"VATICAN CITY (AP) -- The Vatican has gone into full-fledged damage control mode in the priest sex abuse scandal ahead of Pope Benedict XVI's first foreign trip since it erupted. Officials are promising surprising new initiatives. The pope's personal secretary is speaking out. And bishops around the world are being told to report abuse cases to the police"I had to laugh. As reported globally, the Vatican response so far has been an unmitigated disaster. Rather than look at themselves in the mirror:
Cardinal Jose Saraiva Martins, one of the Pope's top aides, denounces the media conspiracy against the Church (Daily News.com):
"This is a pretext for attacking the church," he said. "There is a well-organized plan with a very clear aim," he said, without spelling out who was behind it. Saraiva Martins said he was for zero tolerance of abuse, but could understand why some bishops covered up cases in the past. "We should not be too scandalized if some bishops knew about it but kept it secret. This is what happens in every family, you don't wash your dirty laundry in public," he said.
Rev. Raniero Cantalamessa, the Preacher of the Papal Household, likens the criticism of abuse to antisemitism (New York Times):
“They know from experience what it means to be victims of collective violence, and also because of this they are quick to recognize the recurring symptoms,” said Father Cantalamessa, who serves under the title of preacher of the papal household. Then he quoted from what he said was a letter from a Jewish friend he did not identify. “I am following the violent and concentric attacks against the church, the pope and all the faithful by the whole world,” he said the friend wrote. “The use of stereotypes, the passing from personal responsibility and guilt to a collective guilt, remind me of the more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism.”
The influential Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana argues rather petulantly that Protestants are twice as bad (Irish Times):
“Important international sociology studies, applied to religion, have demonstrated that among Protestant pastors, the percentage of those condemned for abuse of minors is double that of Catholic priests . . . and the frequency is 10 times higher among gym teachers and the coaches of youth sports teams.”
Cardinal Bertone, the Vatican Secretary of State blames it on homosexuality (Irish Times):
This is just a small selection of the coverage. A quick browse through Google News shows that the same stories are being covered all over the world.It is homosexuality, not celibacy, that is linked to paedophilia, the Vatican’s secretary of state, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, said yesterday, seeking to defuse the sex scandal that has battered the Catholic Church. “Many psychologists and psychiatrists have shown that there is no link between celibacy and paedophilia but many others have shown, I have recently been told, that there is a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia,” he told a news conference in Santiago.
So, why is the Vatican getting it so horribly wrong?
The Washington Post writing about the lack of a Vatican communications strategy suggests that the problem is at least partly structural.
They say the Vatican can appear tone deaf, even on the most sensitive subjects, and have theories why. One is structural, with a system that harbors a military respect for rank and fiefdom and is a massive, centuries-old theocracy that still requires some official documents to be in Latin.
The BBC writing about why the Vatican media strategy is failing suggests that personality and lack of perspective also play a role.Experts say there is no unifying figure or office to pull together a team during a crisis. Public communications are dealt with by multiple institutions: Lombardi, a Jesuit priest, runs the Vatican's media and press office. The secretary of state's office is also a key player, and the Pontifical Council for Social Communications has dozens of advisers around the world to help it spread the faith, including a Bombay filmmaker, a TV executive from Indonesia and a radio correspondent from Africa.
The council isn't charged with getting involved in news. But to some, it's emblematic that during an epic crisis, this panel of communications experts doesn't meet again until next year. Lombardi recently made a point of saying that he speaks for the Vatican, not the pope.
"The mind-set is that no one speaks for the pope," Shaw said. "If the pope wants to speak, he'll speak for himself."
When I asked John L Allen, the American Catholic commentator on the Vatican, why its media strategy was failing, he responded:
The Huffington Post writing about how the Pope's ivory tower adds to his detachment, suggests that the Pope's cloistered existence as an academic and senior church figure and his poor choice of advisers bear some of the blame."As soon as I see that they have a strategy, I will answer you! The fact is, they don't have one, and that is where they are going wrong."
Indeed, the absence of a coherent media strategy is evident, as a variety of Vatican personalities take it upon themselves to respond publicly to the accusations. They often do it in a defensive or denial mode, shooting the messenger, or denouncing a conspiracy against the Pope and the Catholic Church because of its moral stances on life, the family and bioethics.
Over recent weeks, the Vatican has often resembled a fire brigade as it dashed to quench a fire in one place only to find another has broken out elsewhere, and never knowing where the next might blaze up.
From a Public Affairs/Crisis Communication perspective, the Vatican provides a fascinating case study, and one that I'm sure will provide much fodder for students for years to come.Joseph Ratzinger, the future pope, only worked 15 months tending to a flock in the 59 years since taking his vows, instead closing himself in the ivory tower of academia – a background that may help account for his troubled handling of the sex abuse crisis engulfing the church.
...
Some of Benedict's critics, however, say the pope's real problems lie mainly with a practice of surrounding himself with unqualified advisers.
"He doesn't have grade A types around him – but he picked them," said the Rev. Richard McBrien, a theologian at the University of Notre Dame and frequent critic of the pope.
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