Vatican says Press Union no longer Catholic

(July 19, 2011): An international union of Catholic journalists should no longer be using the name Catholic, according to two Vatican officials who are citing a serious management crisis in the group.
In a joint communiqué signed by the presidents of Vatican’s Pontifical Councils for the Laity and for Social Communications, Cardinal Stanisław Ryłko, and Archbishop Claudio Celli, stated that the International Catholic Press Union ICPU, "after decades of valid service to evangelization through the press, in the last years has experienced a progressive crisis of management."
“On several occasions, the Holy See expressed to ICPU authorities its perplexity given the lack of transparency and clarity in the management of this association, under the control of its secretary-general," the statement continued.
"Last March 23, these incidents made it necessary for the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for the Laity to revoke the canonical recognition of the ICPU as a Catholic association."
In a reaction to that revocation, the group changed its name to the International Catholics Organisation of the Media, and announced an assembly for November. The Vatican dicasteries noted their disapproval of this name.
The origins of the International Catholic Press Union (ICPU) date back to the year 1927, when French, German, Austrian and Swiss journalists created the International Office of Catholic Journalists, for the purpose of promoting journalism based on solid values.
The first World Congress of the Catholic Press took place in Brussels, Belgium, in 1930 and the International Catholic Press Union was born in Rome in 1936.