Monday, March 23, 2009

Archbishop attacks pope's advisers

Pope Benedict XVI's Vatican advisers should do more to protect him from controversy, according to one of Britain's most senior Roman Catholics.

Recent furores, including criticism over his comments on the use of condoms as a weapon against HIV/Aids, showed that the Vatican's press team was failing him, the archbishop of Cardiff, Peter Smith, said.

He added that communication of the pope's messages was "not very satisfactory at the moment" and that he needed "very good, competent advisers".

The archbishop's comments follow global condemnation last week of the pontiff's stance on condoms, which overshadowed his first papal trip to Africa. Several EU states criticised his comments that the "scourge" of HIV/Aids could be "aggravated" rather than helped by the distribution of condoms.

Earlier this year he found himself at the centre of another row after welcoming British bishop Richard Williamson, a Holocaust denier, back to the church. Williamson, 68, had been excommunicated by John Paul II in 1988 and Pope Benedict was forced to admit that mistakes had been made over his decision.

The archbishop of Cardiff, who is one of five contenders to succeed Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor as archbishop of Westminster and spiritual head of Catholics in England and Wales, said the recent rows demonstrated how the pope's messages were being misunderstood. Even the Vatican's own press officers had accepted that they needed "to get their act together", he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

He added that the pope's advisers should have warned him of Williamson's views and of the risk of controversy in announcing that his excommunication was to be lifted. "Obviously there was a failure there somewhere in the Vatican. That's where he needs very good, competent advisers," the archbishop said. "Pope Benedict was very hurt by the reaction to all this and he apologised if it was due to any mistake on his part. In the best organised businesses or institutions things can sometimes go wrong."

The archbishop added that the row over condoms, which has dominated the pope's week-long visit to Cameroon and Angola, had served to obscure his real message, which was, he said, the need for all people to look at the values by which they lived their lives.

"I think Pope Benedict has a great deal to say to the modern world and the modern church," he said. "It is how we say these things, making sure that what we want to communicate is said pithily and in a way that people will understand what we are saying, otherwise the actual message doesn't get through.

"One of the difficulties we all have as bishops is to put the message of the gospel across in language which ordinary people will understand," he added.

"We tend to be using rather theological language and this applies also to the pope, because he is at heart an academic. He has been in the academic life for donkey's years and I think sometimes he may assume a little too much on the part of his hearers."

While he did not know exact details of how the pope's communications were arranged, the archbishop said: "The pope would write his own things and I assume he would also ask advisers to go through it. But there's many a slip between cup and lip."

Three years ago the pope sparked off Muslim protest across the world with a speech that quoted a 14th-century Christian emperor who said the prophet Mohammed had brought the world only "evil and unhuman" things. Apologising later, the pope said he respected Islam and hoped Muslims would understand the true sense of his words.

A newspaper poll shows Pope Benedict's popularity has plunged in France. A survey in Le Parisien found that 57% of respondents have a negative opinion of him, up from 25% shortly before his visit to France last September.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer

No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.

The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.

Sotto Voce

(Source: GUK)