Randall Radic--

The Vatican is ramping up its public relations.  Which means the Roman Catholic Church is trying to present a more pleasing image to the faithful, who make up 16.68% of the world’s population.  Which means there are 1.4 billion Catholics on the face of the earth.  38.6% of the people in North America are Catholics.  75% and 80% of the populations in Central and South America are Catholics, respectively.  74.8% of Central Europe is Catholic, while a measly 55.4% of Western Europe makes the same claim.  However, a whopping 92% of Southern Europe attends Mass on a regular basis. 

In case you missed it, the Pope now tweets.  You can keep up with the Pope and what’s happening in Catholicism by simply following the updates on Twitter.  And since there are oodles and oodles of Catholics in the world, there will be a lot of ‘followers.’ 

And many of those ‘followers’ don’t like the way things are going in the Church.  In other words, they want the Church to come out of the Middle Ages into the real world of the 21^st century, where people are poor, have too many children and can’t keep up with their mortgage payments.

You have to wonder if ‘tweeting’ is one of the changes they had in mind. 

A second PR move took place just a few days ago.  Pope Benedict XVI gathered a group of 250 contemporary artists and asked them to join him in “a quest for beauty.”  Artists, architects, musicians, directors, writers and composers from around the world traveled to Vatican City, where they were feted by the Princes of the Church.  The stated goal was to “re-establish a dialogue” between the Church and artists. 

In other words, maybe the Church is going back into the business of patronizing the arts – something right out of the Middle Ages.  For Pope Julius II, during the 1500s, utilized jus patronatus (right of patronage) to great advantage.  He not only had his portrait painted by Raphael, but he commissioned Michaelangelo to paint the Sistine Chapel.  Julius II was a very popular guy.

Why is the Church jazzing up its PR program?  Probably because Pope Benedict XVI isn’t too popular.  And rather than trying to make him look better, they’re going with making him look not so bad.  His papacy is perceived as belligerent and ultra-conservative.  Which is not surprising.  Before he became Pope, Joseph Ratzinger was the ‘Defender of the Faith,’ which is a nice way of saying he was the modern version of Torquemada and the Spanish Inquisition.  His job – as Defender of the Faith – was to ferret out heresy.  In other words, people and doctrines that went against the Church were told to straighten up and fly right.  Or else!

This gestapo manner of thinking has ushered into the Papacy.  So these PR moves are an attempt to smooth out some of the rough spots.  Will it work?  Maybe.  Maybe not.  There’s a touch of hocus-pocus to it.  You know where the magician directs your attention away from what he’s doing, so you can’t see that it’s a trick.  It’s all smoke and mirrors. 

What it comes down to is this:  can the Church re-invent itself by commissioning great works of art and then tweeting about them?  Or like Peter Pan is the Church stuck in Never Never Land? 

Randall Radic is a former Old Catholic priest. After a midlife crisis, he spent time behind bars. Today, he has emerged a changed man.  As the author of  Gone To Hell: True Crimes of America’s Clergy (ECW Press/ Oct 2009), Radic aims to warn the public of the sins committed behind the walls of churches every day.  Randall Radic is also author of A Priest in Hell: Gangs, Murderers and Snitching in a California Jail.

2028: Priest Shortage In Catholic Church Looms, 800 Million Pound Settlements

Poll: 70% Of Americans Believe In Heaven, Only 59% Believe In Hell

Book Review: Gone To Hell>>Crime Cost In Catholic Church To Reach $65 Billion By 2025

 Copyright © 2006-2010, Basil & Spice. All rights reserved.