In the same press conference where Fr. Lombardi of the Vatican Press Office made what Vatican Radio has characterized as his call for "accurate reporting", he was accompanied by Fr. Thomas Rosica CSB of Salt and Light TV. During the interregnum, conclave and papal installation, Fr. Rosica will be taking care of the Vatican Press Office's English-language media bulletins and will, no doubt, be one of the Vatican's leading point men for the English-speaking media. It is only fair, then, to ask if Fr. Rosica has a strong understanding of the papacy that will serve him well under pressure from a media looking for soundbites. Unfortunately, as Vox Cantoris reports:
While charity suggests that we should give him the benefit of the doubt that he was caught up in the discussion and that he was running off at the lip to the CBC's Peter Mansbridge, we do need to ask Father Tom Rosica, Executive Producer of Salt + Light, President of Assumption University, Papal Consultor to the Pontifical Council on Social Communications and spokesman for the English media for the upcoming Conclave; was this a sequencing conflict in grammar production, was it a "Freudian slip" (1) or does he really believe this which he stated at 7:28 of this interview. The Catholic people deserve a clarification; the people do not deserve to be lead into scandal or heresy by such a prominent priest.
So, may we have a clarification?
"the leader, that figurehead, this first among equals in the person of the pope"
This passage comes in as Fr. Rosica explains how the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI has taken the Church one step further into examining the role and nature of the papacy. (The part of the interview between 5:50 and 8:24 is particularly revealing about his view of the papacy and how it and the Church need to "go forward".)
