Why is the Vatican media strategy failing? The BBC online reports that “Gerard O’Connell of the British Catholic newspaper The Universe says the Church’s attempts to defend itself often just cause more damage.” Read on:
Why the Vatican media strategy is failing
From the BBC online
When I asked John L Allen, the American Catholic commentator on the Vatican, why its media strategy was failing, he responded:
“As soon as I see that they have a strategy, I will answer you! The fact is, they don’t have one, and that is where they are going wrong.”
Indeed, the absence of a coherent media strategy is evident, as a variety of Vatican personalities take it upon themselves to respond publicly to the accusations.
They often do it in a defensive or denial mode, shooting the messenger, or denouncing a conspiracy against the Pope and the Catholic Church because of its moral stances on life, the family and bioethics.
Over recent weeks, the Vatican has often resembled a fire brigade as it dashed to quench a fire in one place only to find another has broken out elsewhere, and never knowing where the next might blaze up.
It was caught completely off guard on several occasions, before and after Easter, when its own people started fires right inside the Vatican.