News- Vatican

Trench Warfare

In an exceptional decision, the Pope placed his own apostolic delegate at the head of the most influential Catholic publishers in Italy: the Society of St. Paul.

Has the Vatican subverted the freedom of the press? That question was on the minds of some Italian journalists after the February 28 announcement that Pope John Paul had appointed a pontifical delegate to assume control over the Society of St. Paul. Clearly, the papal decision would have an important impact on the world of journalism, since the Society specializes in that field. The Pauline publications include the influential monthly magazine Jesus and Italy's largest weekly, Famiglia Cristiana. Together with other publications in the Pauline stable, these journals reach somewhere between 4 and 5 million readers, and bring in revenues to support an annual budget of over $180 million.

The new man on the scene, Bishop Antonio Buoncristiani, has been given sweeping powers to act "in the name of the Pope." The two superiors of the Pauline order affected by the move--Father Paolo Saorin, the superior for Italy, and Father Silvio Pignotti, the superior general of the order--are to make no major decisions without first consulting the new papal delegate. The purpose of this extraordinary move, the Vatican explained, is to restore the unity of the missionary society as it prepares for a chapter general and the election of a new superior in April of next year.

The Pope's move, which he said was made only after a long period of prayer and reflection, marked only the second time that John Paul has intervened so directly and authoritatively in the affairs of a religious order. The circumstances in this case are roughly analogous to those which prevailed in 1981, when he named a pontifical delegate to take over the Society of Jesus as the Jesuit order prepared for their own chapter general. Here too, the Pope is responding to his perception that the order is facing an internal crisis.

What provoked the Pope to take such a precipitous step? There is no doubt that John Paul himself was unhappy with the discord he saw tearing apart the Pauline order. But many Italian observers believe that in fact the intervention was first proposed by Cardinal Camillo Ruini, on behalf of the Italian episcopal conference.

Three years ago, the Church lost one of its main pillars in Italy, when the Christian Democratic Party succumbed to a series of fiscal scandals. Thus the Church lost her unofficial voice in the political world, at precisely the same time that an overall decline in public morality made it imperative for the Church to enter vigorously into public debates--which, as the bishops emphasized repeatedly, now involved broad cultural issues rather than partisan political concerns. In order to influence that cultural debate, the bishops felt that the Church needed an effective presence in the media. And unfortunately, in their view publications like Famiglia Cristiana and Jesus were not effective in transmitting the Catholic viewpoint.

In fact, at times the leading Pauline publication made life considerably more complicated for proponents of Chrisitan morality. For the past two years Famiglia Cristiana has featured a column in which the editor, Father Leonardo Zega, responds to reader's questions on matters of faith and morals. There is no doubt that the editor's style has been engaging; his loyalty to the magisterium of the Church is much more questionable. Father Zega routinely set forth his own peculiar ideas on delicate moral topics, without any mention of--let alone support for--Church teachings.

Thus, for example, the editor of Famiglia Christiana advised the wives and fiancés of men attracted to pornography that they should "not make a scene." A mother upset by the revelation that her son was homosexual was told that parents are not "authorized " to interfere with the adult choices of their offspring, whose decisions should always be respected. And finally on masturbation, Father Zega announced that "there are many things more important to Christianity than the prohibition of putting our hands on certain parts of the body to give ourselves pleasure."

Relayed and amplified by the secular press, such comments had the effect not only of undermining the Italian hierarchy, but also provoking sharp discord within the Society of St. Paul. Although the female branch of the missionary society (with 2,681 members) has remained for the most part untouched by the controversy, the men's branch (with 1,194 members, including 574 priests) has been torn apart by the resulting disagreements.

For months, knowledgable observers say, the Society has been the focus of "trench warfare" between the Italian provincial, Father Saorin, and the superior general, Father Pignotti. The latter supports the editorial policies embodied by Father Zega; the former does not. The two have had a series of sharp disagreements about the editorial direction of the Pauline publications, leading finally to the decision of the superior general to request the resignation of the unhappy Father Saorin.

Perhaps remarkably, the Pope's intervention has not generally been portrayed in Italy as a conservative effort to silence a liberal periodical. Most Italian observers recognize that a range of factors are involved, including the financial welfare of the publishing group and the spiritual welfare of the Pauline order as well as the editorial policy of the magazines. And the priests involved have done their best to calm the controversy, avoiding any public statements which might renew their debate. In his first appearance as editor, Bishop Buoncristiani emphasized that he had been asked not to censor Father Zega--who remained at his editorial desk--but to preserve the unity of the Society.

The journalists employed by Famiglia Cristiana and Jesus, however, took a somewhat more skeptical line. After a meeting marked by their own heated debate, the staff members passed a resolution calling for "vigilant protection of the professional dignity of journalists"--a statement which they explained "took recent events into account." With that careful statement the editors hunkered down for a long period of watchful waiting, to see what the future might bring. Their questions should be answered soon after April 1998, when a new superior general is elected for the Pauline order--quite possibly, to take his own place in the trenches.

Jean-Marie Guénois is the director of the news agency I Media in Rome.