Former secretary for public affairs of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops exposes the absurdity of the gag order imposed on the synod participants.
Now we run into a gag rule imposed on the synod participants by its managers “in order to guarantee freedom of expression.”
No, I’m not making that up—here’s what the synod rules say:
In order to guarantee freedom of expression…each of the participants is bound to confidentiality and discretion with regard to both their own interventions and the interventions of other participants….This obligation remains in force even after the synodal assembly has ended.
In what was no doubt considered a generous gesture, the rules add that participants are welcome to share the synod office’s press releases and “official images” with media back home “in order to promote the circulation of information.” The document neglects to note—perhaps because its writer or writers don’t realize—that the response from serious journalists will be, “No thanks.”
All this takes me back to 1962 and the first session of the Second Vatican Council. Then, too, the Vatican incomprehensibly sought to keep what was happening at the council a secret.
Predictably, of course, it didn’t work. Thanks to the pseudonymous Xavier Rynne and others, copious leaks were soon pouring out. And, the Vatican bureaucracy having learned its lesson, from that point on the council adopted a sensible information policy that reflected credit on Vatican II, the Holy See, and the Church.
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