Vatican must understand ways of the media

Jul 17, 2014

Rene Bruelhart, the man brought in by Benedict XVI to run the Vatican’s newly formed anti-money-laundering Financial Information Authority, was frank in assessing the Catholic Church’s task during a recent interview with The Wall Street Journal. “It’s the oldest institution in the world and if you want to change something or if something has to be changed, it’s important to say why and how. It’s a question of internal transparency and also credibility. What is the impact? What are the consequences?”

This is a useful starting point for the committee formed this week to tackle reform of the Vatican media, as part of the wider changes being made to the way the Vatican is run. Cardinal George Pell, charged by Pope Francis to improve the management of the Vatican through his new role as cardinal prefect of the Secretariat of the Economy, has in turn appointed Lord Patten to head the media committee.

Cardinal Pell is a robust Australian; in Lord Patten, he has appointed a similarly forthright individual, but someone with the smoothness that comes from a career carved at the top of British public life: as a Cabinet minister, colonial governor, European commissioner, Oxford University chancellor and, until recently, chairman of the BBC Trust. (He is also a trustee of The Tablet.) Lord Patten and his fellow committee members will need all the plain speaking and charm they can muster to change the media operation at the Vatican.

Its relationship with the media is deeply flawed. Although it has improved its own communication methods, adding social media to its existing radio station, newspaper and website, how it relates to journalists is problematic. It does not understand the needs of modern media and so fails to work as effectively as it should. Its arrangements for journalists are often haphazard; its accreditation chaotic. Its press conferences are interminable; it has only recently seemed to realise that English is the world’s lingua franca. It is not always willing to answer reasonable questions. All these failures indicate the key problem: does the Vatican really believe in people’s right to know what is happening? Or does it still maintain a clericalist superiority?

Mr Bruelhart raised the issue of the Church’s credibility. It has been seriously undermined in recent years, from revelations about its business dealings to the worldwide child-abuse scandals. Lord Patten and his team will need to examine how the media operation failed to cope with justifiable criticism and in so doing opened the Church up to hostile attack.

One of the unfortunate aspects of a poor media performance is that the Church’s spiritual and material care for people is overshadowed. But there is one outstanding aspect of the Church at the moment: the impact that Pope Francis has on the faithful and the rest of the world. He has an authenticity that is deeply affecting. When Lord Patten’s team ask Mr Bruelhart’s questions – What is the impact? What are the consequences? – they can take heart that with the Pope and the Gospel, there is much to build on. --The Tablet