Pope Francis warns Church could become 'compassionate NGO'

[Digitonomy]

I am delighted that the Holy Father seems to understand what some on this board have denied in the past: The Church has a message, and it needs to use the media to help spread that message. Simple public relations.

(never mind the title; I don’t make the rules)

the fact that the new Pope will meet the media before anyone else at a special audience on Saturday morning shows a vivid awareness that prayer may not be enough to deal with the situation facing the Catholic Church at this critical moment in its long history.

Francis is a Jesuit, a member of perhaps the most powerful and experienced religious order of the Catholic Church. The Jesuits are expert communicators and it is significant that one of the first people summoned to meet the new Pope this morning was Father Federico Lombardi, head of Vatican Radio (run for many years by the Jesuits) and the Vatican Press Office.

Under Pope Benedict, Father Lombardi was a mere functionary who had no direct access to the Pope. He could not pick up the phone and talk things through quickly - he just received orders from the Vatican Secretariat of State. That has now changed overnight.
Source

Given past performance, I question whether Fr. Lombardi is the right man for the job. But it ain’t rocket science, and I’m confident he’ll do at least a satisfactory job given the attention to his work from Francis. PR manager just wasn’t something Benedict had a knack for. And it’s not something a pope should really need to be good at, so long as the rest of the curia is efficiently managed and the press secretary has the authority to speak for the pope and shut up other voices in the curia that are undermining the message of the pontiff.

 

[PJD1987]

I am delighted that the Holy Father seems to understand what some on this board have denied in the past: The Church has a message, and it needs to use the media to help spread that message. Simple public relations.

Given past performance, I question whether Fr. Lombardi is the right man for the job. But it ain’t rocket science, and I’m confident he’ll do at least a satisfactory job given the attention to his work from Francis. PR manager just wasn’t something Benedict had a knack for. And it’s not something a pope should really need to be good at, so long as the rest of the curia is efficiently managed and the press secretary has the authority to speak for the pope and shut up other voices in the curia that are undermining the message of the pontiff.

This meeting with the press is important, however, I hope it doesn’t become a weekly or even monthly thing that the Pope himself will meet with them. It would be very dangerous to set that precedent and then have the Pope be beholden to the media and have to answer to them. The Pope answers to no one but the Lord Jesus, and I believe it should stay that way. The media already tries to influence decisions enough.

I have no problem with a meet and greet type thing where he establishes a friendly relationship with them, but if it develops into a constant thing it may cause problems. But I do see the good in establishing better relations and beginning anew with the Catholic message in this brave new world of technology.

 

[jesus4ever]

The media hopes for change however its just the wrong change they want from the church. The call the church old age thinking. but its not what we want but want GOD want and is good for us and that is what the media dont understand and dont want to understand.

 

[TarkanAttila]

This meeting with the press is important, however, I hope it doesn’t become a weekly or even monthly thing that the Pope himself will meet with them. It would be very dangerous to set that precedent and then have the Pope be beholden to the media and have to answer to them. The Pope answers to no one but the Lord Jesus, and I believe it should stay that way. The media already tries to influence decisions enough.

I have no problem with a meet and greet type thing where he establishes a friendly relationship with them, but if it develops into a constant thing it may cause problems. But I do see the good in establishing better relations and beginning anew with the Catholic message in this brave new world of technology.

I don’t know what the Holy Father plans to do with the Media. However, if he were to meet regularly with the men from the media, it could only serve one purpose: to preach the Gospel, in or out of season.

If he does this, I have no doubt he will be a sign of contradiction - much beloved by the world for his humanitarianism, but much hated for standing for painful truths, such as the harm abortion and gay “marriage” do to society, the person, and the Body of Christ.

I think he will be, by God’s grace, worthy to be compared to Saint Peter, even if the Prophecy of the Popes is doubtful. In any case, I can only think he will be an image of Christ, a sign of contradiction, hated by the world although they’ll have no charge to make against him.

It’s a good day to be Catholic.

 

[VeritasLuxMea]

I would just hope that the “spiritual renewal” doesn’t come at a cost of the “compassionate NGO.”

I think there are a lot of people who would make the Church only one or only the other, and we need both.

 

[Digitonomy]

This meeting with the press is important, however, I hope it doesn’t become a weekly or even monthly thing that the Pope himself will meet with them. It would be very dangerous to set that precedent and then have the Pope be beholden to the media and have to answer to them. The Pope answers to no one but the Lord Jesus, and I believe it should stay that way. The media already tries to influence decisions enough.

Cardinal Dolan doesn’t seem to have a problem with this sort of thing in his role. Ultimately the press is beholden to the pope as the subject of the interview or news conference. If the pope’s not comfortable doing frequent interviews, he won’t do frequent interviews.

It’s pretty much the same for presidential news conferences. Notice how the frequency drops off toward the end of most presidencies - it’s not that the media became less interested, it’s that the presidents chose not to do as many at that stage in their administrations.

jesus4ever:

The media hopes for change however its just the wrong change they want from the church.

That may be true to an extent, but mainly the media hope for good content and resulting money. If the pope can help them do their job, they will be happy to be an occasional tool for his job.

 

[TarkanAttila]

That may be true to an extent, but mainly the media hope for good content and resulting money. If the pope can help them do their job, they will be happy to be an occasional tool for his job.

The more I’ve heard from Catholic men in the media, less I take any “attacks” on the Church by the media “personally” (that is, because I thought the media hated the Church).

Is that wise?