A Thursday report in the Telegraph demonstrates that communication strategy seems to be falling apart at the Vatican. The Holy See continues to deal with the fall-out of the Pope’s statement upon his first official African visit that Aids “cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems”.
This, in the wake of his recent lifting of the 20-year excommunication of a British bishop who has questioned the Holocaust has created a call for a major shift in the way the pontiff delivers his message online and has some looking at the possibility of a change in leadership within the Catholic Church.
“He’s out of touch with the real world,” a Vatican insider said. “On the condom issue, for example, there are priests and bishops in Africa who accept that condoms are a key part of the fight against Aids, and yet the pope adheres to this very conservative line that they encourage promiscuity. The Vatican is far removed from the reality on the ground.”
Part of the challenge for the Pope is that he seems to have lost control of the way his message is being delivered, and may have to shift the Vatican’s means of communication with the public, and may need to (gasp) keep the press office open later than 3 pm.
“Until recently the Vatican was secretive and their way of controlling the message of the Church was to release information slowly and highly selectively through carefully worded documents,” said Francis X Rocca, Vatican correspondent for Religion News Service.
“The problem now is that the internet and the blogosphere won’t wait for the Vatican, so its message gets swamped.”
Now, Benedict’s an old guy, and we can’t entirely blame him for not having a solid working knowledge of the internet. But it was pointed out by critics that a simple Google search would have yielded information on the anti-Semetic views of British bishop Richard Williamson (who denies the extent of the Holocaust) who caused an uproar recently when his ex-communication was overturned by the Pope.
Maybe it’s time for Benedict to educate himself on the difference between a blog and a tweet…or just get his head out of his ass. That might help too.
