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Anniversary audience: Pope teases, but also teaches about media’s role

Pope Francis meets with members of the Catholic News Service Rome bureau at the Domus Sanctae Marthae at the Vatican Feb. 1, 2021. The special audience was in recognition of the 100th anniversary of CNS. Pictured from left are Junno Arocho Esteves, correspondent; Joanna Kohorst, administrative assistant; Paul Haring, senior photographer; Robert Duncan, multimedia journalist; Carol Glatz, correspondent; and Cindy Wooden, bureau chief. (CNS photo/Vatican Media)

When you have an audience with the pope – complete with a prepared speech – you don’t expect a joke about a refrigerator.

“A missionary I knew worked in Norway, way up north where half the year it was daytime and half the year it was night, and where in the winter the temperature was -30, -40. He said that one day a local man went and bought a refrigerator and his friend asked him, ‘Why would you buy a refrigerator?’ ‘Oh, to warm up my children.’”

Even before Pope Francis told the joke Feb. 1, the mood in the meeting room at the Domus Sanctae Marthae, where he lives, was relaxed and much warmer than a fridge joke would suggest.

Like so many things, the celebration of Catholic News Service’s 100th anniversary was delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

But as some pandemic restrictions in Rome and the surrounding region lightened Feb. 1, members of the CNS Rome bureau – after undergoing coronavirus antigen tests, having their temperatures checked and using a big dollop of hand sanitizer – were welcomed to the pope’s residence to mark the anniversary.

After some talk about CNS and its service to the Church, the pope referred back to the gift Joanna Kohorst, our administrative assistant, had given him at the beginning of the meeting: watercolors her 2- and 4-year-old children made for him to hang on his refrigerator. If he has one.

Because of the pandemic, it was the first time any of us had been face-to-face with Pope Francis since the last papal trip abroad – a Nov. 19-26, 2019, trip to Thailand and Japan.

So, of course, after thanking him for the audience and remarking on how long it had been, we asked if we would be going to Iraq together. It was at that point that the pope reaffirmed his intention to make the trip in early March unless there was a severe increase in the number of COVID-19 cases there.

Pope Francis handed us a copy of his prepared text, but said he preferred to have a conversation.

“The floor is yours,” he said, so I gave a quick overview of the history, work and publications of CNS.

Pope Francis made several comments; some were lighthearted, and some were very serious about the importance of integrity in journalism.

Responding to a comment – and maybe a sideways glance at Pope Francis – about how much of the news agency’s work is covering what popes say, Pope Francis said some journalists “are too creative; some say things the pope never said.”

And, when I told him I had been living in Rome and covering the Vatican for more than 30 years, he grinned and chivalrously said, “You must have made your first Communion here.”

Carol Glatz, one of our Vatican correspondents, gave Pope Francis a folder with CNS stories from Dec. 14-19, 1936, which was the week Pope Francis was born. He flipped through the book and made a few comments, but got to one page and said, “Oh, this is interesting: ‘Today in Buenos Aires, a restless boy was born ....’”

Paul Haring, the CNS Rome senior photographer, gave the pope several prints of a photo of him releasing a dove. That led to serious talk about “Let Us Dream,” the book the pope did with Austen Ivereigh, and some cringing as the pope recalled how, in 2014, when he and some children released “peace doves” from the window of the Apostolic Palace, the “poor creature” was attacked by a seagull and a crow.

Just two days after Pope Francis gave a speech in which he insisted that calling oneself Catholic means accepting the teaching of the Second Vatican Council, Robert Duncan, CNS multimedia journalist, gave the pope a copy of “The Voices of Vatican II,” a documentary he co-directed.

“This is beautiful,” the pope said, pointing to the photos of the 12 Vatican II participants featured in the video.

Junno Arocho Esteves, another CNS Vatican correspondent, asked Pope Francis how he was feeling, especially after two recent bouts of sciatica led him to cancel some events.

The pope described how he knows when a flare-up is about to happen and how his doctor insists he avoid standing for long periods when that happens because otherwise “you won’t be able to walk.”

Promising that we did not intend to lay a “trap” for the pope, Arocho asked whether he could ask more questions. The pope agreed.

We did not know the format for the meeting ahead of time and expected it might be a 15-minute audience with a greeting, a few words, a group photo and an usher not-so-gently showing us the door.

But, of course, we also prepared some questions, focusing on Catholic journalism and the U.S. Catholic Church.

Because a Q&A is not a normal part of a papal audience, we did ask specifically if we could report on the meeting and his responses.

At the end, he gave each of us a box with a beautiful rosary and told us they were not pretty objects to look at, but to pray with. And to pray for him.

 

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