“L’Osservatore Romano” is the Pope’s daily newspaper. Last July 1st
it reached 150 years of age under the direction of Giovanni Maria Vian,
who took over the reins in 2007.
With this historian and journalist as
guide, the newspaper entered into a new era, with female
collaborators and an internet page included. A project that does not
appeal, at least to some Latin American Catholic milieus.
“Reverend father: with all due respect I would like to inform you that the article by Maurizio Fontana on July 19th constitutes
not only an offense to the dignity of four Latin American communities
of people, it once more demonstrates that L’Osservatore Romano is off
center and unrealistic”.
With these words Christine de Marcellus Vollmer
expressed her frustration to the director of the Vatican’s newsroom,
Federico Lombardi.
Motive? A sports article published by the papal
newspaper on the Copa América 2011, the biggest continental soccer
tournament. The criticism could go unnoticed if it were not for the
author: an adviser for the Pontifical Academy for Life and pro-life
activist who, in 2005, was elected by the magazine “Inside the Vatican”
as one of the 10 notable Catholics in the United States.
Vollmer, Venezuelan by birth, in his email,
claimed that the columnist described the arrival of the Venezuelan
national team to the semifinal of this competition as “a disappointment”
and added: “the truth is that for this country that is ruined, divided
and living the distress of the uncertainty of the political effects of
the terminal cancer afflicting (Hugo) Chávez, it was the blessing of a
day of unity in joy of recapturing its positive identity as a nation and
to recall that, with effort, it is always possible to rise up from
below”.
Furthermore he regretted the “derogatory remarks”
with which Fontana treated both Peru and the “fallen”, Argentina and
Brazil, concepts that he characterized as “unworthy of the newspaper that the world considers the voice of His Holiness the Pope”.
“Those who already know realized that it is not
like that, since L’Osservatore Romano is promoting Harry Potter on which
His Holiness has already made a pronouncement, warning of its harmful
effects for the faith. It would seem destined for self-destruction. I
hope, father, that you interpret this message as constructive criticism
from one who is a consistent servant of the Church”, he finished off.
This criticism has not been the first nor the last
directed against the contents published by the Roman daily. In Latin
America the memory of the “scandal of the Brazilian girl” still remains
vivid, triggered by an article by the archbishop Salvatore “Rino”
Fisichella in this publication.
In the text, dated March 15, 2009, the then
president of the Pontifical Academy for Life filed an appeal on
compassion for the physicians that “allowed” a nine year old child “to
live” on whom they performed an abortion of twins.
The intention of the text, apparently commissioned
by the Vatican Secretary of State, was to respond to a campaign of the
French press that had the bishop of Olinda and Recife, José Cardoso
Sobrinho, being prosecuted because he recalled the Catholic doctrine
with regard to abortion and excommunication.
The results could not be worse. Like in his
article Fisichella affirmed that the physicians responsible for the
interruption of the pregnancy “do not deserve to be excommunicated”,
just like others. This sentence unleashed a tremendous controversy that involved feminist groups and pro-life Catholics.
The controversy escalated so much in tenor that it
extended beyond Latin America and even required Benedict XVI to order
the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the publication of a note
to clarify that nothing had changed in the canonical sentences in
effect against the killing of babies in the mother’s womb.
Episodes likes this have repeated themselves. For
example, a text from L’Osservatore that praised the first 100 days of
the government of Barack Obama in the United States or the note that
mentioned the death of the Nobel prize winner in literature, José
Saramago, were highly criticized. Also pieces dedicated to themes
considered “popular” like the music of the Beatles, the Harry Potter
movies or soccer were not liked.
A special case constituted the notice, on
November 20, 2010, of various paragraphs of the book-interview of the
Pope with the German author Peter Seewald, “Light of the world”. An
extract taken out of context in which Joseph Ratzinger referred to the
use of condoms in extreme cases caused the worst crisis with regard to
communication of the current pontificate. So much so that some Spanish
Catholic commentators accused the Vatican daily of being a
“sensationalist tabloid”.
But to say about the director Vian all these
uncomfortable contents have their logic, first of all because – contrary
to that which may be thought - L’Osservatore Romano is not an “official
newspaper”, although it receives explicit instructions (although few)
both from the pontiff and the Secretary of State of the Vatican.
“In this century and a half of history it has
dealt with everything. It does not deal specifically with theater,
sports or finances, but nothing prevents it from doing so. At the beginning of the 20th
century in fact it published serial novels, in order to get through to
more readers. I think that a small newspaper, but of enormous influence,
should deal with that which is of interest to people”, he explained
during a lunch with journalists at the head office of the Foreign Press
Association on May 5, 2010.
He specified that, despite being the only
newspaper of the Holy See, L’Osservatore Romano “it is not an official
daily” that, in certain cases, does present itself with official status
when documents are published in it that come into effect at the time of
its appearance in the newspaper.
“It should be known that only the part entitled
‘Our information’ has official status, that is to say the papal hearings
and appointments . Having said this, the Secretary of State who is our
editor on behalf of the Pope, is quite happy that we do our work and we are very happy to help the Secretary of State to do his”, he pondered.