Issue 15 - The Pilgrim - April 2013 - The newspaper of the Archdiocese of Southwark

Features The Pilgrim April 2013
How will Pope Francis use the media
Greg Watts
The way the message of the
gospel is heard by most people
today is not by going to church
but through the media. And sadly,
all too often it’s a negative one.
So, for Pope Francis, one of the
most pressing things in his in-tray
is to look at how the Church can
use the media more effectively
than it has been doing.
He will be conscious of how
Pope Benedict’s pontificate was
marked by a number of easily
avoidable gaffes, often followed
by hasty clarifications issued by
the Vatican press office.
One example was his address at
the University of Regensburg in
2006, where he quoted a
Byzantine emperor who claimed
Islam was violent and irrational.
Predictably this produced furious
reactions amongst some Muslims
around the world.
Another PR disaster occurred
after he lifted the
excommunication of the
Lefebvrist Bishop Richard
Williamson. Pope Benedict’s
statement was released only 48
hours after Williamson had
appeared on Swiss TV and said
that he didn’t believe gas
chambers had existed and that
millions of Jews had died.
Understandably Jewish leaders
were outraged by the news of
Bishop Williamson’s rehabilitation.
They had reacted similarly when
changes to the Good Friday Prayer
for the conversion of the Jews
were announced. These changes
were swiftly revised.
There were many more
blunders. I remember doing a TV
interview about comments made
by a cardinal over the sexual
abuse crisis. During the break,
the presenter, a Catholic, leant
across the desk and said with
incredulity, “Who on earth is
advising the Vatican on PR”
By all accounts, as Archbishop
of Buenos Airies, Cardinal
Bergoglio did not have a
reputation as someone who was a
natural in using the media.
Yet when I watched him on the
evening of his election talking to
the crowds below, he came across
as someone spontaneous and at
ease communicating to a large
audience.
And his homily when he
celebrated Mass in the Sistine
Chapel with the cardinals –
journeying, building, professing –
was a model of clarity and
conciseness.
In that same homily he quoted
from French novelist Leon Bloy,
underlining his love of literature.
He taught it in the 1960s at the
Immacolata College in Santa Fe
Who are the Jesuits
Pope Francis is the first Jesuit to become
pope. So who exactly are the Jesuits
The Jesuits were founded by St Ignatius
Loyola, a Spanish soldier, in the sixteenth
century.
After being injured in battle in 1520, he
decided to dedicate his life to God. While
staying in Manresa in Catalonia, he began to
write his Spiritual Exercises.
He went to study at the University of
Paris, where he established a community. In
1540 Pope Paul III formally established the
Society of Jesus. The Jesuits’ motto is “for
the greater glory of God.”
Ignatius died in 1556 and was canonized in
1622. By then there were already several
thousand Jesuits.
Today, the Jesuits are the largest religious
order in the Catholic Church, with around
20,000 members. At one time, they drew
most of their vocations from Europe. Today
the largest province is India.
To become a full Jesuit takes around 14
years. Jesuits have a reputation for
intellectual rigour, education and finding
God in the things of everyday life.
They are often found on the front line of
culture and science. For example, Jesuits
run the Vatican Observatory.
Famous Jesuits include astronomer Angelo
Secchi (1818-1878) English poet Gerald
Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) and
paleontologist Pierre Teilhard Chardin
(1881-1955).
The Jesuit mission to England began in
1580, during the Reformation, and several
priests were martyred, including St Edmund
Campion.
The Jesuits British province headquarters
are in Mount Street, Mayfair, next to the
Church of the Immaculate Conception.
They have a long history in Southwark.
They run the parish of the Scared Heart
School in Wimbledon, although this is soon
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to be handed over to the diocese, and
Wimbledon College.
They have also have house of formation in
Brixton and a community in Clapham.
Elsewhere in London, the Jesuits run
three other parishes and a school; Heythrop
College, part of the University of London.
and at the University of El
Salvador in Buenos Aires.
The Vatican communications
operation, which includes a TV
station, radio station and press
office, has often been slow to
take advantage of the
opportunities modern media
the Jesuit Refugee Service; and a centre in
Southall for inter-religious dialogue.
In addition, Jesuit Media Services run
Pray-as-you-go, a daily prayer format for
people travelling to and from work to
download on MP3 players, and Thinking
Faith, an online journal of faith and culture.
offers and poor in communicating
the Church’s message to not just
a secular audience but also a
Catholic one.
Seasoned Vatican experts, such
as the highly regarded John L.
Allen of the National Catholic
Reporter, are forever
complaining about how slow
things move and the lack of
information.
The general view amongst
journalists covering Church
affairs is that Father Lombardi,
the Jesuit who is head of the
Vatican press office, tries his
best, but all too often has been
kept waiting in the corridor
twiddling his thumbs when
decisions with media implications
have been made.
Had sufficient thought been
given to how certain
announcements might play out in
the media, then damage would
have been prevented.
Because of this, the reforms
that many anticipate Pope
Francis will introduce into the
way the Roman curia runs the
Vatican need to also address
communication.
In an age of 24-hour news,
Facebook and You Tube, using
encyclicals and other documents
as the primary way to put across
Church teaching is unlikely to
have much impact in the wider
world.
To communicate the gospel
effectively to a twenty-first
century audience requires
twenty-first century methods.
However, simply going on You
Tube or Twitter is not enough.
What is needed is imagination,
creativity, the use of simple
language, and an ability to read
the signs of the times and
respond accordingly.
St Francis of Assisi and St
Ignatius of Loyola – who,
interestingly, both appeared at a
time when the Church needed
renewal and reform -
demonstrated all these qualities.
Something tells me that Pope
Francis, Franciscan in vision,
Jesuit by training, may well turn
out to be full of surprises in what
he says and the way he chooses
to say it.