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Top Ten People of 2007 - #10[2008-01-25][Engleză]Inside the Vatican has again chosen 10 men and women as its "Top Ten People of the Year." Profiles of each of the 10 will be published in the upcoming January issue of Inside the Vatican.#1 - Francis Beckwith #2 - Immacolata Solaro del Borgo #3 - Sir Martin Gilbert #4 - Brian Boyle #5 - Fr. Bernardo Cervellera #6 - Aung San Suu Kyi #7 - Fr. Ragheed Ganni #8 - Dr. Alveda King #9 - Sr. Eugenia Bonetti #10 - FATHER FEDERICO LOMBARDI By Micaela Biferali "He is an experienced journalist and so we have confidence in him," Benedict XVI commented two years ago when Father Federico Lombardi was named the new director of the Holy Sees press office, making him the public face of the Vatican to the world. Long before Pope Benedict was elected, Vatican officials and experts in social communications spoke of the Vaticans great need to revamp its media operations, so as to "rationalize" its human and financial resources. According to some observers, in choosing Father Lombardi, the Pope opted for a more sober, less protagonist style of relations with the media. Father Lombardis appointment as director of the press office, while continuing his other Vatican media responsibilities (he heads Vatican Radio and the Vatican Television Center), is considered a first but crucially important step toward a reform. Surely Father Lombardis appointment signals that one era has ended and another begun in the Holy Sees relations with the worlds media. Father Lombardi, 65, was born in Saluzzo, in the Italian region of Piedmont, on August 29, 1942. He studied mathematics at Turin University and theology at Frankfurt, Germany, and was ordained a priest in 1972. Since then, except for a six-year interlude (1984- 1990) when he was provincial superior of the Italian Jesuits, all of his time has been devoted to Vatican-related media work. In 1973, he began writing for Civiltà Cattolica, the prestigious Italian Jesuit review, and he became its deputy editor in 1977. He was made director of programming at Vatican Radio in 1991 and appointed its general director in 2005. Since 2001 he has also been general director of the Vatican Television Center. On July 11, 2006, he replaced the Spaniard Joaquín Navarro-Valls, the first layman to head the Vatican press office. Navarro-Valls had held this post since 1984, almost 22 years. As his first act in his new post, Lombardi wrote a letter to all journalists with Vatican accreditation. In it he said, among other things: "Like you I have been working for quite some time to make the activities of the Holy Father better known and understood in an objective and adequate way. Dr. Navarro-Valls has carried out his long service in this domain with exceptional ability, intelligence and dedication. And we are all deeply grateful to him for this and shall continue to rely on his friendship." Father Lombardi, as director of the Vatican press office, usually organizes press conferences in which he meets journalists to provide insightful interpretations of statements, speeches and official documents by the Pope in order to avoid media misunderstandings of the news. In this way, Fr. Lombardi plays a key role in relations between the Holy See and the media which informs the world about the Holy See. On September 13, 2006, Lombardi urged reporters to note that a lecture delivered by Benedict XVI at the University of Regensburg was not an attack on Islam. In his speech, the Vatican spokesman said, the Pope "did not want to give a lecture interpreting Islam in a violent sense, but affirming that when there is a violent interpretation of religion, we see a contradiction with Gods nature." In discussing the concept of jihad, he said, the Pope was using a rational analysis to criticize the use of faith to incite violence. During Benedict XVIs trip to Turkey (December 2006), there were various interpretations and wide press coverage of the Popes prayer while at the Blue Mosque. "It was a moment of personal meditation, of relationship with God, which can also be called of personal, profound prayer, but it was not a prayer with external manifestations characteristic of the Christian faith," Lombardi said. He added: "The Pope paused in a moment of meditation and recollection and he certainly turned his thoughts to God." Last summer, Lombardi, in comments to Vatican Radio, said that the Popes motu proprio on the liturgy, granting wider use of the old missal, "does not intend to bring about any revolution in respect to the modern liturgical usage renewed by the Council," and continued: "The Pope simply wants to offer to those who feel a deep desire, an easier possibility of celebrating the liturgy according to the form of the Roman rite previously in use, to do so serenely, sensing it benevolently welcomed and inserted into the great Catholic community." More recently, Fr. Lombardi made a statement to correct the wrong interpretation by the media of a speech that the Holy Father gave on December 2, 2007 to the first Forum of Catholic-Inspired Non-governmental Organizations (NGOs), organized by the secretariat of state and held at the Vatican. "The Pope said exactly, International discussions often seem marked by a relativistic logic. In contrast to what was written, he had not attacked the United Nations, nor had he said that it is dominated by moral relativism," explained Father Lombardi. He continued: "Benedict XVI, as well as his predecessors, is perfectly conscious of the importance of the United Nations for peace and the defense of human rights, to the point that with joy he has accepted the invitation to visit the UN headquarters in New York next year." Sursa: www.InsideTheVatican.com Contor Accesări: 1304, Ultimul acces: 2026-04-18 13:42:53
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