TEXAS
The Battalion
By Jessica Smarr
Published: Thursday, March 7, 2013
The Sistine Chapel, graced by the fingers of Michelangelo and the footsteps of popes, will be the site of the upcoming papal conclave. The chapel has stood to hear the prayers of the faithful for centuries, but the world around it has not stood so still.
On Feb. 28, Pope Benedict XVI became the first pope to resign in more than 600 years. Wednesday marked the third day of preliminary meetings for the cardinal electors to discuss the state of the church around the globe. Though some predicted the conclave — when the cardinals vote for the pope — will be set for early next week, the date hasn’t been announced.
As the world awaits the election of a new pope, the less flattering portraits of the Catholic Church are being painted. In the wake of the publication of stolen papal documents last year, which detailed infighting, financial scandals and sexual abuse. Immediate access to global news makes it difficult to forget the financial scandals and thousands of abuse lawsuits.
The process of selecting a new pope is built upon centuries of tradition, but the world is more connected than ever before. Christian Gonzalez, communications director for the diocese of Austin, said the increase of information and media communication has changed the way the church functions.
“The world is a certainly smaller place now,” Gonzalez said. “We’re not separated by the vast oceans anymore. We’re not even really separated by time anymore. The church has realized that. The Pope is on Twitter, the Vatican is on Facebook and on the Internet. The church realizes where it is, and where it is in terms of the world … and technology and the globalization of things.”
Yet even the way in which members of the church hierarchy communicate can differ based on background. On Monday and Tuesday, while most cardinals remained silent about pre-conclave meetings and discussions, American cardinals held press conferences. The Most Rev. Daniel DiNardo, archbishop of Galveston-Houston, said it seemed “more American” to keep the media informed.
“We want to honor the confidentiality of the discussions, but at the same time let people — and letting our own folks know at home — that we are meeting day by day. There are interesting things happening and we are moving ahead,” DiNardo said in a Vatican City press conference on Tuesday.
Rev. Federico Lombardi, Vatican spokesman, said Wednesday the College of Cardinals had decided to emphasize an “increasing degree of reserve,” after specific details of the proceedings were leaked to the Italian press, according to the Associated Press. The American cardinals cancelled their daily press conference, though Cardinal Timothy Dolan still proceeded with his radio broadcast that morning. This evolving relationship between the Catholic Church and the media has changed the way the average person interacts with the hierarchy.
“I think that because of social media and modern communication, we now have much more information about the cardinals themselves,” said Patrick Slattery, professor of teaching, learning and culture at Texas A&M. “So many of the struggles within the Catholic Church are becoming public in ways that they didn’t generations ago.”
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