The Vatican spokesman doesn't regularly discuss the clergy sex-abuse scandal with the pope. Its communications council's nextmeeting is in February (on the agenda: "the Internet"). For Americandefenders of Pope Benedict XVI, it has been frustrating to watch anapparent lack of a communications strategy for dealing with thescandal.
"My best answer would be a primal scream," Russell Shaw, who wasthe U.S. bishops' spokesman in the 1970s and '80s, said when askedabout the Vatican's recent dealings with the public. "It reflects atotally inadequate understanding and mind-set as to the wholesubject of communications."
Facing a torrent of cases in Europe and a new effort bysurvivors' advocates to highlight unresolved cases around the world,members of the pope's inner circle have said things that have onlydrawn more criticism, like the priest who on Good Friday comparedcriticism of the Church's handling of the abuse crisis to violentanti-Semitism.
Most American organizations facing such a barrage of negativenews would long ago have pulled together a crisis management teamand made top officials available for interviews to explain theirpoint of view. But the Vatican said such an approach is toocommercial for the Church to adopt. "We are not a multinationalenterprise, this is clear," the Rev. Federico Lombardi, a Vaticanspokesman, said in a telephone interview. "The normal situation ofthe Church and the Vatican is to help the people to understand theteachings of the Church and the documents of the pope and not tosell particular products."
On Friday, however, Lombardi released a statement that appearedto be trying to change the conversation. It said the Church wantedto emphasize its cooperation with civil justice systems and a desirefor "reconstituting a climate of justice and full faith in theinstitution of the Church." Benedict, he said, "is ready for newmeetings" with victims of clergy sexual abuse.
Some American defenders of the pope's actions say they aremystified about why the Vatican has not reached out more publicly toU.S. Catholics, who were tempered by a decade of experience inhelping the Church hierarchy respond when the subject eruptedpublicly in Boston in 2002.
Lombardi said the Vatican is consulting privately with someAmerican leaders. Some obvious candidates, including CardinalTheodore E. McCarrick, the archbishop emeritus of Washington, andAtlanta Archbishop Wilton Gregory, credited with making the Vaticanunderstand the severity of the U.S. scandal, declined to speak forthis article. Sister Mary Ann Walsh, spokeswoman for the U.S.bishops, said they would not publicize any assistance they mightoffer.
"Any conversations between us and the Vatican I wouldn'tmention," she said, hastening to add, "and that's not to say thatthere have been any conversations."
Walsh, who worked with the bishops' press office during the U.S.scandal, said the Vatican didn't see the need to speak outextensively during the scandal, as "it was seen as an Americanproblem."
There appears to be a more organized effort, particularly in theUnited States, to defend the pope. American bishops across thecountry, including Washington Archbishop Donald W. Wuerl, took tothe pulpit and op-ed pages over the Easter weekend. "What happenswhen a pope is persecuted?" was the title of a news release by theAtlanta-based Catholic public relations firm Maximus. "MartyredPopes" was the name of a blog post by American Catholic writerRobert Moynihan.
But still, there is sense that U.S. expertise is going largelyuntapped by the Vatican.
"Over the years, there has been frustration [that] we're notconsulted," said Matthew Bunson, editor of the Catholic Almanac.
American supporters of the pope say he should pay more attentionto his -- and the Church's -- image.
In addition to modernizing its approach to public communications,one suggestion made by many is that the Church should applyworldwide the tougher rules against child abuse that its U.S.bishops put in place in 2002.
They say the Vatican can appear tone deaf, even on the mostsensitive subjects, and have theories why. One is structural, with asystem that harbors a military respect for rank and fiefdom and is amassive, centuries-old theocracy that still requires some officialdocuments to be in Latin.
Experts say there is no unifying figure or office to pulltogether a team during a crisis. Public communications are dealtwith by multiple institutions: Lombardi, a Jesuit priest, runs theVatican's media and press office. The secretary of state's office isalso a key player, and the Pontifical Council for SocialCommunications has dozens of advisers around the world to help it spread the faith, including a Bombay filmmaker, a TV executive fromIndonesia and a radio correspondent from Africa.
The council isn't charged with getting involved in news. But tosome, it's emblematic that during an epic crisis, this panel ofcommunications experts doesn't meet again until next year. Lombardirecently made a point of saying that he speaks for the Vatican, notthe pope.
"The mind-set is that no one speaks for the pope," Shaw said. "Ifthe pope wants to speak, he'll speak for himself."
Barry McLoughlin, who holds crisis management seminars for U.S.bishops and helped them craft the tougher 2002 rules, said he's "inagony" watching the Church fail to get its footing. He said peoplearound the pope may be too intimidated to deliver bad news to hisface.
"Whether it's a golfing superstar or an international automaker,the communications advisers have to have direct access to thedecision maker," McLoughlin said. "That's just a rule."
To those less supportive of Church leaders, there seems anotherreason why they don't communicate more: They don't want to. The popeand those in the Vatican, these people say, wish to remain inanother world, focusing more on traditions and customs, even if thatmeans in some cases keeping sex-abuse allegations private or lettingthe Church's internal justice system grind away slowly as victimssuffer.
But that's not how pope defenders might frame it. "One thing thatmakes [Vatican critics] bonkers is this idea that everyone'sspiritual welfare might be handled better internally," Bunson said."But the civil system doesn't have to worry about eternal life."
Even as Lombardi framed the problem as coming from an outsideworld that doesn't understand the Church, he said, "We have a longway to go."
boorsteinm@washpost.com
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