The Prelates & the Press

Q. The Vatican communique says that "difficulties of a practical and hygienic nature were cited in the matter of restoring the practice of administering Communion under two species." What does that mean?

A. If the faithful passed the chalice from mouth to mouth, how could you keep from passing on the lipstick as well?

Q. The communique had something about the need for making some sacraments more intelligible. Which sacraments?

A. Well, baptism, for example. The ceremony now has so many symbolic actions that are hardly understood. Matrimony, which has such a meager ceremony in the Roman rite. Penance. English, rather than Latin, would help in all this, of course.

Such forthright exchanges take place daily for English-speaking newsmen covering the Roman Catholic Church's Ecumenical Council in Rome. The reporters gather in a building just around the corner from St. Peter's, where, in response to questions, a panel of U.S. bishops and church authorities sheds what light it can on the council's terse and generally uninformative news bulletins.

The informal theological seminary was the bishops' own idea. "Dean" of the school is William Fanning, editor of the New York diocesan weekly, the Catholic News. The ''faculty.'' whose number varies from eight to twelve, included some official council delegates with impressive qualifications for interpreting and expanding the council's meager releases.

Going to School. The U.S. bishops' school for reporters is evidence of mild ecclesiastical protest against the secrecy that is supposed to cloak the conference. The council did set up a press office of sorts. But Msgr. Fausto Vaillanc, a Vatican clerk impressed as chief press officer, confines himself to distributing the official one-page bulletins in seven languages. To the 300-odd newsmen still in Rome, the handouts are often worse than useless. Designed to report on each day's council conference after its close, the bulletins are sometimes written 24 hours in advance, and they are far from reliable. "What did the communique say today?" a prelate asked a reporter. "Well, perhaps that's true,'' he said, after puzzling over the reporter's reply, "but it's really misleading.'' What the communique did reflect clearly was Msgr. Vaillanc's outspoken attitude: "We don't need the press."

Nor is the official secrecy successful. Italian newsmen seek out Italian prelates, some of whom cheerfully tell them what the Vatican will not; many other clerics have followed this Roman example. And any frustrated reporter can attend unofficial briefings staged by Father Ralph Wiltgen, director of a news service for the Divine Word, a Catholic missionary order. Father Wiltgen distributes his own informative handouts, holds press conferences at which the speaker is usually a council delegate. Last week Father Wiltgen produced Bishop Antonio de Castro Mayer of Campos, Brazil. "I just want the world to learn what's happening," says he.

Spirit of Conflict. Rome itself is sharply divided over the issue of the world's right to know. Recently the Most Rev. Fulton J. Sheen. Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of New York, criticized the press for treating the council as a political convention. At a special Mass in Rome, he inveighed against the "spirit of tension, conflict, opposition and disdain for truth" that seemed, to him at least, to characterize coverage of the council. The only way to report it accurately, said Bishop Sheen, was religiously and sacramentally.

Bishop Sheen was promptly taken to task by Harold Fey, editor of the nondenominational Protestant weekly, the Christian Century. Even Pope John XXIII, Editor Fey reminded the bishop, has stated that "the church has nothing to hide." Should the Pope have to choose, he would, in Fey's opinion, "cast his weight on the side of press freedom and responsibility." Bishop Sheen seems not to understand that "the council is necessarily political as well as religious," Fey concluded. Dutch Bishop Willem van Bekkum also joined in the call for more cooperation with reporters. "The church is in council," he said, "but 99% of the church doesn't know what's happening. They can only know through the press."

What the U.S. hears about the council through its press, though, is steadily diminishing. After marking the opening last month with a generous spread of stories, U.S. papers have since lost interest. Even in cities with large Catholic populations, most papers now rely mostly on wire service coverage, trimmed drastically and buried on an inside page. The ranks of U.S. reporters sent to Rome are melting away.

Hopefully, the Ecumenical Council itself may cure its own historic distrust of the press. High on the council's agenda is a re-examination of the role of the Roman Catholic Church in forming public opinion. Before convening the council, Pope John XXIII enjoined assembled newsmen to be objective and accurate, but he also acknowledged their vital role as interpreters of council affairs. "It is essentially a great religious event," said Pope John, "and it is our earnest hope that you may help to make this fact well known."

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