The news media plays a very significant role in framing the perception of the Catholic church and its head, Pope Francis. Through examining the environment of Catholic occurrences and techniques of Vatican news outlets, it is evident that the Catholic church plays a significant role in how they are perceived to the rest of the world.
The Catholic press’ roles are designated and examined in the pastoral instruction, Communio et Progressio. In this prominent document, the Second Vatican Council writes, “It is the task of the Catholic press to balance, to complete and, if necessary, to correct the news and comments about religion and the Christian life” (1971, paragraph 138). Thus, this illustrates the Catholic press’s duty to make sure news articles and reports portray accurate information especially in reference to Catholicism and the church.
Pope Francis, naturally, makes up a significant portion of Catholic related news reports due to his role as the head of the Catholic church. According to Dr. Carlos Nardella from the University of Milan in his lecture on April 16th, 2019 in Castiglion Fiorentino, Pope Francis is able to predominately control and choose the reporters who can follow and question him. Furthermore, Nardella noted that Pope Francis may even consider some of these journalists to be friends of his. This allows Pope Francis to situate himself in a comfortable environment in which he can be completely honest when answering news questions. This method is a way in which Pope Francis adheres the system to his desires and to make him appeal to the media and the news it produces.
On April 13, 2019, Linda Bordonipublished an article on the Vatican News website covering Pope Francis’s visit with a group of Rome high school students. In this report, Bordoni significantly discussed Pope Francis’s encouragement of the students to be cautious of the addictive power of mobile devices. Furthermore, he said that phones should be used for their original purpose to simply connect. Even seen in the title of the article: “Pope to students: 'don’t be slaves to your mobile phones,” Bordoni explicitly signifies the importance of the message that Pope Francis is trying to relay to the students. However, it is notable to recognize that Bordoni lacks to inform the readers that Pope Francis has several of his own social media accounts including Twitter and Instagram. This information could be perceived as hypocritical because Pope Francis encouraged these high schoolers to turn away from the additional features of mobile devices, one of which is social media.
Throughout Bordoni’s whole article, Pope Francis is portrayed in a positive and encouraging light despite providing constructive criticism towards the youth. This is significant because the article is published on the Vatican website wherein the church controls what news they support. Thus, not only is the church is regulating what news they confirm, but Pope Francis is able to manage the original environment in which this news media originates. This control of the news media helps the Catholic church paint a flattering attitude to the public while also technically adhering to the Second Vatican Council’s ideal of requiring honesty among the Catholic press.
Sources:
Bordoni, L. (2019, April 13). Pope to students: 'don't be slaves to your mobile phones'. Retrieved from https://www.vaticannews.va/en/pope/news/2019-04/pope-francis-audience-students-mobile-phones.html
Pontifical Council for Social Communications. (1971, May 23). Communio et Progressio. Retrieved from http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/pccs/documents/rc_pc_pccs_doc_23051971_communio_en.html