Michael Kelly“Infighting and jockeying for positions” muddies the Church’s message, writes Michael Kelly
The Vatican announced at the weekend that Pope Francis had established a new Secretariat for Communications. The new office will take charge of the disparate communications divisions of the Holy See. Anyone who has seen the Vatican media operation up close can’t fail to notice how unwieldy and marked by petty rivalry it has become.
The Pope’s move is an effort to render the Vatican more effective in today’s digital world. The new office has the aim of coordinating and streamlining the Holy See’s multiple communications outlets.
The development of digital media, with its converging technologies and interactive capabilities, “requires a rethinking of the information system of the Holy See,” the Pope wrote in a letter establishing the new body.
This “reorganisation,” he insists, “must proceed decisively toward integration and a unified management” so that “the communication system of the Holy See will respond in an ever more efficacious manner to the needs of the mission of the Church”.
Msgr Dario Vigano, director of the Vatican Television Centre, has been appointed head of the new secretariat.
Nine Vatican media operations will be gradually integrated over the next four years. A Vatican spokesman insisted that jobs will not be lost.
The nine offices to be incorporated are:
- the Pontifical Council for Social Communications;
- the Vatican press office;
- the Vatican Internet office;
- Vatican Radio;
- the Vatican television production studio, CTV;
- the Vatican newspaper, L’Osservatore Romano;
- the Vatican printing press;
- the Vatican photograph service;
- the Vatican publishing house, Libreria Editrice Vaticana.
When I was based in Rome, I worked for a time for Vatican Radio. It offered me an insight in to the sprawling nature of the Vatican’s various communications offices and departments. One thing that struck me, in a Church that should be marked by communion and collaboration, was the fact that there was so much infighting and jockeying for positions.
The various offices dedicated to communications, seemed to lack the ability to communicate with one another never mind present a coherent vision of the Church’s message to the outside world.
And, if Benedict XVI’s contention that “we cannot communicate with the Lord if we do not communicate with one another” is true, then the Church is in trouble.
Francis clearly wants to address this. He has frequently criticised some curial officials for behaving like they are present at a medieval court rather than at the service of the Gospel. Hopefully the new secretariat will go some way to building a more collaborative approach to communications and address some of the deficiencies that are regularly on display as various offices of the Vatican approach the area of media in a different and sometimes contradictory fashion.
Cinematic triumph: Msgr Vigano, the 53-tear-old Milanese priest who heads up the new office, is a trained filmmaker and was responsible for the beautifully moving scenes of Benedict’s last day as Pope and departure from the Vatican. Msgr Vigano – by means of more than 20 cameras – ensured that every moment from the Pontiff’s departure from the Apostolic Palace, through the helicopter ride to Castel Gandolfo, and Benedict’s public words was captured on camera in what was hailed a cinematic triumph.
Pope’s tweets are invaluable
At the time of writing, Pope Francis had almost 22 million followers on the social media service Twitter.
Almost every day, the Pope sends a short message (no more than 140 characters) to his followers. It is often inspiring, sometimes challenging, but always snappy and to the point. Twitter is criticised by some because of its brevity and it is sometimes limited. However, when I encounter this, I like to point out that Christ was
very adept at one-liners and sound-bites.
The new communications secretariat now takes responsibility for the Pope’s tweets.
He’s certainly worth a follow @Pontifex.