Media saturation, coverage of Pope’s election process reflect overkill
By Ken Kemnagum Okorie
Special to USAfrica multimedia networks, and CLASSmagazine, Houston. @Twitter.com/Chido247, Facebook.com/USAfricaChido n Facebook.com/USAfrica247
USAfricaonline.com: The election of 76-years old Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio of Argentina to succeed the recently retired Pope Benedict XVI is a remarkable development in the history of the Church. 
Bergoglio who took the name Pope Francis became the first Pope from the region known as Latin America and thereby breaking the age-old predomination (perhaps dominance) of the revered helm position in the Roman Catholic Church.
This is positive because it evidence a realization that there is more to the Church than just Europe. In my native Mbaise community in the Igbo heartland of Eastern Nigeria, one can readily find nearly a million devout Catholics trooping to Mass at 7 a.m. any Sunday morning. That ought to count for something.
In his March 13, 2013 commentary titled ‘POPE FRANCIS, champion for the poor and evangelistic dedication’ USAfrica publisher Chido Nwangwu stated that “after all the deft moves, canonical considerations and high-wire politics inside the hallowed rooms of the 15th century Sistine Chapel, after 2,000 years, the Catholic church picked a new leader to hold some level of balance in a changing world. I believe it’s a new day for Catholics and the christian community following the emergence of a man with a pious, evangelistic dedication. Long Live Pope Francis The First!” https://usafricaonline.com/2013/03/13/long-live-pope-francis-1-champion-for-the-poor-and-evangelistic-dedication-by-chido-nwangwu/
But that conclusion is not what interested me in the recent conclave, that the Cardinals simply have done what is right and needed for the Church.
What bothers me is the manner in which the media (in particular, the American press) overheated the airwaves over what had always been, and should remain, a solemn event in Church’s history. The Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops website reported that more than 6,000 journalists and news agencies applied to the Holy See Press Office for accreditation to the conclave.
ABC News flooded the Vatican with its flagship anchors and reporters (Diane Sawyer of World News Tonight, George Stephanopoulos of both the Morning Show and Sunday morning This Week, and Terry Moran of Nightline). There may have been others, but these are the ones I recall. ABC 13, a Houston affiliate of ABC News, also sent local anchors Tom Koch and Art Rascon, and maybe more. Without doubt, other ABC affiliates did the same. And that is just the ABC News family! It is a safe bet that NBC, CBS, CNN or other American media were not outdone in this respect! Nor were media outlets from other parts of the world, for that matter. And once the satellite dishes and microphones invaded, rumors started flying about “favored candidate”, front runner”, “media savvy” and other phrases also followed.
One simply wonders: to what end? Did one major medium need these many of its heavy weights at the Vatican, or could ABC have made the some impact with one reporter? For that matter could the media have pooled into a centralized news bureau to inform the entire world on what happened at the Vatican this week? And we must also not forget that there is Vatican TV and Vatican Radio, and they covered the conclave in multiple languages.
Why did the Media go for such overkill? Two possibilities come to mind. It was either the sensationalizing (a pattern in today’s world of news reporting) or it was an attempt to influence the outcome of the conclave. Neither of these impresses me. Some things are better left sacred, and the conclave is one of them.
I still cherish the nostalgic mystique that surrounded the death of Pope John XXIII and the conclave that chose Pope Pius VI to succeed him. I was then a youngster from a fundamentally orthodox Anglican family; but it did not make a difference. Everyone sensed something mysterious going on in some distant part of the world, and that it had direct spiritual influence on the lives of millions of Christians everywhere. We huddled around a small shortwave radio, listening to skeletal reports from BBC World News, the primary medium for gaining some sense of what went on in the world at the time. We heard about White and Black Smoke coming from the top of the Sistine Chapel, but no one said a thing about a chimney or use of chemicals or additives to effect the color of the smoke. If they did, I would not understand anyway having never known what a chimney looked like or was used for!
All through that particular conclave, the weather remained densely overcast in the remote, predominantly Roman Catholic village of Orlu where I went to school. With all innocence and sentimentality, we simply believed that the Sun had taken a vacation to allow a major spiritual interaction that must be going on between the heavens and humanity. The awe of it all so fascinated to the point of fright that students had difficulty going to the bathroom alone. Everyone felt this overhang of spirits and angels swirling in the clouds to receive the soul of the departed Pope and preparing mankind for his successor. All of these made the whole experience seriously mysterious. I had not known that a Pope was also human!
That was my introduction to the papacy, which was only enhanced when Cardinal Albino Luciani succeeded Pope Pius XI in August 1978 as Pope John Paul I for only 33 days when his death gave us two conclaves in quick succession. Curiosity became familiarity in the wake of a television age that had witnessed every detail of the impeachment of an American president (Nixon). But for me, this papal mystic persisted until our beloved Pope John Paul II put a human face to the papacy with unprecedented travels and access. Yet I had never seen a man kiss the ground until he was shown doing so in some of the places he visited. While the resulting unveiling may have demystified the big masquerade somewhat, it also enhanced a feeling of affinity to the office and the humans that occupy it. Could this be part of what has happened to the media?
Even at that, does it justify the media overkill? I say no. As an Anglican who has seen first hand and directly battled the liberalization of the Episcopal Church in the United States, I see this trend resulting in serious denigration of the fundamental beliefs and principles of the Church, if it continues. Not every aspect of human experience should be transmuted for the sake of liberation, equality and similar movements. In the United States, for example, we have taken the liberation notions of equality between men and women to today’s propagation of no difference between the sexes/genders… as such, anything goes! Yes, God created all of us, but He also did it in a manner that defined specific roles for man and women, plus laid down basic rules of behavior for humanity.
For example, how can we fulfill God’s mandate to increase and multiply if we also accept that all forms of copulation (man-to-woman, man-to-man, woman-to-woman, man-to-animals) are okay? In so doing, aren’t we either questioning God or indicting His wisdom? The God I worship and believe makes no mistake, and we only burden ourselves as we attempt substituting our judgment (rather convenience) for his prescriptions.
Admittedly, a lot of wrong has happened within the priesthood of the Roman Catholic Church. In my view, those wrongs are directly attributable to celibacy, which does not have strong or credible biblical foundation. The Church should fix this problem by allowing priests to marry. It is only natural, and swimming against that tide only prolongs the problems of the Church and its agonized priests. Notwithstanding, the Papacy (particularly Pope John Paul II and Benedict XVI) did a fantastic job in not succumbing to mounting pressure to open up the priesthood to women or otherwise make the Church another democratic organization. Christ did not establish his church through democratic means.
He taught and instructed his disciples and sought their opinion when necessary.
Yes, times change, but some things are better left the way they are or for the imagination. The mystique of the conclave is what makes it fascinating and attractive. The media would be doing the Church and all of us a big favor if it pulled back and let this process function solemnly as it has so successfully for centuries. •Okorie, columnist and member of the editorial board of USAfrica multimedia networks Houston, is an attorney and vice chairman of the All Saints Anglican church in southwest Houston.
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AFRICAN CATHOLICS AND THE ELECTION OF POPE.
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For African Catholics and christians, the hope for the election of one of their own as pontiff was raised, again. In the 2013 voting for a new Pope, Ghanaian Cardinal Peter Kodwo Appiah Turkson (64 years old man who speaks 8 languages) was highlighted as a major contender.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Nigerian-born Francis Cardinal Arinze was the most visible in the past 25 years. Arinze who was appointed Cardinal on the 25th of May 1985, has served as Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, and as Cardinal Bishop of Velletri-Segni since April 2005. Also, see April 25, 2002 USAfrica special report WILL ARINZE BE THE FIRST AFRICAN ELECTED POPE IN RECENT HISTORY? To our Brother Cardinal Arinze: May your pastoral lineage endure! By Chido Nwangwu. https://usafricaonline.com/arinzechido.html
Age is not on Arinze’s side; younger African Cardinals may be in better contention. There are several other Africans including Alexandre do Nascimento of Angola who served as Archbishop Emeritus of Luanda. In 2012, a younger Nigerian John Onaiyekan was appointed Cardinal.
Pope Benedict XVI brought and shared with Africans his global message of christian progress, protection of life, opposition to terrorism, strong opposition and action against Catholic priest who abused children and pushed ecumenical harmony for believers and followers of Jesus Christ. By Chido Nwangwu.
‘POPE FRANCIS, champion for the poor and evangelistic dedication’ by Chido Nwangwu
WHY I CELEBRATE THE LIFE AND WORKS OF NELSON MANDELA. By Chido Nwangwu https://usafricaonline.com/2010/07/15/mandela-why-i-celebrate-his-life-works-by-chido-nwangwu/
