On Religion: Pope Leo’s Anti-Abortion Comments And The Perils Of News Conferences
(ANALYSIS) As Pope Leo XIV left his summer residence at Castel Gandolfo, a circle of reporters pressed forward.
Early in his pontificate, Leo has been cautious with the press. But after some comments in Italian, he agreed to “one question” from the EWTN network. It focused on Chicago Cardinal Blase Cupich's decision to honor U.S. Senator Dick Durbin with a lifetime achievement award. The senator has since declined the honor.
The problem: Durbin consistently backs abortion rights and remains barred from receiving Holy Communion in Springfield, Illinois, his home diocese.
In English, Leo stressed looking at a politician's “overall work.” The Chicago-born pope added: “Someone who says, 'I'm against abortion,' but says, 'I'm in favor of the death penalty' is not really pro-life. Someone who says that 'I'm against abortion, but I'm in agreement with the inhuman treatment of immigrants who are in the United States,' I don't know if that's pro-life. So, they're very complex issues.”
What happened next was totally predictable.
“The Catholic right has been divided between those inclined to try to explain away the pope's language, and those insisting he was just flat wrong," wrote Crux editor John L. Allen Jr. “The American Catholic left, meanwhile, has been gripped by a paroxysm of delight.”
One thing that didn’t happen — with “all the polarization in social media, instant news and even fake news” — was a clear statement by Pope Leo XIV about these complex doctrinal issues, said Amy Welborn, a popular Catholic blogger since 2001.
“Popes should not do press conferences or drive-by press gaggles — never ever," she said, reached by telephone.
In fact, popes should avoid all hasty statements on politics and public events. It would be safer for Leo to discuss his tennis game, she added.
In an online post called “No Comment,” Welborn argued that "even the clearest words and most careful phrasings can be interpreted in infinite ways and, most importantly — WILL BE (emphasis Welborn’s). WE KNOW THIS. As ever, courtiers, observers and agents will seize on any words of Pontifex Maximus and use them to benefit their own causes. ... In the current time, those corridors of power and modes of communication are global and instantaneous.”
Also, press conferences “contribute to positioning a pope's person and perspectives at the center of the office. ... Extracting a Pope's opinion on an issue or a current matter only reinforces the assumption that HIS OPINION IS UNIQUELY DETERMINATIVE OF THE TRUTH — because he's the pope, right?! — or is in any way related to his solemn teaching office.”
Thus, the press conference format — someone “standing at a podium, pointing at reporters and taking questions about the news” — creates the illusion that the pope is a political leader whose rushed words are more important than formal statements of Catholic tradition, she said.
The problem is that “old doctrines” are not as newsworthy as hot quotes that journalists consider "signs that the church might be headed in a progressive direction. They need to keep that game in play. ... ‘Of course, Catholics are against abortion. But look, the pope may be saying it's just as important to stress climate change or the environment.' So that's news.”
Catholics have many ways, with varying degrees of authority, to hear the pope address developments in the modern world. Popes make short remarks during familiar rituals, such as the Angelus prayers in St. Peter's Square, as well as in sermons and homilies. Journalists study papal addresses in settings such as the United Nations, legislatures around the world and at gatherings of cardinals and bishops.
This week, Catholics were awaiting the release of Leo's first “apostolic exhortation” -- Dilexi Te (“I Have Loved You”) — on ministries to the poor. Finally, long, detailed encyclicals are considered landmarks in every pontificate.
“What we have today is a giant online crowd, a mob even," said Welborn. Catholic leaders "need to know that's how our world works right now. ... That’s the reality, but that's not how Catholicism delivers its teachings to the faithful.”
In what Welborn considered a positive move, Leo took a different approach early this week when asked another question about Chicago news. He quickly, quietly, said: “I prefer not to comment at this time about political choices made in the United States.”
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Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.