Leo XIV: The value of communication

With his visit to the Vatican Radio shortwave broadcasting center in Santa Maria di Galeria, Leo XIV made a highly symbolic gesture. Not so much because that area is the subject of a controversy with the Italian government due to alleged environmental pollution of the center, but because the great reform of Vatican communication began, in a symbolic way, in Ponte Galeria..

Leo XIV not only stopped to bless the premises, but also an environmental project. Leo XIV also underlined – as stated in a note from the Holy See Press Office – the missionary value of communication. Leo recalled how, during his missionary work in Latin America and Africa, the shortwave transmissions of Vatican Radio were invaluable.

Shortwave was in fact part of the evangelization perspective. Still unregulated, they could not be blocked or censored in any way by local governments, and this allowed Vatican Radio to be present in countries where there was generally censorship of the airwaves.

These are important words, especially in light of plans to phase out and eventually cease all shortwave broadcast services. Those plans were announced early in the reign of Pope Francis, and took observers quite by surprise. Although shortwave transmission have not ceased entirely, the planned phase-out still exists on paper. The decision was part of a reform process that began in 2012, and which then became part of the reform of Vatican communications. Shortwave remained, however, at the specific request of Fr. Federico Lombardi SJ, for years director of the Holy See Press Office, of Vatican Radio, and of the Vatican television production center.

Although the reform process had been thought through thouroughly in the years before the 2016 announcement, a complete shutdown of shortwave broadcasting had never been considered, because shortwave had to remain for evangelizing reasons.

In 2016, however, the idea of reform at all costs prevailed, with a reorganization of the Vatican media that affected L’Osservatore Romano , the Vatican Television Center, Vatican Radio and every department of Vatican communications.

Shortwave should have been maintained for reasons of evangelization. And yet, as in many other things, efficiency and the need to reform at all costs prevailed. Bureaucratization came before evangelization. And in the end, we found ourselves faced with a pontificate that had to balance between spin doctors and the Gospel.

With Leo XIV we are witnessing a balancing, rather than a change of perspective. Leo XIV wants to know the Vatican, and he has made an effort to meet everyone and visit as much as possible in this month and a half of his pontificate.

Likewise, the Pope seems to feel the value of Romanitas. Hence, not only the decision to return to live in the Vatican Apostolic Palace, when its renovation is finished, but also that of returning for a vacation period to Castel Gandolfo, the historic papal residence abandoned by Pope Francis.

But we are not facing a total paradigm shift. Also this week, Leo XIV appointed Shane Mackinlay as bishop of Brisbane, who has distinguished himself for his very open positions, so much so that some have even doubted whether he is Catholic. Along with other episcopal choices, Leo XIV has so far placed himself in continuity with the pontificate of Pope Francis.

And, at the end of the visit to Ponte Galeria, Leo XIV got out of the car to answer questions from TG1, the main Italian news program, in a sudden move that seems to go against the normal behavior of the Pope, who always refuses, for example, to take selfies.

Does this mean that Leo XIV is a Pope who has followed in the footsteps of Pope Francis? Does this mean that ecology, as well as unconditional peace, will once again be at the center of the diplomatic agenda of the Holy See, if they ever left it?

Yes and no, at the same time.

Yes, because Leo XIV’s agenda is clear, his priorities are understood, and much is also known about the mandate he received from the College of Cardinals: that of bringing a harmony that had been lost.

No, because in fact Leo XIV is a very different Pope from Pope Francis. This is also reflected in the bishops, in the change of attitude, and in the new attention given to symbols. Leo XIV carries all the symbols of the pontificate, and he wants everyone to do the same. As always happens in the Vatican, the adaptation was sudden, with a return and proliferation of gold crosses that had never been present during Pope Francis’s pontificate.

Thus, the great doctrinal debates might well be absorbed precisely by the presence of Pope Leo XIV, as always happens in the Vatican. This means that positions such as those of the new bishop of Brisbane on the female diaconate will not be expressed simply because it will be understood that it is not the time to do so, that the pontificate has changed, and that the perspectives have changed.

Leo, however, is not only called to absorb personal positions, but is rather called to create a change of mentality. After all, if the mentality does not change, all the problems typical of the Vatican, but of all small places generally, will remain.

For this reason, the visit to Vatican Radio in Ponte Galeria, an extraterritorial area, is a very clear statement on Leo XIV’s intentions. The Pope wants to return to tradition, without too many frills. But now we must see how he will handle some of the most pressing issues of this pontificate.

If he does not do so with a firm hand, the pontificate could ultimately bring more problems than solutions.