’t even know. I have to call around: One person knows one part of his schedule, someone else knows another part.”
The job of a spokesman is to make his boss look good. These comments by Father Lombardi definitely do not make Pope Francis look good. What’s happening here?
* Has the frustration at the Vatican reached such a level that Father Lombardi feels that he can make critical comments about the Pontiff, knowing that other Vatican officials will back him? Or…
* Is Father Lombardi himself frustrated enough so that he’s willing to risk his job? Or…
* Does the papal spokesman—who knows the Pope much better than you and I do—feel confident that Pope Francis won’t be unhappy with the comments in National Geographic?
But what those remarkable quotes say about Father Lombardi is a secondary issue. What’s really important is what they say about Pope Francis.
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