Habemus Papam! The Papal Conclave in the Age of Media

I GUESS it was bound to happen. We have witnessed what the news can do with a religious and spiritual event. Sure, the papacy has global political impact, but that would be missing the point of the conclave.

At no point in human history has there been so much media in the world. The 24/7 news cycle, the non-stop communication on social media, You Tube, the blogs in cyberspace along with the mainstream print now draw an unprecedented attention on the election of the leader of Roman Catholics, acknowledged by the Catholic religion as the Vicar of Christ.

I recall the announcement of the death of Pope Pius XII, made by a Maryknoll sister who was teaching my grade school class, interrupting the lesson of the hour to lead the class in prayer. She was told by another nun who must have been told by those in the convent following the news on radio. Television had not yet come to the Philippines. I remember being told that we would know when we had a new pope when white smoke puffed out of a chimney at St. Peter’s Cathedral. No, we were not given exact details. And maybe we did not need as much as we were getting today. But the response seemed more appropriate – moments of silence and prayers for the repose of the soul of the departed Pontiff, and guidance for the church in search of a leader.

Even as a child, I was familiar enough with the visage of the pope, as his picture was in the newspapers often enough and one saw him too featured in the black and white news reels that were played before the main feature in movie houses. I am not sure however that with so much media, many Catholic children are as familiar with the face of the popes in their lives.

So goes the irony of media proliferation.  So much information going nowhere.

I have since lived through five more papal regimes, including the historic pontificate of Pope John the XXIII which opened the Church to a wave of historic change, the shift from Latin in the celebration of the Mass, the changes in the liturgy, primarily turning the priest to face the congregation to make visible the sacrament of the Eucharist. As a young Catholic, I was enthralled with so much promise of renewal, invigorated by the reports in the Catholic periodicals one could read in the library of Maryknoll College, America, the Commonweal among those best remembered.

The announcement of Pope Benedict XVI’s resignation was sudden and startling. I could not help wondering what meaning it held for the Church and the faithful around the world. The selection of his successor heralds even more profound change, it would seem, for the future of Catholicism, which despite its well reported crises remains one of the world’s most enduring religions. But one is derailed by the media attention to the event.

I guess the media have all the best of intentions in its treatment of the news from the Vatican.  I mean, with so much media moving information from hour to hour, how can one expect public attention to be fixed to its significance? What can we expect?

The sending off of Filipino correspondents whose familiarity or lack of familiarity with the issues of the Church is immediately evident seems a rather costly attempt to brand the coverage as one’s own. What added value do the stand-ups of Filipino reporters give when these vie with international coverage which field reporters who have been following church officials as a beat, reading about the emerging papabiles, attending conferences where these leaders reveal their potential for leadership.

Media everywhere seems intent to project the election as a competition, like the horse-race orientation of reporting on a political campaign. So the Philippine Daily Inquirer (PDI) notes in its banner headline “Tagle surges as ‘papabile’” on the first day of the conclave. CNN has the audience voting for their pope, as they are asked to do on American Idol. And on YouTube, someone identified as Tagle’s supporter has put in a jingle to sing the good bishop’s praises.

So I return to the old media. And I am not disappointed.

With the news of the election of Pope Francis, Catholics and perhaps those in the media in this still predominantly Catholic country would do well to read the article of James Hanvey on the March 18 edition of America. He writes about the “a new spiritual and ethical sensibility (is) already forming.” Reading about this stirs hope in this “cradle Catholic” that indeed some force larger than ourselves may lead us to the paths of spiritual re-generation as we move through this century.

Our new Pontiff had shunned the temporal comforts and privileges accorded to those of his status.  He lives as ordinary people do, riding public transportation in Buenos Aires and making himself one among the poor people of his country. The first Jesuit, the first ever to choose the name of St. Francis, whose love of the poor has made devotees of so many to his example of holiness – the new naming of this leader is nothing less than auspicious.

I suppose given the usual ten day news life of an event, we hope not to see too much of our new Pope in the media, as given media conventions the interest in the pope will cease unless there is news of conflict, controversy, calamity, sickness and death. So we can only pray that after his inauguration, the media interest will wane, unless of course some of those in the media are willing to do the hard work of making these themes truly part of the way we live.