The pope encouraged journalists covering the Vatican to ground their work “on the solid rock of responsibility for the truth, not the fragile sands of gossip and ideological interpretations.”
“I would like to add the delicacy that you so often have in speaking of scandals in the Church; there are some and many times I have seen in you a great delicacy, a respect, an almost, I say, ‘abashed’ silence: Thank you for this attitude,” the pope said.
Speaking under Renaissance frescoes depicting the life and martyrdom of the first-century pope St. Clement I, Pope Francis said that journalists should strive “to grasp what is essential in the light of the nature of the Church.”
“Our meeting is an opportunity to reflect on the tiring job of the ‘Vaticanista,’ the Vatican expert, in recounting the journey of the Church, in building bridges of knowledge and communication instead of rifts of division and distrust,” he said.
The 87-year-old pope told the journalists not to hide “reality and its miseries” or “sugarcoat the tensions” in the Church but also “not to make unnecessary hype.”
Credit: Source link
