{"id":1011,"date":"2009-01-26T17:57:43","date_gmt":"2009-01-26T17:57:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html"},"modified":"2009-01-26T17:57:43","modified_gmt":"2009-01-26T17:57:43","slug":"lefebvre-part-ii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html","title":{"rendered":"Lefebvre, Part II"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>All right, let&#8217;s switch the conversation up here.<br \/>\nThe reactions are in, most very predictably focusing on Williamson and ignoring the complexities of the situation.<br \/>\nI&#8217;m going to try my best to stay out of the prediction business, but I think a realistic understanding of the issues and the people involved indicates that this is a long, long way from finished.\u00a0 SSPX adherents have varying attitudes towards the Church since Vatican II, and varying attitudes about the Popes since Pius XII, but there are enough of them at all levels whose stances\u00a0 range from &#8220;contemptuous disdain&#8221; to &#8220;heresy-hunting&#8221; to make any real rapprochement either very far in the future or having the consequence of splitting the movement and leadership.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sspx.org\/sspx_media_brochure.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Take a look at the society&#8217;s media brochure regarding the lifting of the excommunications.<\/a><br \/>\nWhat interests me more are three other issues:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>What this prompts in any Catholic&#8217;s thinking about his or her relationship to the Church.\u00a0 Is our motto, &#8220;diversity for me, but not for thee?&#8221; or perhaps even, &#8220;obedience for thee, but not for me?&#8221; Do we profess experiencing the vapors when others do what we&#8217;re doing, but in relationship to other issues?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Our thinking on the Second Vatican Council. This became public, not only in the Week of Christian Unity, but on the 50th anniversary of John XXIII&#8217;s announcement of the Council. VERY significant.\u00a0 The Pope wants us all, on all sides, to reflect on the Council and consider what it was really about, the fruit, and where we can go from here.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>The miserable tragedy of Vatican public relations.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Things are not as bad as they could be, nor as bad as they used to be.\u00a0 But the folks in the Vatican, despite their website, radio, television and YouTube channel, are still not grasping the RAPIDITY of communications in the modern world and how intense and deep the dispersal of information is and what power the means of communications beyond traditional venues like wire agencies and such have in pushing stories and determining storylines.<br \/>\nWe&#8217;ve talked about this before in relation to other issues &#8211; other documents and decisions. The Vatican releases it, maybe has a press conference with a few experts, Father Lombardi is available&#8230;and that&#8217;s it.<br \/>\nThe first thing that needs to happen is to involve people who can <em>anticipate<\/em> reactions. Any of us reading this blog are qualified for that job. It should be blindingly clear, with Williamson doing his thing recently, as well as his history, that <em>that <\/em>was going to be the story. It would be the story, not just because of Williamson, but because Benedict is a German and already bears the burden of the caricature of being a hard-nosed hater of all that is modern.<br \/>\nThe second thing to do is have a more intense PR presence totally available in Rome.<br \/>\nThe third is to bring in the national churches. This is tricky because quite often those national churches and their episcopal conferences are not thrilled about what the Vatican is doing, or at the very least have no interest in it.\u00a0 Too bad. At this point, I don&#8217;t understand why there is not (at least why there doesn&#8217;t appear to be) an organized network in which heads of communications in the various local Churches are informed ahead of time what is coming down, given talking points and guidance, and <em>told to make themselves available<\/em>.\u00a0 This story is huge right not, whether it deserves to be or not, and if things were working correctly, the communications people from episcopal conferences would <em>contact media outlets themselves<\/em>, and said&#8230;doing a story? Contact us. We&#8217;re ready to explain and discuss.<br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/rossdouthat.theatlantic.com\/archives\/2009\/01\/the_church_and_the_lefebvrists.php\" target=\"_blank\">Ross Douthat has more on this:<\/a><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>This is a price worth paying, hopefully, for the sake of closing unnecessary divisions, but the price wouldn&#8217;t be nearly so steep if the Vatican had a better sense of how to do public relations in a controversial case like this. The average reporter or <a href=\"http:\/\/rothkopf.foreignpolicy.com\/posts\/2009\/01\/24\/reports_of_his_infallibility_are_greatly_exaggerated\">commentator<\/a> isn&#8217;t going to understand the <a href=\"http:\/\/culture11.com\/blogs\/upturnedearth\/2009\/01\/24\/is-holocaust-denial-sufficient-grounds-for-excommunication\/\">nuances of canon law<\/a>, the history and background of the SSPX, the context of the excommunications, the status of these bishops post-excommunication, and so forth. What the average journalist does understand, though, is how to write this headline: &#8220;Pope Rehabilitates Holocaust-Denying Bishop.&#8221; And while the potential <a href=\"http:\/\/culture11.com\/blogs\/upturnedearth\/2009\/01\/25\/shutting-off-dialogue\/\">for bad publicity<\/a> shouldn&#8217;t prevent the Vatican from showing mercy to excommunicants when appropriate, it should incentivize wrapping any such mercy in a forceful, detailed, &#8220;Catholicism and canon law for dummies&#8221; explanation of what such an action <em>doesn&#8217;t<\/em> mean: In this case, an endorsement of poisonous anti-semitism and conspiracy theorizing.<br \/>\nAnd this is exactly what hasn&#8217;t been forthcoming. Oh, the Papal spokesman <a href=\"http:\/\/news.yahoo.com\/s\/ap\/20090124\/ap_on_re_eu\/eu_vatican_conservatives\">said<\/a> that Williamson&#8217;s Holocaust-denying remarks were &#8220;completely indefensible,&#8221; and <em>L&#8217;Osservatore Romano<\/em> <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.telegraph.co.uk\/damian_thompson\/blog\/2009\/01\/26\/rome_says_lifting_of_ban_on_sspx_bishops_was_timed_to_coincide_with_vatican_ii_anniversary\">had an editorial<\/a> (not yet translated into English, of course) stating that the decision &#8220;should not be sullied with unacceptable revisionist opinions and attitudes with regard to the Jews.&#8221; But in the contemporary media environment, <em>that&#8217;s not good enough<\/em>. If the Pope de-excommunicates a Holocaust denier, the Vatican press office should be working around the clock, with press releases flying, to provide context and do damage control. What&#8217;s more, if the Pope de-excommunicates a Holocaust denier, the Pope <em>himself<\/em> needs to say something about it, and not just obliquely nod to the decision in <a href=\"http:\/\/whispersintheloggia.blogspot.com\/2009\/01\/horizon-of-unity-remains-open-to-us.html\">his latest homily<\/a>. Yes, the Church&#8217;s primary business is saving souls, not public relations &#8211; but in this day and age, public relations is part of the business of saving souls. And nobody in Rome, from Benedict on down, seems to have figured that out.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/the-hermeneutic-of-continuity.blogspot.com\/2009\/01\/unacceptable-and-stupid.html\" target=\"_blank\">Also of interest:\u00a0 Fr. Finigan reports on Cardinal Kasper&#8217;s and Cardinal Bagnasco&#8217;s statements on Williamson&#8217;s statements.<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>All right, let&#8217;s switch the conversation up here. The reactions are in, most very predictably focusing on Williamson and ignoring the complexities of the situation. I&#8217;m going to try my best to stay out of the prediction business, but I think a realistic understanding of the issues and the people involved indicates that this is&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":180,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1011","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Lefebvre, Part II - Via Media<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Lefebvre, Part II - Via Media\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All right, let&#8217;s switch the conversation up here. The reactions are in, most very predictably focusing on Williamson and ignoring the complexities of the situation. 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The reactions are in, most very predictably focusing on Williamson and ignoring the complexities of the situation. I&#8217;m going to try my best to stay out of the prediction business, but I think a realistic understanding of the issues and the people involved indicates that this is&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html","og_site_name":"Via Media","article_published_time":"2009-01-26T17:57:43+00:00","author":"awelborn","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html","name":"Lefebvre, Part II - Via Media","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website"},"datePublished":"2009-01-26T17:57:43+00:00","dateModified":"2009-01-26T17:57:43+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/2009\/01\/lefebvre-part-ii.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Lefebvre, Part II"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/","name":"Via Media","description":"Amy Welborn","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/aea2dcda1635c9c2d6030d9c7595725a","name":"awelborn","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/9f2\/9f2100183464289fedc5b8a621c15110x96.jpg","caption":"awelborn"},"description":"Amy Welborn was born in 1960, the only child of a now-retired professor of political science, a teacher-librarian-artist mother,deceased since 2001, was a teacher, librarian and artist. The Catholicism comes from her side. Amy grew up in a number of places - Indiana - Washington, DC - Lubbock Texas - Arlington, Virginia - DeKalb, Illinois - Lawrence, Kansas - and Knoxville, Tennessee, where the family settled in 1973. She attended Knoxville Catholic High School, then the University of Tennessee where she majored in history. She received an MA in Church History from Vanderbilt University, where she wrote a thesis on the changing role of women in 19th century American Protestantism, and the ways Scripture was used to justify those changes. She worked as as a teacher in Catholic high schools and a Parish Director of Religious Education and started writing for the diocesan press - the Florida Catholic - in 1988. Amy has written columns for Our Sunday Visitor and Catholic News Service at times over the past twenty years. Her articles have been published in venues ranging from Our Sunday Visitor to the New York Times to Commonweal. She has written 17 books. 18, if you included the as yet tragically unpublished novel. Amy has five children, ranging in age from 26 to 4 and was married to Michael Dubruiel, who died unexpectedly in February 2009. She lives in Birmingham, Alabama.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/author\/awelborn"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1011\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/viamedia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}