COMMENTARY: What are the advantages, perils and unwanted consequences of Pope Leo XIV’s Tuesday evening ‘doorstep’ exchanges with the press at Castel Gandolfo?
It has become a new papal convention.
Every Tuesday evening, as Pope Leo XIV departs for the Vatican after his now routine day of rest at the papal summer residence of Castel Gandolfo just outside Rome, he will stop and chat with the press.
Reporters ask the Holy Father questions relating to whatever is in the news, usually to do with world politics or the Catholic Church, and the Pope spontaneously responds with unrehearsed answers. The format resembles a “doorstep scrum” or “press gaggle,” which is common for politicians or celebrities when engaging with the media.
For a pope, however, this is a first. No supreme pontiff, not even Pope Francis, who liked to be interviewed as pope, has stopped to speak to the press in such an ad hoc way. In-flight papal press conferences, begun by Pope St. John Paul II, are similar but they are infrequent and more controlled.
Pope Leo’s own motives for taking this media approach remain unclear. He first started the practice in June when journalist Ignazio Ingrao from Italy’s state broadcaster RAI collared the Holy Father as he left Vatican Radio territory near Rome.
The Holy Father seemed comfortable answering Ingrao’s questions, especially as they were on topics that interest him: sustainability, the environment and threats to world peace. But the exchange was striking in that, for the first time outside of a papal trip, it removed a certain recognized distance the pope naturally enjoys as the Vicar of Christ.
Some like the down-to-earth, spontaneous and folksy appearance of these exchanges; others say these informal encounters risk blurring the distinction between the Petrine office and a political celebrity, even while offering pastoral and PR advantages.
Running in their favor is that they can help the Pope look less distant, accessible, more human and answerable to the faithful in this democratic, accountability-demanding, 24/7 news cycle age. They serve the insatiable contemporary demand for transparency in all things, which has become especially acute at the Vatican following the scandals of clerical sex abuse, financial malpractice and poor governance.
The inherent frankness of the exchanges can help the faithful become better acquainted with Leo who is still unknown to many and somewhat enigmatic. The Holy Father can also make use of this opportunity to teach, reach more people who might not otherwise see his other pre-written messages, and apply his teaching to burning issues of the day.
Yet the very qualities that commend this practice also generate new risks. Since the Pope began giving these Castel Gandolfo “doorstep” interviews in early September, the media has drawn him into spontaneously commenting on specific policy matters and domestic issues, leading to a fair amount of unwanted and, some would argue, avoidable controversy.
More: https://www.ncregister.com/commentaries/pope-leo-presser-castel-gandalfo-media-scrum
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