Fr. Lombardi SJ: reason and good will in reporting
The Director General of Vatican Radio, Fr. Federico Lombardi, SJ, has published an
Italian-language Note concerning the responsibilities of journalists working in various
media, including print, television and radio, as well as the new media. Fr. Lombardi
cites a recent series of real or presumed document leaks from the Vatican, which have
stirred interest in the Italian press and garnered a degree of international media
attention.
Fr. Lombardi encourages all those who cover the Vatican and the
Church to exercise prudent discernment both in the choice of sources and in the use
and diffusion of information, recalling the need to practice journalism out of a sense
of love for and duty toward the truth.
Noting that there is a great deal of
good to report, including the Church’s efforts at atonement, healing and renewal in
the wake of the clerical sexual abuse crisis, as well as the recent steps taken to
reform internal finances, Fr. Lombardi says, “We all need to resist the temptation
to give in to the spirit of confusion that the ill-intentioned would create, and rather
continue to rely on our abilities to reason.”