No more word of "coarse exchanges apparently,"
The Vatican clamped down on information emerging from a meeting of the world’s bishops Wednesday after some of the prelates had expressed concern that details of their debates had been released.
The Vatican press office has arranged for daily briefings in five separate languages for the media to get summaries of the closed-door discussions of the Synod of Bishops, the Oct. 2-23 meeting to give Pope Benedict XVI advice on running the church.
Journalists also receive extracts of the prepared speeches the bishops deliver. The briefings, however, provide information about the "free discussion" period of the synod — the hour at the end of each day when bishops can take the floor to discuss certain topics.
During the first such briefing Tuesday, several interesting issues emerged, including a request during the free discussion period by the senior American at the Vatican, Archbishop William Levada, for the synod to discuss whether Catholic politicians who support abortion rights should be given Communion.
In addition, Patriarch Gregory III Laham, patriarch of Antioch of the Greek-Melkite Church, said there was no theological foundation for a celibate priesthood, according to the Italian summary of the meeting. The Eastern rite churches which are loyal to Rome allow married priests.
But on Wednesday, the officials who conduct the media briefings said they would only give thematic highlights of the free discussion period, and not substantive details, after several bishops said too much information was getting out.
I have no problem with this. Even the characterization of the dialogue on celibacy as a "coarse exchange" was weird and put an interpretation over the exchange that might or might not have been there. In the era of instant communication, there’s good reason to let the bishops hash out these matters without having to deal with instant reactions from, er…people who aren’t there. Yeah.
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