Pope Ratzinger has done more than anyone else against pedophilia in the clergy. But the Vatican has fallen into a trap that is perhaps worse than a sin: the gaffe. If there was Navarro-Valls .. .
When the dust of the pedophilia scandal in the clergy will be filed and we can look calmly to the facts, perhaps we will discover that no pope has done is doing what Pope Benedict XVI to break down the wall of silence that the church hierarchy in various countries, encouraged by the central authority, they have built around those responsible for many, many years. Why, then, it was Pope Ratzinger is identified as the target virtually unique of all attacks of the press around the world? A chance my explanation: after the resignation of Joaquin Navarro-Valls, spokesman for the celebrated Pope John Paul II, the church no longer has a press office at the height of its tradition. Not much wrong on the merits of the issues, how to communicate their choices to the outside world. He had never seen a string of gaffes of the sort that characterized the first five years of his pontificate ratzingheriano. Even the appearance penalizes this pope to the comparison with the bulky predecessor John Paul II was so athletic, friendly, smiling, youth, sports and "media", especially at the beginning of his term for the disease to the fold, as Ratzinger appears minutes, closed, professorial, a spiritual, priestly, uncommunicative. The Teutonic accent, then, does not help. But what really hurt his image, and consequently that of the Church hierarchy, is the inability to make the journey to the end, the meaning, the message of the new pontificate. It would, with all due respect to the head of the Vatican press office, Father Lombardi, a genius of communication as precisely Navarro-Valls. More than ever, with all their guns trained on the world, the Church should be measured in words. Not for distorting its mission, far from it. But to avoid diplomatic incidents, but in which its top leaders seem suddenly become teachers, losing two thousand stroke proverbial years of experience. When Father Lombardi reacts to the scandal of pedophilia in mind that there are pedophiles even among non-priests, commits a terrible slump. Is because people trust the priests point to entrust them with their children in schools and speakers. Because it is a despicable crime committed by a representative of the Lord is, if anything, even more serious. And because the Church can not defend themselves as a Craxi, a bucket or a bushel: the "Cosi fan tutte." When Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone brings up the subject of homosexuality to pedophilia, whatever his thought, suggests a common place that contributes to homophobia and helps to understand what is success. And when Father Cantalamessa, rather than just singing the Mass, he ventures in parallel between the attack on the Church and anti-Semitism and persecution of the Jews, not only tells a historical stupidity, but reinvigorates that anti-Jewish feeling that for centuries (and now thankfully no longer) was also planted by distinguished representatives of the Catholic clergy, and more generally Christian. Given the track record, would it be to urge the cardinals, bishops and preachers to be cautious, perhaps asking them to submit their public pronouncements all'imprimatur estimate of the Vatican press office, to avoid chasing the misrepresentations with corrections, clarifications, denials.
And then, if possible, call the service, perhaps as a consultant, Navarro-Valls, who accompanied the thirty-year pontificate of Pope Wojtyla, protecting them from a trap for the Church, in the global village of communication, is perhaps the worst sin: the gaffe.
Marco Travaglio
the Spoiler
April 22, 2010
A (nna)
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