While it has drawn much attention, the interview Pope Francis gave to
the prominent Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari is not the first of
its kind in the history of the Church, but part of a tradition
stretching back to “Good Pope John.”
The first interview ever given by a Pope to a “secular” newspaper was
that John XXIII gave to the prominent Italian journalist Indro
Montanelli in 1959, published in the Italian newspaper Corriere della
Sera on March 29 of that year.
It was Pope John XXIII himself who made the first move, asking his
personal secretary Loris Capovilla to inform Corriere della Sera chief
editor Mario Missiroli that he wanted to give an interview to a
journalist “outside of the Catholic circle.”
Missiroli asked Montanelli, his paper's most important columnist, to
conduct the interview, preferring him to the official Vatican analyst
Silvio Negro. Montanelli, an agnostic, was unfamiliar with the world of
the Church, but nonetheless had a lively conversation with the Pope.
John XXIII spoke candidly at that time about some of his private
opinions, including his low esteem for Pope Pius X, who had been
canonized some years before. He also announced to Montanelli that he
intended to call an ecumenical council, but the journalist did not grasp
the importance of that detail, giving it little attention in his
article.
John XXIII's successor, Pope Paul VI, gave an interview to the Italian
Vaticanista Alberto Cavallari in 1965, which was published Oct. 4 of
that year, again in Corriere della Sera.
Paul VI was very outspoken, addressing the problem of the lack of faith,
explaining that “the need of the Church to open up” comes from the fact
that “millions of people do belong to any religious faith anymore.”
He also addressed the birth control issue, a “delicate issue for the
Church men, and also humanly embarrassing,” he reflected. He maintained
that “it is not possible for the Church to stay silent, but it is also
problematic speaking about it. We really need God to enlighten us and
help us in addressing the birth control issue.”
Pope John Paul I's brief, 33-day pontificate did not afford him a chance to give interviews, but Pope John Paul II gave several.
In 1993, he spoke with the Polish-Italian journalist Jas Gawronski, and
the interview was published in La Stampa that year on Nov. 2.
Gawronski asked the Pope about international policy, the Holy See's
position on the conflict in Yugoslavia, about Poland, and about
communism. The Pope was also called to explain in more depth his comment
while visiting the Baltic nations that “Marxism also has a heart of
truth.”
John Paul II explained to Gawronski that his saying “was not a piece of
news,” since “the social teaching of the Church had always explained
it.” He also stressed that “there is a strong effort for the social
issues in communism, while capitalism is very individualistic.”
John Paul II also was the first Pope to be featured on a television
show, calling live to a 1998 episode of the Italian talk show Porta a
Porta. The show was celebrating the 20th anniversary of his pontificate,
and he thanked them for their work.
In addition, John Paul II co-authored an interview book with Italian
journalist Vittorio Messori, “Crossing the Threshold of Hope,” which
came about after a failed attempt at a television interview.
In 1993, he had agreed to be interviewed for the 15th anniversary of his
pontificate, and Messori's interview was to have been broadcast by
Italian state television RAI, as well as foreign stations.
However, Messori was skeptical about interviewing the Pope on
television, and when he met John Paul II in Castel Gandolfo to agree on
the questions for the interview, he told the Holy Father that “we need a
Pope, a master who guides us, not a TV pundit. We are not dealing with
the crisis of the Church. We are dealing with the crisis of faith.”
The Pope did not agree with Messori, but the TV interview was canceled
nonetheless.
However, John Paul II was so interested in the questions
that he later sent Messori his written answers in an envelope through
the then-director of the Vatican press office, Joaquin Navarro Valls.
The manuscript was entitled, “Crossing the threshold of hope,” which was
subsequently chosen as the title of the book that came from it.
More recently, Benedict XVI agreed to answer the questions put to him by
seven people on the Italian bishops’ conference TV show, “A Sua
Immagine.”
The show was broadcast April 22, 2011, and the first question was that
of a Japanese 7-year-old who had experienced the dramatic earthquake
that struck Japan. She asked the Pope why children must be so scared and
saddened by such events.
Benedict XVI spontaneously replied that he asked himself the same
questions, and that he did not have the answers.
The Pope then stressed
that “we know that Jesus suffered like you, innocently, and that the
true God is on your side.”
Benedict then concluded that “even if we have not the proper answers and
if sadness endures, it is important to know that God is on your side,
and this will certainly help you.”