This title does not refer to recent reports in the international media alleging that credible intelligence shows that Pope Francis can be a target for ISIS. Neither do I refer to another possible threat by the Italian Mafia.
The Mafia is seriously annoyed at the Pope not only because of his stern condemnations of them but because of the reform of the Vatican Bank.
The threat I refer to was mentioned by a porporato (also known as a cardinal) about other porporati in preparation for the Synod on the Family that will start meeting next Sunday. More on this later.
This accusation is not the only difference between the coming synod and previous ones. This is just a synod to prepare for another synod.
The meetings that will be held at the Vatican during the first three weeks of October will mainly serve to prepare the agenda for the 2015 synod at the end of which the participants will present to the Pope the fruits of their deliberations. The real action will happen in 2015.
The main difference between this synod and previous ones is the use of the media. This is not just a synod where the media runs after the main participants to get the news. Nothing new here as the media always go where they smell blood. What’s new is the extent to which the main protagonists are running after the media to give exposure to their arguments.
The main battle horse at the synod is the eligibility of divorced and civilly remarried Catholics to receive Communion.
The trenches occupied by those holding a different position have been etched in printing presses, newspaper columns, radio interviews, television talk shows and a myriad blogs more than any Church internal communications structure.
The social media networks have been particularly busy with traffic on the issue.
On one side of the argument there is Cardinal Walter Kasper, who has been proposing a qualified modification in current pastoral practice denying communion to people is these relationships.
He explained his position to the College of Cardinals, which was favourably endorsed by the Pope himself. His paper was leaked to the media, creating quite a stir.
Then he published a book and gave numerous interviews about it, particularly during a US tour to promote his position.
His thesis is supported by German Cardinal Reinhard Marx and the Honduran Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga. Marx says that most German bishops support Kasper. Maradiaga says that the Church could be a little more flexible. Their use of the media has not been lacking.
The group with the contrary position is similarly active in the media. This week Ignatius Press will publish three books as part of their counterattack to Kasper’s position, which they hold to be an anathema.
Remaining in the Truth of Christ is penned by heavyweights: Cardinal Gerhard Mueller, Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith; Cardinal Raymond Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Court of the Apostolic Signature; and Cardinal Carlo Caffarra of Bologna, Italy.
The second book, The Hope of the Family is an extended interview with Cardinal Mueller; while the third book is The Gospel of the Family, a title plagiarised from the Paulist Press publication of the address to the cardinals by Kasper. This book features a foreword by Cardinal George Pell, Prefect of the Secretariat for the Economy.
Strong phrases are used by all sides. The most aggressive were bloggers.But strong statements by cardinals also provided the perfect soundbite for TV or juicy headings for newspapers.
What journalists should not jump on is statements like the following:
Mueller says that in view of scriptural evidence he looks at Kasper’s position “with certain amazement”, a polite way of saying it does not make sense.
Caffara, another appointee of Pope Francis to the synod, equates the lifting of the ban on the reception of communion to a denial of the indissolubility of marriage. Pell states the same while appealing for a quick, clear restatement of the traditional ban to get the debate over and done with.
Kasper retorts that “Catholic doctrine is not a closed system, but a living tradition that develops”, and that these cardinals want “to crystallise the truth in... the formulas of tradition”.
Those who look at the Church as a closed system must be scandalised by the openness being shown by so many cardinals
He believes he is not the real target of these concerted attacks but that probably the Pope himself is the target.
He says that whatever he did, he did with the approval of the Pope, who according to reports in the French Catholic daily La Croix was not pleased with the appearance of these books.
Quite naturally we will never know whether this is true of not.
While all these controversial statements are being bandied around by so many cardinals, the mind boggles at Burke’s statement that the mass media has been “trying to hijack” the synod, a statement that ignores the many indications that the media are being contentedly hijacked by the protagonists in the controversy!
Is this a passing phase? Is it positive or negative?
Those who look at the Church as a closed system inspired by omertà and the village mentality that ‘dirty clothes are washed at home’ must be scandalised by the openness being shown by so many cardinals participating in the public debate.
Considering that those taking to the media platform are not a few ‘upstart’ priests, but eminent prelates, criticism had to be muted, though we had many instances when the pot called the kettle black.
Others, myself included, see this debate as a healthy paradigmatic shift in the way the Church communicates internally and externally.
Hopefully this shift leads towards a more open and transparent Church, truly a city built on a mountain top for all to see.
Perhaps we are witnessing a new flurry of the exercise of the free expression of the will of the faithful, particularly where the social networks are involved.
Only time will tell.
joseph.borg@um.edu.mt