What will the future hold for the Catholic information agency after its founder’s dismissal?
Zenit news agency’s director, Jesús Colina, was not just its founder but its driving force. A day or so ago, Colina announced that the Legionaries, whom the agency depends on, decided to weaken it, probably to keep a closer eye on its editorial production.
But will Zenit survive this turning point? It was the Legionaries themselves who brought about the director’s dismissal. They told Colina he had been fired because Zenit was not managing to establish a clear identity.
In actual fact, however, the real motive seems to lie elsewhere, that is in the Legionaries’ eagerness to have more direct power over content and ideas diffused by the agency.
The agency belongs to “Innovative Media Inc.”, a no-profit company in New York, which is Zenit’s owner and publishing house. Since it came to life 14 years ago, Zenit enjoyed the support of the Pontifical Council of Social Communication and the Latin American Episcopal Council (CELAM). Two priests from the Legion of Christ offer assistance and help with the editing of the “Analysis” Services and the weekly “Liturgy” column in the English version.
From the head office in the U.S., a network is being developed across nations, of organisations that collaborate in the agency’s various activities ("Fundación Zenit España" in Spain, "Association Zenit" in France, "Zenit ev", in Germany, "Asociacao Zenit" in Brasil) on topics of social, political and religious interest at the centre of the public debate.
Special focus was given to issues relating to the defence of life and the family, social justice, bioethical questions such as euthanasia, abortion and contraception, human rights questions and religious freedom.
The team is composed of clerics and lay people from new and old ecclesiastical bodies: Franciscans, Jesuits, the Opus Dei, Catholic Charismatic Renewal, Regnum Christi and the Teresian Institute. Zenit has been active since 1997, with 520 subscribers, and publishes its information services in seven languages: Spanish, English, French, German, Portuguese, Italian and Arabic.
Readers’ donations have prevented Zenit from making any losses in its annual balance sheets, for the past seven years.
In its first three years of life, some donations from the Italian Episcopal Conference and the Congregation of the Legion of Christ’s charity “Aid to the Church in Need”, made it possible for the establishment and early growth of the agency possible. In subsequent years, 90% of its annual budget was always covered by readers’ donations. The remaining 10% came from the sale of user and redistribution rights paid for by the media.
Colina’s relationship with the Legionaries has always been a difficult one, especially after the “Maciel case” in which the Legion’s founder was accused of leading a double life. He was a priest but also a father and a child molester.
In a conversation with “ACI Prensa” news agency, Jesús Colina explained the nature of his relations with the Legionaries and also said that what happened marked the end of an era “of mutual loss of trust” which began a few years back.
He recalled “the way in which the Legion of Christ covered up information about Fr. Marcial Maciel, facts which were the press uncovered by the dozen.” This, he added, “threatened the agency director’s trust in this institution.”
Colina did not hide his serious disappointment at the behaviour of those who despite admitting to knowing about Maciel’s misdeeds, and although they “had proof well before he died,” they continued to “speak of him as a life example” and all this went on even after the Holy See’s communiqué in 2006.
And that is not all: Colina said that after the disciplinary measures the Vatican adopted against Maciel, these very same people wanted to keep the myth of the director’s holiness alive, and within the congregation, they circulated the idea that “the Pope had bestowed an unjust punishment.”
Jesús Colina also referred to another important question: his request to the Council two years ago, for a separate administration (from the Institute), given that the agency has always lived off donations from its readers and as such, was morally obliged to account for every cent received. Colina explained that “despite being told that this would be taken care of soon, nothing was actually ever done about it.”
It is never easy for Catholic agencies to find a middle ground that is able to please both agency owners (which are often religious institutes) and those who work and write in these agencies. Colina’s dismissal is an open wound within the Legion, still afflicted by internal divisions following the scandal which put Marcial Maciel Degollado under the spotlight.
Now the information service providing news about the Pope and the Catholic Church, will be directly managed by the editor of Zenit (the religious order of the Legion of Christ) through the executive board’s President, the Legionary priest, Óscar Náder, the man who wanted Colina to be sacked.