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Abstract
This article is mainly aimed toward those responsible for communications in ecclesial organizations that are experiencing vulnerability. It integrates the perspective of organizational communication with ecclesiological contributions. The first part notes that vulnerability is a common trait of civil and ecclesial organizations, both in the passive sense (potential to be hurt) and in the active sense (capacity to do harm). In the second part, a circular conceptual framework of the process of communication, devised by several academics from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, is developed and applied to the Church. In pursuing adherence to reality, this is a valid theoretical framework for inspiring the communication management that is required for dealing with errors and failures. In the description of the process, references are added to the issue of fragility in each of its phases: identity, culture, discourse, image, and reputation. A key word in this sequence is ‘consistency’ (between what an institution is, and how it considers itself; what it does, and what it says). In the third part, this ‘realistic’ conceptual universe is applied to the issue of the abuse of minors committed by ministers of the Catholic Church, guidelines for the communications team are suggested (investigate, listen, accompany, repair), and seven criteria for proper reporting are proposed.
Correction Statement
This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.
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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1 The last two decades have seen the rise of, for example, the School of Church Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross (founded in Rome in 1995), the university course Comunicación y Religión en la Era Digital (Communication and Religion in the Digital Era) for religious communicators organized by Blanquerna, at the Universitat Ramon Llull (in Barcelona in 2004) or various certificates of specialization in the web, such as the Diplomatura en comunicación de la Iglesia (Diploma in Church Communication) promoted jointly by Meraki and the Universidad Católica de Cuyo (in San Juan de Cuyo in 2014), among others.
2 In 1971 the Holy See published the pastoral instruction Communio et Progressio, which was drawn up based on a mandate from the Second Vatican Council. This document contains a specific call to foster the function of media relations in the ecclesial organizations: “Every bishop, all episcopal conferences or bishops’ assemblies and the Holy See itself should each have their own official and permanent spokesman or press officer to issue the news and give clear explanations of the documents of the Church so that people can grasp precisely what is intended. These spokesmen will give, in full and without delay, information on the life and work of the Church in that area for which they are responsible. It is highly recommended that individual dioceses and the more weighty Catholic organizations also have their own permanent spokesmen with the sort of duties explained above” (PCSC 1971, no. 22).
3 In this task of consultation and in the subsequent systemization, the help of my colleagues Rodrigo Ayude and Jaime Cárdenas (both from the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, Rome, Italy) and Juan Pablo Cannata (Universidad Austral, Buenos Aires, Argentina) has been invaluable.
4 As support for this part, we reviewed the information on abuse in the Catholic Church published in five different journals during the period of January-June 2019: The Irish Times (Ireland), El Mercurio (Chile), Corriere della Sera (Italy), The New York Times (United States), and El País (Spain). Three fundamental criteria were taken into account in selecting journals: a) that they were the leading general information newspaper in their respective country; b) that they belonged to areas of with a broad Catholic tradition in which numerous cases of abuse had been recorded; c) they were accessible with a basic subscription with the Meltwater monitoring tool, which facilitates analysis and direct consultation of the texts. The resulting number of journalistic pieces was 76. The tool used was www.meltwater.com, a paid service that collects and analyzes the publications why underlined? I don't think it's necessary in the most relevant online information portals in the world. In addition to the traditional service of clipping, it offers useful resources for the analysis of users’ digital behavior.
5 Some elements that ensure quality include: documenting the complaint with the signature of the accused and, if possible, of a third party that certifies the declaration; diligently applying and documenting the steps of public protocol, informing the affected parties of the steps being taken, etc.
6 In this area, for example, the new provisions appropriated by the USCCB to make it easier to report any bishops suspected of abuse or cover-up, as explained in one of the articles in the above-mentioned selection: The New York Times (United States, 13 June 1019). Accessed 28 May 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/13/us/catholic-bishops-abuse.html (Cf. also Erlandson, Citation2019).
7 The Apostolic Letter “Vos Estis Lux Mundi” formally states that the dioceses, eparchies, and other ecclesiological bodies institute “one or more stable and easily accessible systems for reporting” and making claims (Pope Francis Citation2019b, 1). One of the selected news articles (Corriere della Sera, Italy, 9 May 2019) refers precisely to the obligation imposed by the Holy See to have a public office for handling claims. Accessed 28 May 2020. https://roma.corriere.it/notizie/cronaca/19_maggio_09/pedofilia-motu-proprio-papa-francesco-obbligo-segnalare-abusi-4854b41e-7242-11e9-861b-d938f88a2d19.shtml
8 El País has a write-up about it. Accessed 28 May 2020. https://elpais.com/sociedad/2019/03/18/actualidad/1552920699_534077.html
9 One of the selected articles refers to this transparency (The Irish Times, Ireland, 19 February 2019), in which the Cardinal Primate of that nation connects it to the pain of the victims. Accessed 28 May 2020. https://www.irishtimes.com/news/social-affairs/religion-and-beliefs/catholic-primate-says-abuse-survivors-rightly-demand-church-transparency-1.3799657.
10 Three instances of special notoriety in which it may be appropriate to provide official information are: a possible information leak at any time (even unknown to the institution); the launching of an investigation (the intention of the publication is then mainly to invite the participation of possible persons who can provide further evidence, when it is presumed that there may be others affected); the concluding of an investigation and the measures to be taken by the institution.
11 In one of the selected press clippings, for example, we can see how an institution informs people about the opening of the investigation based on a complaint with possible sexual connotations, thus facilitating the arrival of new elements for the investigation, a guarantee for both the denouncer and the accused (El Mercurio, Chile, 1 February 2019). Accessed 28 May 2020. https://www.emol.com/noticias/Nacional/2019/02/01/936418/Prelatura-del-Opus-Dei-informa-que-recibio-dos-denuncias-en-contra-un-sacerdote-de-la-congregacion.html.
12 In addition to the already mentioned Rodrigo Ayude (Pontifical University of the Holy Cross) and Juan Pablo Cannata (Universidad Austral), the following professionals also participated in the discussion: Piotr Studnicki (Coordinator of the Office for the Protection of Minors of the Polish Bishops’ Conference) and Thierry Bonaventura (Media officer at the Council of European Bishops Conferences, from 2005 to 2018).
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Marco Carroggio
Marco Carroggio is an Associate Professor at the School of Church Communications of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross. He teaches Organizational Communications and Management.