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VATICAN LETTER Jan-16-2004 (960 words) Backgrounder. xxxi
When Vatican officials speak, things are not what they appear to be
By John Thavis
Catholic News Service
VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- A phantom papal quote about Mel Gibson's new movie has thrown a spotlight on a growing problem at the Vatican: For such a hierarchical organization, it has a muddled way of divulging information.
Particularly in recent months, it seems that Vatican officials are not always working from the same script. On issues as diverse as events in Iraq and the morality of condom use, the universal church seems to be speaking with more than one voice.
In a small but significant way, Gibson's movie, "The Passion of the Christ," is bringing the issue to a head.
In December, Pope John Paul II had an advance private viewing of the controversial film in his apartment. Several days later, The Wall Street Journal reported that the pontiff had remarked after seeing the film, "It is as it was," meaning it had accurately depicted Christ's suffering.
The newspaper said the papal quote was relayed by Steve McEveety, one of the film's producers, who supposedly heard it from the longtime papal secretary, Archbishop Stanislaw Dziwisz, who supposedly heard it from the pope.
Other media began citing an anonymous Vatican source as confirming the pope's remark.
But Catholic News Service spoke with two informed Vatican officials close to the pope who, while confirming details of the papal viewing, strongly denied that the pope had expressed any judgment about the film.
The director of the Vatican press office, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, would make no official comment on the matter. All of which left people wondering whether the pope actually uttered the phrase, or if someone put words in his mouth.
The controversy is unlikely to disappear soon, since the grass-roots promotional campaign for Gibson's film is making heavy use of the alleged papal endorsement -- alternately described as a "four-star review," a "blessing" or a papal "thumbs up."
Cardinal Renato Martino's comments in December about deposed Iraqi President Saddam Hussein offered another example of mixed messages from the Vatican. At a press conference, the cardinal spoke of the crimes of the captured Iraqi dictator and said he deserved to be put on trial. But the cardinal said he was disturbed by TV images of a disheveled Saddam undergoing a medical examination.
"What caused me pain was seeing this ruined man, treated like a cow whose teeth are being examined. They could have spared us those pictures," said Cardinal Martino, president of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.
That prompted the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican, Jim Nicholson, to go to the Vatican Secretariat of State, where he said Cardinal Angelo Sodano assured him that Cardinal Martino was merely expressing his own opinion.
At the same time, some reporters began receiving phone calls from a Vatican official who -- on condition of anonymity -- offered the same message as Cardinal Sodano's. The result was a round of stories about the Vatican distancing itself from Cardinal Martino's remarks.
At a reception in Rome Jan. 13, Cardinal Martino smiled about the episode and said he felt confident he hadn't sung out of tune. He said he had dined with the pope in early January and discussed the matter, and that the pontiff agreed with what he had said.
The cardinal also said his words were given a twist by the media that made him come off as an apologist for Saddam. He said his problem was not with Saddam's medical examination, but that it was shown on TV, in apparent violation of international conventions on treatment of prisoners.
The cardinal, who spent 16 years as Vatican ambassador to the United Nations and considers himself a good friend of the United States, said it was a shame that he was being depicted as some kind of U.S. adversary.
Another Vatican official, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, has a well-earned reputation for making waves, and he did not disappoint British Broadcasting Corp. viewers last fall. In an interview, he said condoms were not an effective barrier against the AIDS virus and suggested condom packets should carry a warning to that effect.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo heads the Pontifical Council for the Family, which years ago encouraged Catholic parents to pull their children out of classes that promote the "deluded theory" that condoms can protect against AIDS. It said the only real answer was abstinence outside of marriage and fidelity in marriage.
Privately, other Vatican officials said it was unfortunate that Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's recent comments were being allowed to stand as the "Vatican" position on condoms. The issue is much more complex than that and is the subject of nuanced discussion among Vatican theologians, they said.
Cardinal Lopez Trujillo's statements are sometimes downplayed at the Vatican because he heads a pontifical council, not a congregation. The reasoning is that pontifical councils are "promotional" Vatican agencies, compared, for example, to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which pronounces authoritatively on doctrinal issues.
That may be too subtle a distinction for anyone outside the Vatican's inner circle, however. Most people figure that when a Vatican cardinal steps in front of the TV microphones he's got his superiors' approval.
When journalists seek official clarification on these kinds of questions at the Vatican press office, they often go away empty-handed. The Vatican is not like the White House, where daily press briefings are routine. The papal spokesman, Navarro-Valls, rarely appears in the journalists' room of the press office, and it is not easy for most reporters to get him on the phone.
The press office handles a huge flow of papal speeches and Vatican documents. But for candid commentary reporters are increasingly forced to rely on anonymous sources and "don't-quote-me" insights -- in the hope that they're not self-serving.
END
Copyright (c) 2004 Catholic News Service/U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. The CNS news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed, including but not limited to such means as framing or any other digital copying or distribution method, in whole or in part without the prior written authority of Catholic News Service.
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