We Have an Anti Pope- It's Bad Journalism

This is an interesting interview that has been translated into English. You can find it on this page.
The Introduction will be in blue
The interviewer's questions will be in Red.
The person being interviewed answers will be in blue
The person who posted this additional comments will be in purple

How the media misrepresent the Pope by Andrea Acampa

Translated from February 10, 2010

"To understand Benedict XVI is not easy. To communicate him to the people is even less so*. [I disagree strongly, but more below.] In this sense, the new book by the journalist Francesco Antonio Grana is spot on in giving a reading of this Pontificate outside the usual media box", according to Cardinal Michele Giordano, who wrote the Preface to Grana's latest book, Benedetto XVI oltre le mode del pensiero(Benedict XVI beyond fashions of thought)(L’Orientale Editrice, 2009).

As Grana says in his book: "If on the one hand, the faithful who had become accustomed to the eloquent language of John Paul II's gestures - a true and proper unwritten encyclical - have committed themselves to follow the new Pope [It's five years already! Stop calling him the new Pope!], the media have not done so, which have persisted in using cliches instead of seeking to find out who he really is and what he proposes.

Thus, very often, one reads homologous news reports generally taking the line laid down by the news agencies". {There follows an interview with Grana.]

Grana was introduced to the Pope by Cardinal Giordano when the latter had an audience with the Pope last weekend, and Grana took the occasion to present the Pope with the four books he has written.

The title of your book is enigmatic. Why did you choose it?

As a communications professional, I would be expected to say it was to catch the attention of media and public opinion. But I would be lying to myself first of all. A bishop told me that today, it is not uncommon that books on the Pope and the Church are an opportunity for business. But he added that in my case, it was not so, with the affection and esteem of those who have followed my writing all these years.

Actually, the title was born while I was writing the book. When I was seeking to write about Benedict XVI beyond the cliches, the commonplaces of communications, beyond the caricature of which he has been a victim, beyond fashionable thinking, precisely.

How do you think the media have done in communicating teh Pope's authentic message?

I don't wish to be pessimistic although I am tempted to be. We journalists did not wait to see the first actions of Benedict XVI to understand how he would carry out his Pontificate, especially after the long reign of the great John Paul II. What we did, instead, was to superimpose our own convictions, often diametrically opposed to fact, on Benedict XVI's Magisterium, as for instance when it is said that only an anti-Conciliar Pope could rehabilitate the Latin mass or revoke the excommunication of the Lefebvrian bishops.

It doesn't matter that Benedict XVI, with great clarity, has explained the authentic meaning of his actions - aimed at reconciliation and unity. Media still choose to impose their own convictions, their own cliches, on reality.

So Benedict's enemy is bad journalism?

In some way, bad journalism has become a kind of anti-Pope which places itself regularly in opposition to someone elected by the cardinals in Conclave! But their voice is suffocating that of the Pope. Often, in order to understand what Papa Ratzinger really thinks, one must read his homilies and addresses in full, and not newspaper articles. [I have always advocated that - and that is why I break my back to post full translations of papal texts ASAP, so that the news reports can only serve to demonstrate how regularly the journalists misrepresent his thought or reduce it to a single point - often the wrong one - instead of presenting it in all its richness! Recently, with his address to the Pontifical Council for the Family, the news reports ignored all his family-oriented messages to play up what he said about sex-offending priests, which was simply an illustration for what he said about how children must be respected!]

There are those who claim that Benedict XVI is a Pope who is all wrapped up in ivory-tower intellectual exercises, who is bent on always saying NO mercilessly, who is deaf to modernity and hostile to other religions. Is that so?

The Benedict XVI we have seen in the past four (almost five) years is everything but! This is a Pope who can communicate with theologians as with children, with the crowds in St. Peter's Square and those who flock to him when he travels, with leaders of all religions and with the youth of the world.

A man who, in the wake of his predecessors, has given priority in his pontificate to ecumenical and inter-religious dialog. [No! He was the first one to specifically name it as his priority. It was not Paul VI's priority (who had his hands more than full with overseeing the chaotic post-conciliar years), nor was it John Paul II's (who was focused on bringing down Communism in the first 12 years of his reign, and after that, on pursuing new evangelization all over the globe)].

He is a Pope who speaks to the heart and who stirs up remarkable attention even beyond the Catholic world. This does not please some.

Is it that difficult to get on Benedict XVI's wavelength?

I don't think so. All that media needs to do, as Cardinal Bertone once said, is to report, without adding their distorted interpretations, what the Pope really says and his actions as father of the people of God. That is how we journalists can best serve the truth. Left, Grana's new book on Benedict XVI; right, his first B16 book in 2007, 'Compromettiti con Dio' [Commit yourself to God: The revolution of Benedict XVI].

Last Saturday, you presented the Pope with your four books? What did he say?

First of all, it was very emotional for me to meet Benedict XVI and to present my books to him. He was so good as to show great interest, taking some time to look through the books - the one dedicated to John Paul II, the one that analyzes Church communications, and the two books dedicated to his Pontificate.

Also very touching were the words of Cardinal Giordano when he introduced me to the Pope as his spiritual son. Benedict XVI also thanked him for having supported my work in trying to spread his Magisterium by writing the introductions adn presenting the books to the public. At the end of the meeting, I asked the Pope to pray for me, and he, with singular gentleness, asked me to do the same for him.

Benedict XVI has a very refined sensitivity and I hope that this can be perceived increasingly by believers as well as all other men". *

[It's unfortunate that Cardinal Giordano starts with the two statements as he does. Because to understand Benedict XVI in his homilies and other papal texts is generally easy, whether one reads them only with the eyes of faith, or with the use of both faith and reason.

He writes them to be understood. The proof is that over-simplified, reductive or even downright misleading introductory sentences in which the journalist paraphrases him. are then eked out by quoting him directly.

The more formal texts - encyclicals and some messages for international observances - are a bit more difficult to go through, because of their more academic nature. These are the texts that require the journalist to earn his wages by breaking them up into thematic units that can be reported simply but multiply - a single news report will not do them justice. Think of Caritas in veritate, with its blend of theology, philosophy, economics and practical, down-to-earth propositions and considerations