And what would this Vatican á la Reese look like? Here he goes:
The pope needs a good chief of staff who would make sure this kind of thing does not happen(...) Most large American universities have more sophisticated media offices than does the Vatican, which is the headquarters for a 1.1-billion member organization(...)The Vatican needs a sophisticated and modern communications strategy.
In other words, the Vatican should look like Georgetown University or Boston College: prestigious places with highly paid experts who prevent anything relevant from happening, except for keeping the secular media happy. Such a suggestion of how the Vatican should run can only come from Planet Academia, where the air is thin and no one knows where food comes from.
Reese’s Vatican would have absolutely nothing relevant to say, nothing controversial to teach, or any counter-cultural message of conversion to announce. It would be reduced to a respectable NGO capable of uttering some nice words about peace and ecology…
Of course, it seems that for Fr. Reese, that would be a small price to pay, if the goal is to look like a real American institution, with a chief of staff and all its trappings.
So much for those who think that Americanism is dead.
But don’t take it from me. This is what Fr. Reese finds relevant from the Pope’s pontificate:
The sad thing is that Pope Benedict is saying and doing many great things, but these media disasters are undermining his papacy. His words about peace, justice, refugees and the economic crisis are not being heard.
Pope Benedict has written an encyclical on Charity, another on Hope –two of the theological virtues - an Apostolic Exhortation on the Eucharist, a book on the divine nature of Christ, and has insisted that the core of the Christian message to the world is a personal encounter with Christ. His commitment to fight what he constantly calls “the dictatorship of relativism” with the power of the Truth is expressed in his Pontifical motto “Cooperatores Veritatis,” Collaborators of the Truth…
And all that Reese finds relevant in the Pope’s teachings are words that Ban ki-moon could deliver at any time?
And thus, Reese concludes:
Benedict wants to be a pastor and teacher, but he needs people who know how to run an organization and communicate in the 21st century, and he does not have them. The Vatican's model for the papacy is still the absolute monarchies and royal courts of the past. That model simply will not work today.
There may be, indeed, some outdated practices at the Vatican. But the model is not of the absolute monarchies and royal courts: the model is a unique one, based in the Catholic belief that the Pope is the Vicar of Christ, and that no board of experts can replace his power to bind and loose (Mt. 16).
A Church governed or highly controlled by a board of “experts,” who would decide collegially what the Pope should do is not a model for the 21st Century. It is a vintage 19th century Enlightment model.
We don’t need to elaborate on the consequences of the belief that “experts” should run the world.
It suffices to say that if some of the institutions which Fr. Reese is associated with are to be seen as models of how the Church should run, he is making the perfect case for those who believe the Vatican is far better off staying just where it is right now.
Alejandro Bermudez