Church communication highlights 2022

Abstract The year 2022 will be remembered for the outbreak of war in Ukraine, a conflict that shattered the incipient optimism caused by the gradual disappearance of the Covid pandemic. Alongside the succession of news about the war and the Pope’s appeals for peace, the media echoed other important events in the life of the Church. In these pages we offer a selection of the most significant ones. Obviously, this is a choice based on the author’s criteria, which include the persistence of the news throughout the year.


Introduction
The year 2022 began with the hope of having left behind the Covid pandemic. An emergency that, in addition to many victims, has also had negative effects on religious practice; at least, this is what some data from various countries seem to indicate. As we shall see in this selection, another serious and painful crisis-the war in Ukraine-cast a shadow throughout the year over the news landscape, also in the sphere of the Catholic Church. The year ended with the death of Benedict XVI, a fact that received surprising media attention, bearing in mind that his resignation had taken place almost ten years earlier. We included this important event in our selection, although the news and comments appeared in the first days of January 2023.
The international press also echoed another conflict, in this case internal to the Church: the German Synodal Path and its confrontation with the Holy See. A headache for the Pope who, on the other hand, in March had the satisfaction of seeing the culmination of one of the tasks he had set for his pontificate: the reform of the Roman Curia, contained in the apostolic constitution 'Praedicate evangelium'. In the area of international relations, there were two main focuses: on the one hand, relations with China, which led to the second renewal of the agreement signed in 2018; on the other hand, the systematic persecution of the Church in Nicaragua by the regime of the dictator Ortega, and the unsuccessful efforts of dialogue on the part of the Holy See.
The person of Francis himself was also of interest to the media: his health problems were very visible, as they affected his knee and he had to use a wheelchair frequently. In addition to his health, there were numerous conjectures and speculations about a possible resignation (clearly unfounded). Another recurring theme in church reporting over the past decade could not be missing in this selection: we have included some news related to abuse cases.
There are two major absences in this selection: the apostolic trips made by the Pope (especially the news-rich trip to Canada) and the trial of Cardinal Giovanni Angelo Becciu and other defendants taking place at the Vatican. The omission of the trips is because we have favored in our choice news that were present in a transversal way throughout the year. As far as the trial is concerned, the reason is that a comprehensible explanation of the situation would require a lot of space and a certain background, which it would be preferable to offer when the trial is over. What is certain is the negative impact that this information is having on the perception of the Holy See, the Vatican and its judicial system.

Benedict XVI: 'Jesus, I love you'
The most relevant event that occurred during 2022 in relation to the life of the Catholic Church took place precisely on the last day of the year. Benedict XVI passed away on Saturday morning, December 31, at the age of 95. The news was somewhat expected, since Pope Francis himself, during the general audience of the previous Wednesday, had asked for prayers for the emeritus pontiff and even went to visit him.
The chronicles and articles published in the following days were abundant, until the celebration of the funeral in St. Peter's Square on January 5: an unprecedented moment 'in the two thousand years of the Church's history, in which a Pope presided over the funeral of his predecessor' (Corriere della Sera, January 6); expressed in a more poetic way, it was 'the first time that a Pope says goodbye to another Pope' (La Repubblica, January 2). In the three days prior to the funeral, the press reported, with some surprise, that two hundred thousand people were able to pay homage to Benedict in the mortuary chapel set up in front of the baldachin of St. Peter's Basilica.
As an example of this journalistic interest, it is worth noting that The New York Times carried the news on the front page on five of the six days of the period from January 1 to 6, and on two of those days it was the main topic. Many commentaries and analyses could be prepared in advance, with the collaboration of journalists who had been correspondents in Rome during the almost eight years of Benedict's pontificate (2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012)(2013).
Benedict has been the Pope 'who left twice' (El Pa ıs, January 2) so that already in 2013, when his resignation, abundant information was published about his life and personality. Even so, the international echo that his death received was remarkable. The pope emeritus had had few moments of public presence during his almost ten years of retired life in the Mater Ecclesiae convent inside the Vatican. Although during that period he received visitors (many of whom posted pictures of the meetings on social networks), and some brief writings were diffused, his last appearance in public took place several years ago, on June 28, 2016, on the 65th anniversary of his priestly ordination. According to The Economist, 'the tally of Benedict's post-papacy sermons, letters, messages to conferences, interviews and other texts comes around 30' (January 7).
As could not be otherwise, the fundamental episode that focused the description of his figure was marked by the word 'resignation', because 'whatever the rest of his legacy, that last act is one in which Benedict's name will live on', affirms Time magazine (January 16). A gesture that, in many cases, is also underlined in the titles: 'The last lesson of a professor turned Pope: his abdication' (Le Figaro, January 2); the resignation, 'a historic and modern gesture' (Corriere della Sera, January 1); 'the Pope who turned the Church upside down with his resignation' (El Pa ıs, January 2); 'First pontiff to retire in 600 years who attempted to tackle the child abuse scandal in the church' (The Guardian, January 2).
Along with the gesture of resignation, and responding to that taste for labels so characteristic, above all, of the Anglo-Saxon press, one of the expressions most used to define the deceased pope was that of 'conservative' and even 'traditionalist'. It should be noted that, in most cases, this was not just a description, but the reports showed an implicit point of view: the 'conservative' vision-attributed to Benedict-is presented as clearly rejectable, while the 'liberal' option (to keep that terminology) appeared as the standard, the point of arrival. 'The Church's future seems to lie in the southern hemisphere, especially in Africa and Asia, where conservatism is still prevalent', notes, for example, The Washington Post (January 2). 'The last conservative', headlines La Repubblica (January 2) on the front page.
The narrative line of conflict was widely followed in the analyses and commentaries of the 'controversial' biography of Josef Ratzinger as theologian, archbishop, cardinal and pope. Even after his resignation, he has been presented as the leader (much to his regret, it is sometimes said) of the conservative wing, critical of the pontificate of Francis. A sector that now 'sees ideological vacuum'. In fact, 'Benedict's Death Silences Conservative Church Voice' (The Wall Street Journal, January 3). This confrontation has even been personalized, contrasting Benedict's 'harshness' with the 'mercy' of the reigning pope: Francis has elevated 'the virtue of mercy over rules that Benedict had spent decades refining and enforcing', says The New York Times (January 1). Sometimes, the desire for controversy can lead to statements that are difficult to sustain, as in the obituary published in The Times (January 2): 'Paradoxically, despite such intimate involvement in the council, Ratzinger would become one of Vatican II's most trenchant critics'.
But it must be acknowledged that, thanks to the plurality of perspectives and authors, the press has contradicted itself, sometimes even within the same article: 'His papacy did not fit into any simple boxes, however', underlines The New York Times (January 1); 'To the surprise of supporters and detractors, Benedict presided over the world's 1.1 billion Catholics with a gentler touch' (The Washington Post, January 1); 'The cry of a man who never raised his voice' (El Pa ıs, January 2); 'there was a certain simple sweetness in the manner which made young people like him' (The Economist, January 7). It is interesting to note, in this respect, that in the photographs accompanying the information we always see a pleasant old man with abundant white hair in a friendly attitude: an image very distant from the rigid inquisitor sometimes mentioned in the text.
Particularly significant are some articles by intellectuals situated on a very distant ideological spectrum, such as the mathematician Piergiorgio Odifreddi, who for years has popularized his atheism in the Italian media, and who recounted his personal encounters with the pope emeritus in an article with the eloquent title: 'Cultured, kind, misunderstood: he was not a reactionary Pope' (La Stampa, January 2). Personal testimonies were also published recalling even episodes from his time as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith: 'As such, he told me, it was his job to "help the Pope with the necessary Noes, given that John Paul II was temperamentally inclined to say Yes"', recalls Charles Moore in The Daily Telegraph (January 3).
The third major theme with which his pontificate has been defined concerns the scandal of sexual abuse committed by priests in recent decades, a crisis he had already dealt with as prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, but which became more acute during his pontificate. In general, the press made mention of the overall problem, citing also the negative perception of representatives of victims' associations. But it focused, above all, on an episode directly related to Ratzinger, which had been widely covered in the months of January and February: the accusation of an alleged mishandling of some cases of priest abusers when he was Archbishop of Munich. It was an episode for which Benedict had expressed, in early 2022, his 'deep shame and sorrow', while denying that he had committed any wrongdoing or cover-up. That statement was accompanied by a meticulous study 'of the 4 cases in which Ratzinger would not have acted correctly, where it is assured that the accusations 'do not correspond to the truth' of what happened' (ABC, February 8). Some newspapers had chosen to give full credit to the accusations: 'A pope complicit in covering up sex crimes can bid moral authority goodbye', headlines one opinion piece in The Washington Post (January 25).
Perhaps a detailed study of Benedict XVI's contribution to the fight against abuse, not only on the personal level (asking for forgiveness, meeting with victims), but also on the level of fundamental orientations and juridical norms for the conduct and pastoral care of the Church, has yet to be carried out. According to Federico Lombardi, S. J., who was director of the Vatican press office from 2006 to 2016, 'The most comprehensive and organic expression of his line of response to the dramatic problem came with his Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, dated March 19, 2010, which obviously had a value not limited to the country to which it was addressed' (La Civilt a Cattolica, I, 23).
To conclude this brief review of the echo of Benedict XVI's death in the international press, we can recall that his last understandable words were widely echoed: 'Ges u, ti amo' [Jesus, I love you]. Some have pointed out that they were meant as a synthesis of what the pope had intended during his pontificate: to put Christ at the center, to rediscover the centrality of faith.

Knee problems and rumors
The death of Benedict XVI also focused the attention of the press on the health of his successor. It was a topic that had been practically absent during the entire pontificate, except for the surgical intervention in the summer of 2021. During 2022, however, news related to Francis's health appeared periodically. In February he cancelled a trip to Florence and was unable to preside over the Ash Wednesday ceremonies. In this case it was not because of sciatica, as on other occasions, but because of an intense pain in his right knee ('acute gonalgia'), caused by a rupture of ligaments due to a misstep. An injury, he said, for which he prefers not to have surgery, in order to avoid the side effects of anesthesia that occurred the previous year. For this reason, he has followed less radical treatments, such as infiltrations.
In April he began to appear in public in a wheelchair, an image that would be frequent for the rest of the year. In June, the Holy See announced that a trip to the Democratic Republic of Congo and South Sudan, scheduled for July, had been postponed. The Lebanese government also announced that the Pope had cancelled a trip to the country, scheduled for mid-June (It should not be forgotten, however, that the Pope traveled during the year to Malta, Canada, Kazakhstan and Bahrain).
Although these are substantially mobility problems, albeit painful ones, the possibility of Francis's resignation due to health problems was once again brought to the forefront, as he turned 86 years old, one year older than Benedict when he made that decision. In fact, he has become the oldest sitting pope since Leo XIII (who died at the age of 93 in 1903).
The possibility of a resignation (once Benedict had opened the way) was not a novelty. The Pope himself had said several times that he might resign if he felt he was no longer fit to do his job; months later, in an interview with the Madrid daily ABC (December 18), he revealed that he had signed a document of resignation in case of incapacity. But it was clear that we were far from that situation. Francisco said several times that he did not intend to resign, and he repeated it in an interview granted to Reuters (July 4). Even so, the press devoted much space to the question: 'Is Pope Francis nearing the end of his pontificate?', asks The Washington Post (June 7); 'For Francis, a Papacy Complicated by the Shadow of resignation' (The New York Times, July 4).
A consistory called for the end of August (an unusual date) and a trip by the Pope, also in August, to the basilica that contains the tomb of a famous pope who resigned, Celestine V, were interpreted as symptoms of that possible decision. Benedict had visited the same place-the town of L'Aquila-four years before his resignation (although he denied any relation between that visit with the decision to resign). This created one of those situations that occur relatively frequently in the journalistic field: one writes knowing that what is said will not happen; but one writes anyway because there are elements that make it hypothetically possible, even if one has information to the contrary, which is even cited in the text. As El Pa ıs wrote (June 19), 'the sound of the drums [ … ] seems closer to conjecture than to Francis's intentions' (a consideration that did not, however, prevent the newspaper from devoting two pages to the subject).

New international crisis
If in the years 2020-2021 Francis had to deal with a pandemic, in the year 2022 he was faced with another painful international crisis, in this case unequivocally manmade. Despite the signs that preceded it, the invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops on February 24 caught many by surprise. No doubt Francis was already fearing the worst when on January 26 he called 'all people of good will' for a Day of Prayer for Peace in Ukraine.
At the beginning of the war, the Pope condemned the invasion as 'unacceptable armed aggression', personally visited the Russian ambassador to the Holy See (an unusual gesture: 'In unprecedented move, Pope makes personal appeal in remarkable Russia embassy visit', Associated Press, Feb. 26), denounced the massacre in Bucha and kissed a Ukrainian flag sent to him from the city. He also sent two cardinals on several occasions to bring humanitarian aid and to express his closeness to the Ukrainian people. The nuncio of the Holy See always remained in the capital: 'As many ambassadors left town, the pope's emissary remained in Kyiv' (The New York Times, April 30).
In an effort not to close a possible future Vatican mediation between both countries, Francis avoided for months direct references to Russia and Vladimir Putin, something that surprised many observers: 'Pope Deplores the War in Ukraine but not the Aggressor', stated a headline in The New York Times It is more than likely that the Pope's attitude was influenced not only by the hope of mediation, but also by his desire not to break relations with the Orthodox Patriarchate, which had expressed its unconditional support for Putin from the very beginning. This did not prevent him, however, in a 40-minute conversation, via Zoom, from telling Patriarch Kirill that 'the Patriarch cannot turn into Putin's altar boy', a phrase that went around the world and that was revealed by Francis himself in an interview with Corriere della Sera (May 3). The following day, the Orthodox Church issued a statement saying Francis had allegedly 'misrepresented his conversation' and used 'the wrong tone' in reporting it.
The fact is that in the weeks and months that followed a personal meeting with Patriarch Kirill, initially planned for June in Jerusalem (in the framework of the trip to Lebanon that was suspended), did not take place; the appointment was moved to September, taking advantage of an interreligious symposium to be held in Kazakhstan during Francis's trip. The meeting was not held then either, because Kirill delegated to another ecclesiastic the representation of the Moscow Patriarchate.
In the end, the statements and what were considered omissions by the Holy See provoked some discomfort among both Russians and Ukrainians, which forced several subsequent rectifications and clarifications. A first change of tone was seen in the summer, when 'The Vatican, for the first time, calls Russia the aggressor in the war' (The New York Times, August 30). This was a communiqu e introducing a symposium on 'Europe and the war. From the spirit of Helsinki to the prospects for peace', organized by the Vatican media in collaboration with the Italian Embassy to the Holy See. An even more evident change came after November 7, following the Pope's meeting with Archbishop Svyatoslav Shevchuk, who had been his auxiliary bishop in Buenos Aires and who since 2011 had been at the head of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church. Following that visit, the Pope sent a letter to the Ukrainian people, dated November 24, nine months after the beginning of the war. In that letter he addressed the many young people who made the decision 'to courageously defend' their homeland, saying 'you had to take up arms instead of the dreams you had nurtured for the future' (Crux, Nov. 25). He also recalled the 90th anniversary of 'the genocide of Holodomor' in which several million Ukrainians died during the famine artificially created by Stalin's regime in 1932-33.
During the year, the Pope made some 110 public references to the war in Ukraine, some of them particularly moving, such as the one on December 8 ('Pope Francis's tears for Ukraine in front of the Immaculate Conception', El Pa ıs, December 8). While the Holy See's denunciation of the perversion of the war was unquestionable, at the same time, some felt that a certain sense of zigzagging was conveyed, as if expert Vatican diplomacy had been kept in the background (The Economist, December 24).

Mission accomplished: 'Praedicate evangelium'
On March 19, the Apostolic Constitution 'Praedicate evangelium' was published, on the reform of the Roman Curia-a central project in the pontificate of Francis. In fact, 'When he was elected in March 2013, he received in conclave an explicit mandate to reform the Oltretevere bureaucracy plagued by scandals and, according to many cardinals, too Byzantine and too Italian' (Il Messaggero,March 19).
It is the third reform of the Roman Curia to be carried out since Vatican II, after those accomplished by Paul VI (1967) and John Paul II (1988). With that 54-page document concluded the work of the Council of Cardinals, instituted by the Pope on September 28, 2013, six months after his election; a task force in which a total of twelve members have succeeded each other throughout these years. It took 40 meetings before the document was published.
Understandably, press reports on the reform were more frequent in the Catholic press than in the general press. It was not easy, since it was mainly an organizational issue, to interest the general public: for this reason, two aspects were emphasized. On the one hand, the 'revolutionary' character of the reform ('Pope Francis's revolution, Curia becomes missionary: here is the new apostolic constitution', Corriere della Sera, March 19; 'Reform of the Roman Curia: Pope Francis's revolution', La Croix, March 24). Part of this revolution was its pastoral character, manifested in the new Dicastery for Evangelization, presided over directly by the Pope, which includes issues related to the missions (formerly Propaganda Fide), and those related to the evangelization of the world (formerly New Evangelization). The symbolic message was that this dicastery, being presided over by the Pope, became in a way the 'first' dicastery, surpassing that of the Doctrine of the Faith, which historically occupied that position (In any case, the constitution underlines the juridical equality between all the dicasteries).
The other aspect highlighted was the space that the new constitution grants to lay people in the tasks of government ('Pope rules any baptized lay Catholic, including women, can head Vatican departments', Reuters, March 19; 'Pope set to expand role of women at the Vatican', The Times, March 21). The constitution clarified, at the same time, that some government functions are directly related to the ministerial order and, therefore, reserved to priests.
Strictly speaking, many of the novelties did not come as a surprise, since they had already been introduced during the long nine-year gestation of the new document. Francis himself had warned, in interviews prior to publication, that 'It will not present anything new compared to what we are seeing so far' (COPE, September 2021). The incorporation of lay people, and even-more slowly-of women, to the governing bodies had also begun ('Pope appoints woman as 'number two' in Vatican government', El Pa ıs, 24 November 21). The novelty was that this purpose had been written down in a law of such high rank.
It was striking that such a significant document for the pontificate was made public in an almost surreptitious way: on Saturday at noon, without warning or opportunity for the press to have it under embargo, in order to facilitate its reading in advance. The only version published, in Italian, also contained some obvious errors. Contrary to what is customary, the presentation press conference took place two days later. These circumstances provoked an unusual note of protest from the association of journalists accredited to the Holy See.

A German way of being Catholic?
To the president of the German Episcopal Conference, Bishop B€ atzing, I said: 'In Germany there is a very good Evangelical Church. We don't need two'. This was shared by the Pope himself during a conversation with the editors of European Jesuit Journals (La Civilt a Cattolica, June 14) and shows graphically how the Vatican views the proposals coming from the successive assemblies of the German Synodal Path, begun in 2019.
During 2022 there has been a lot of back and forth between Frankfort and Rome, with no change in positions; the controversy went beyond the Catholic press and was echoed also in the mainstream press, as shown by these two titles from The Wall Street Journal, separated by almost ten months: 'German Catholic Leaders Press Pope Francis on Married Priests, Women's Ordination/Synod's progressive agenda also includes blessings for same-sex couples' (February 4) and 'German Catholic Bishops Face Vatican Critics, Refuse to Stop Questioning Church/German synod has called for changes in doctrine on homosexuality and women's ordination' (November 19).
On July 21, the Holy See issued a first official statement, following the Pope's 2019 personal letter. That statement said that 'In order to protect the freedom of God's people and the exercise of episcopal ministry, it seems necessary to clarify that the Synodal Path in Germany does not have the power to force bishops and the faithful to take on new ways of governance and new approaches to doctrine and morality'. The note adds that 'It would not be permissible to initiate new official structures or doctrines in dioceses, prior to an agreed understanding at the level of the universal Church'. Those initiatives 'would be a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church'.
The German episcopate responded with another note in which it denounced the lack of a requested dialogue with Rome and regretted that the Vatican communiqu e was circulated without a signature. 'We are eager to have timely discussions with as many bodies within the Roman Curia as possible', said Bishop B€ atzing. Responding to questions from journalists on the flight back from Canada, the Pope acknowledged that the non-signature had indeed been a mistake and that the statement had been prepared by the Secretariat of State.
In any case, this meeting they requested was not long in coming. It took place from November 14 to 18, during the 'ad limina visit' of the 62 German bishops. During these sessions, the prefect of the Dicastery for Bishops, Cardinal Ouellet, called for a moratorium on the German Synodal Path (which was not accepted) and the Secretary of State, Cardinal Parolin, underlined the distinction between 'reform of the Church' and 'reform in the Church' (La Croix, November 26).
The tone of the meeting was cordial, but swords remain at the ready. According to Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, 'On all essential questions of this reform process, the prefects of the relevant Vatican authorities made it clear that the demands contradicted the teaching and canon of the universal Church.
[ … ] B€ atzing said in Rome that blockades, bans or intimidation are no longer possible in the universal Church today, and urgently recalled the 'impatience of the people of God' in Germany'.

Chinese enigma
The Vatican and China have renewed for the second time the 'ad experimentum' Agreement for the appointment of bishops. The agreement was originally signed on September 22, 2018 and renewed for the first time on October 22, 2020. 'The text of the agreement, still reserved, foresees that the papal appointment of a bishop be communicated in advance to the Chinese side, for its acceptance', reports Corriere della Sera. It is mentioned as a positive result that in this period there have been no illegitimate episcopal ordinations and six new bishops have been appointed with Beijing's assent.
However, all agree that the fruits are still meager: one third of the dioceses lack bishops and in the last two appointments, the Chinese side has not respected the agreed-upon procedures. For some critics, the agreement is undermining the moral credibility of the Holy See. The Wall Street Journal argues in an editorial that the main contribution of the agreement, 'has been to mute Vatican criticism of humanrights abuses', 'a return to the Vatican's failed Ostpolitik of the 1960s and 1970s, when Rome muted criticism of the Soviet Union and its East European satellites'. According to Associated Press, Cardinal Parolin, the Vatican's No 2 official, said Francis 'decided to continue along this path not under the illusion of finding perfection in human rules, but in the concrete hope of being able to assure Chinese Catholic communities, even in such a complex context, of the guidance of pastors who are worthy'.
On the other hand, it is difficult to imagine what would have happened to the clandestine communities that have come to light if the agreement had not been renewed. The widespread conviction is that 'an imperfect dialogue is better than no contact at all'. And all this even though the other side does not seem to facilitate dialogue. The Vatican tried to arrange a meeting between the President Xi Jinping and the Pope, in September in Kazakhstan, but China declined.

Nicaragua: 'couple of tyrants'
The Catholic Church in Nicaragua is the victim of increasing persecution by the dictatorship of Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo. The hunt intensified in the last four years and was accentuated during 2022: in March, the government expelled the apostolic nuncio, Msgr. Waldemar Stanisław Sommertag; in June, it announced the closure of 101 NGOs as well as the closure of 4 television channels and 11 Catholic radio stations. The 18 Missionaries of Charity also had to leave the country. At least 11 priests have been imprisoned (some in El Chipote, the torture prison) and 60 other priests, deacons and nuns have been expelled from the country or have left it because of threats from the regime.
On August 23, The New York Times highlighted in its headlines that 'Nicaragua Silences its Last Outspoken Critics: Catholic Priests', specifying that 'a wave of government attacks on church leaders has extinguished the last independent voice in the Central American nation'. It was reported that on August 19 'Bishop Rolando Alvarez was arrested after the police raided his residence and put him under home confinement and eight of his companions in jail. The shocking arrest of Bishop Alvarez on Friday, the most senior clergyman to be detained in Latin America for political views in decades, was the latest and most aggressive move by Nicaragua's president, Daniel Ortega, against the Roman Catholic Church. Until now, it was the only institution that had escaped his control after 15 years of uninterrupted rule'.
During this time, the approach of the Holy See has been one of dialogue. 'I am closely following with concern and sorrow the situation in Nicaragua, which affects people and institutions. I would like to express my conviction and my hope that, through an open and sincere dialogue, the foundations of a respectful and peaceful coexistence can still be found', the Pope said at the Angelus on August 21. And at the press conference on the return flight from Kazakhstan (September 15) he said: 'There is dialogue, at this moment there is dialogue. There has been talk with the government, there is dialogue'.
The harsh reality is that 'so far the regime has dynamited all the bridges built by the international community'. And the country's presidential couple-'a marriage of tyrants' -is walking at an accelerated pace 'towards totalitarianism, destroying the civil framework' (El Pa ıs, August 23). The Church is its last obstacle. Daniel Ortega's first term as president of Nicaragua lasted from 1985 to 1990. In 2007 he won the elections again, forming a leftist government that is heir to the Sandinista revolution; in 2012, 2017 he won again. Increasing electoral irregularities, denounced by international observers, caused the results of the November 2021 elections to be accepted without reservations only by Venezuela, Cuba, Bolivia and Russia.

The wound of abuse
The issue of clerical abuse has been in the press all year long. In fact, for some media it has become a new 'journalistic beat' and even a section dedicated to investigative journalism. The following are some of the cases, of different origins, which had a particular echo in the media.
As already mentioned, the first days of the year opened with accusations coming from Germany against Benedict XVI, who was accused of having mishandled four cases of abusive priests. In March, an Argentine court convicted former bishop Gustavo Zanchetta of sexual abuse: deplorable acts with which he 'damaged the victims, the Church and the community in general' (La Naci on, March 11). The case had a certain resonance, since Zanchetta had been named bishop by Pope Francis, who also appointed him to a position in Rome.
In August, news broke that a 'Top Vatican Official Is Accused of Sexual Misconduct in Quebec' (The New York Times, August 17). It was added that 'A woman accused Cardinal Marc Ouellet, a member of Pope Francis's inner circle, of inappropriately touching and kissing her'. The following day, The Washington Post reported the same ('Catholic cardinal accused in lawsuit of sexual assault'), but with new data: 'Vatican says that after a preliminary inquiry, Pope Francis decided there were 'insufficient grounds' for a canonical investigation'. A few months later, in fact, the situation changed drastically: 'Vatican cardinal sues for defamation in Quebec assault claim' (Associated Press, December 13). This time it was the cardinal who took the initiative (which received much less attention from the press).
Following revelations in the Dutch newspaper De Groene Amsterdammer, the Holy See made public in September that it had imposed 'disciplinary restrictions' and banned 'contact with minors' on Bishop Carlos Ximenes Belo. 'The bishop's two alleged victims, identified only by first names by the Dutch paper, said in the account that the bishop had raped them and targeted poor children and possibly orphans, leaving them cash to keep them quiet or coming back' (The New York Times, September 29). Belo is a well-known figure in East Timor, where he fought, during the Indonesian occupation , for independence and respect for human rights. For this reason, he shared the 1996 Nobel Peace Prize with the future president of the new country, Jos e Ramos-Horta.
On November, one of France's highest-ranking prelates of the Catholic Church admitted abusing a 14-year-old girl 35 years earlier and announced his withdrawal from his religious duties. Cardinal Jean-Pierre Ricard issued a written statement in which he said that 'Thirty-five years ago, when I was a priest, I behaved in a reprehensible way with a young girl aged 14', Ricard said. 'My behaviour has inevitably caused serious and lasting consequences for this person' (The Guardian, November 7).
Some blogs and media published in early December that Marko Ivan Rupnik, a well-known Jesuit artist and theologian, had continued to preach and travel despite the restrictions imposed on him by the Holy See following a trial for sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse with adult women. It was the first public news of this case, which was of special importance because it was centered in Rome and because of Father Rupnik's (at least apparent) closeness to the Pope. It was later learned that he had been excommunicated but that, surprisingly, contrary to the usual practice, his excommunication was lifted within a short period of time. It was also revealed that, during the period of restrictions, he had been received in official audience by the Pope and preached to the Roman Curia (at the beginning of Lent 2020). Although Rupnik's case had a limited echo in the press ('The case of a sexual abuser of nuns shakes the Society of Jesus', El Pa ıs, 22 December), its effect was particularly deleterious because of the lack of transparency with which it was explained, in contrast to the measures that Rome requires of dioceses and Catholic institutions.
To conclude this section, it should be added-as a side note-that it is noteworthy that the press continues to quote the figures released by the 'Sauv e Commission' without mentioning the methodological weaknesses of this report on clerical abuse in France. Specifically, the fact that the figures it provides are statistical projections, based on Internet surveys of 24,000 people: 171 of these people responded that they had been abused, which became (by a very questionable extrapolation) 330,000 when extended to the national adult population. In this text from The Guardian (Nov. 8), for example, the figures are accepted as if they were facts: 'French Catholics were rocked last year by the findings of an inquiry that confirmed widespread abuse of minors by priests, deacons and lay members dating from the 1950s. It found 216,000 minors had been abused by clergy over the past seven decades-a number that climbed to 330,000 when claims against lay members were included, such as teachers at Catholic schools'.

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes on contributor
Diego Contreras (Granada, Spain) teaches Analysis and Practice of Information at the School of Church Communications at the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross, of which he was formerly dean. He carried out part of his professional activity as correspondent in Italy and in the Vatican for the Europa Press news agency. He has published several research papers on news coverage of the Catholic Church.