Long before the advent of television, St Thomas Aquinas said, "faith comes from hearing", and the Catholic Church in New Zealand, once again, at least for a limited time, had a face and a voice.

Around about five years ago the Catholic Church in New Zealand opted for a new model of communications, and rather than the face and voice of one spokesperson, it looked to spread the load and bring more spokespeople to the fore.

At the time, spreading the load, new faces, new voices, different faces, different voices, different ways of seeing the Church through the media, sounded like quite a good plan.

It probably still is, but I'm beginning to wonder if it is too adventurous a plan for a small country, because in the five years or so since Catholic Communications closed the Church seems to have become faceless and voiceless.

Yes, there have been numerous media releases, Tweets and Facebook posts. There's even been an occasional media comment by a bishop or Church spokesperson, but they seem to have mainly fallen on deaf ears.

Media relations is a special skill

I think it's generally true that most organisations prefer the media to tell 'their' version of the truth. The Church, which prides itself on truth, is no exception.

Church truth, its belief and practice, is often somewhat nuanced as evidenced by Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post who reported recently on Pope Benedict's last public mass.

Describing Benedict's movements, Failoa wrote in the Washington Post: "He walked with a gilded cane in the shape of a cross" as people cheered "Long live the Pope!"

The "gilded cane in the shape of a cross" was actually a crozier, the shepherd's staff that symbolizes a bishop's role as the leader of his flock.

Sometimes it seems the media just doesn't 'get' the nuance of the Church.

The Church may not have a monopoly on the media not understanding its stories and events, but living in a post-Christian focussed society, it's kind of understandable the media doesn't have religious experts, understanding for example, Church theology, philosophy, history and liturgy.

The former Cardinal, Jorge Bergoglio, was often described as a shy man with an aversion to journalists, but on the day of his inauguration as Pope, Francis acknowledged the work of the media representatives, greeting them as "My dear friends".

His comments were greeted with cheers and several reporters shouted "Viva!".

Pope Francis clearly understands the importance of a relationship with the media, but it is likely to be rare that he meets with them.

As well as using media statements and social media to engage with society, the media also want a face, a person to relate to and with whom they can build a relationship and trust.

Pope Francis will generally use a Vatican spokesman to tell the Church's story and to keep the relationship alive.

For many years the Catholic Church in New Zealand fostered relationships with the New Zealand media. However by remodelling its communications, it seems to me we may have lost some impetus, lost our edge, lost our important perspective in a post-modern society.

For example I find it interesting that the New Zealand media is now preferring former TV reporter and now Anglican priest and communications spokesman Jayson Rhodes or a myriad of faceless university academics to talk about the church and matters of interest to the church and society.

It's perhaps timely to again recall Thomas Aquinas', "faith comes from hearing", and ask whose faith, and what is it that people are hearing?

I guess it's now no secret that I'm applauding the personal initiative of Auckland Bishop, Patrick Dunn, to send Lyndsay Freer to Rome to cover the Papal conclave and election of Pope Francis.

My reading of the situation is it seemed that after Dame Lyndsay arrived in Rome the New Zealand media seemed better informed, that she seemed to ease their way though something generally quite foreign to them, and the people of New Zealand and the Church both benefitted from her skill.

In today's world, the Church is regarded as somewhat counter-cultural, and as such the cultural void brings with it a great opportunity.

There is something unique about how the Church relates to the media as distinct from that of PR spokespeople from politics and the public sector generally.

Church media spokespeople are distinct from 'public relations' spokespeople in politics and business. As a result, there are a number of factors the media and New Zealanders expect from Church media spokespeople, that I think makes this specialist role worthy of further re-consideration:

• to be immediately available
• to be well educated with respect to catholic theology, history, liturgy and practice
• to be informed and if necessary to be able to arrange to get the right person to speak at short notice
• to be able to speak to New Zealand society in a way appropriate to the medium
• to have a warm and personal manner
• to have a sense of humour
• to be relaxed under pressure
• to engage in conversational style
• to be able to think on their feet while fronting the nation's media
• to be across development in new media and apply them appropriately to the Church's message
• and ultimately, to be credible.

When I look back at this list of skills and abilities that a professional Church media spokesperson needs, and match them against the opportunities to effectively outreach into to the wider New Zealand society through the media, I can only conclude this is indeed a specialist task requiring a full time media office for the Catholic Church in New Zealand.

- John Murphy is a Marist priest working in digital media at the Marist Internet Ministry, New Zealand.

"I think it all came together in an extraordinary fashion," Chicago Cardinal Francis George told the Chicago Tribune.

George said Bergoglio's name had not surfaced as an option in the week of closed-door discussions among the cardinals before the conclave, and Bergoglio had also dropped off the radar of most journalists. He was 76, and many cardinals said they would not vote for someone older than 70. Bergoglio was also reportedly the runner-up to Benedict in the conclave of 2005 and unlikely to return as a candidate.

"I wouldn't have expected it to happen either this fast or even the way it developed in terms of the choices available to us," George said. "I believe the Holy Spirit makes clear which way we should go. And we went that way very quickly."

The Holy Spirit, yes, but other forces also contributed to the unexpected result. And despite the cone of silence that is supposed to remain over all proceedings inside the conclave, leaks in the Italian press and interviews with various cardinal electors have begun to give a clearer picture of how this 28-hour conclave unfolded.

What happened, in short, is that during the first "shake out" ballot Tuesday evening, Bergoglio's name drew a surprising number of votes, suddenly putting him out there as a potential candidate.

"Cardinal Bergoglio wouldn't have become pope in the fifth ballot if he had not been a really strong contender for the papacy from the beginning," Austrian Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn told reporters.

Until then, the field had been considered fairly open, with two main camps each looking for a champion: There were those who wanted a pope who would reform the Roman Curia, the papal bureaucracy — and preferably someone from outside Europe to represent the church's demographic shift to the Southern Hemisphere. Then there were the electors who wanted to defend the Curia, and they were joined by some who also hoped to keep the papacy in Europe, or even return it to an Italian.

The "reform" camp had no clear champion but a dozen or more possibilities. They reportedly wanted someone from outside Europe, in particular a Latin American, but weren't sure who.

The Roman camp, on the other hand, had apparently begun to lean toward Brazilian Cardinal Odilo Pedro Scherer, who was born of German immigrant parents and had long experience in the Curia. That made him a plausible Southern Hemisphere candidate, but one with strong European and curial ties.

In the days leading up to the conclave, however, Cardinal Angelo Scola of Milan had increasingly emerged as an apparent front-runner because he was seen as an Italian who could fix the Vatican, a combination some said could attract votes from both camps.

Throughout this wrangling, Bergoglio had maintained a low profile, which was in keeping with his reputation for humility and holiness, and several electors said they found that refreshing. Continue reading

"It seems my brother cardinals went almost to the end of the world [to choose a pope]," he told the crowd in St Peter's Square in his first address, a joke which belied his image as the cardinal who never smiles.

Up until 13 March, he was Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Buenos Aires.

Pundits did not see him as a favourite for the job of succeeding Benedict XIV and his advanced age - at 76, he is just two years younger than Benedict at the time of his election in 2005 - may surprise those expecting a younger man as the 266th pope.

However, he appeals to both Church conservatives and reformers, being seen as orthodox on sexual matters, for instance, but liberal on social justice.

"We live in the most unequal part of the world, which has grown the most yet reduced misery the least," he was quoted as saying by the National Catholic Reporter at a gathering of Latin American bishops in 2007.

"The unjust distribution of goods persists, creating a situation of social sin that cries out to Heaven and limits the possibilities of a fuller life for so many of our brothers."

He was born on 17 December 1936 in Buenos Aires, of Italian descent.

According to his official Vatican biography, he was ordained as a Jesuit in 1969 and went on to study in Argentina and Germany.

A bishop from 1992, he became Cardinal of Buenos Aires in 1998, and at the 2005 conclave was seen as a contender for the papacy.

His election took many by surprise in his home city, where many had thought his age ruled him out, the BBC's Marcia Carmo reports from there.

But any surprise soon gave way to the jubilant blaring of car horns on the streets.

As Cardinal Bergoglio, his sermons always had an impact in Argentina and he often stressed social inclusion, indirectly criticising governments that did not pay attention to those on the margins of society, our correspondent says.

Francesca Ambrogetti, who co-authored a biography of him, told Reuters news agency that part of his public appeal lay in his humble lifestyle. Continue reading

Sources

• BBC
• Image: The Guardian
  

See also:

• Politico
• Heavy
• The Telegraph

The excitement of the election of a new pope always brings with it the expectation that he is a new Messiah and has the ability to fix what is broken with the Church. But a more realistic, and indeed preferable, aspiration is for him to acknowledge before all else the ways in which the Church is broken.

With Benedict's resignation acting as a circuit breaker, the world will be looking to Francis to fix the Church. But in reality his role will be to set the Church on the path to recovery, along the lines of the 12 steps of Alcoholics Anonymous. This will begin with the admission that the life of the Church is out of control in the face of clergy sexual abuse and other systemic challenges.

It would seem that such a disposition of humility and honesty is a more effective and inclusive path than attempting to turn the Church upside down. Such a radical approach would further polarise an already divided Church, and we know from his past actions that Francis is more of a bridge builder than a revolutionary.

He was far from liberation theology, which was seen to be the way to decisively switch the allegiance of the Catholic Church in Latin American from the ruling elites to the poor. He preferred to live with the dictatorships, to plead the cause of the poor, but make his statement by making radical changes to his own lifestyle. Continue reading

Sources

• Fr Michael Mullins in Eureka Street
• Image: The Independent
  

Michael Mullins is editor of Eureka Street

The point of view of one voting Cardinal which wasn't expressed in these days, but was reported at the Synod of Bishops on Evangelization in October last year, came from the Cardinal Archbishop of Manila, Luis Antonio Tagle. Among the hundreds of comments made at that Synod, many of them forgettable, his have remained unforgettable. He said, briefly, that the Church of the time to come must be "more simple, more humble, with a more developed capacity for silence."

I'm struck by his choice of these three qualities. I think I know what he means when he speaks of the Church needing to have a more developed capacity for silence.

This capacity for contemplative silence is a particularly positive feature of Christianity in Asian cultures and countries. It's a capacity to be still, to watch contemplatively, to reflect, to welcome the thoughts of others, to pause before acting. It comes from a soul at peace, and it shows itself in quiet joy. I've found this particularly in the Cathedral in Singapore on a Sunday Mass. I've frequently noticed that visitors to the Church have been moved to tears at these celebrations of Word and Eucharist.

I've got no bets on anyone in particular who may emerge as our next Pope, and to be honest, I'm not particularly worried about who it might be.

But I am passionately interested in what the Church might become under the Pope's leadership.

I would love to see our Church becoming simpler, humbler, and more capable of silence.

Fr Craig Larkin is a New Zealand priest who lives in Rome

The atmosphere at each of these moments could not be more different. Paul VI's funeral was a quiet affair: he died in mid-summer, and the Romans don't easily give up their holiday time. John Paul I seemed to come and go like a meteor. John Paul II's funeral was nothing if not epochal; those who came for it knew they were witnessing a moment in history. But these days, in the lead-up to the Conclave, the atmosphere in Rome is quiet - people are waiting for something to happen.

Benedict's low-key departure reflects how determined he has been to "de-personalize" the office of the Pope, stressing that it is a ministry, not a personality-based task.

But the local people find this hard. For a start, they're not used - as the rest of the Catholic world is - to having a retired Bishop in their diocese. One Roman said to me, "For us the Pope is like our father - and you don't have two fathers in a family."

The Italian people find it hard live through an event like this without being able to express emotions. There's no funeral to weep at, no moments for eulogies or analyses, no chances for passionate exchanges of opinion.

Another significant factor that keeps the atmosphere rather sober is the fairly open talk of the need for an internal audit and cleaning of the workings of the Vatican Curia. Even some of the voting Cardinals are speaking openly of the need for reform and restructuring. Everyone knows that the next man has a humanly impossible task.

Fr.Craig Larkin is a New Zealand priest living in Rome