Archbishop Foley on the lessons of Regensburg

By JOHN L. ALLEN JR.
Rome

In the middle of the crisis unleashed by the pope’s Sept. 12 comments on Islam, I found myself on a CNN prime-time news program. The host opened our interview as follows: “Now, John, I’ve read the entire text of the pope’s speech, and …”

I confess I lost track of the rest of the question, wondering when the last time might have been that a network television anchor had bothered to read the full text of a 4,000-word papal lecture.

That, in a nutshell, captures one prevalent reaction in Rome as post-Regensburg reflection passes the one-month mark: Whatever one makes of Benedict’s analysis of Islam, at least he got the world’s attention.

“It got people talking, and talking on a very high level,” said Archbishop John Foley, President of the Pontifical Council for Social Communications, in an Oct. 16 interview with NCR in his Vatican office.

If the pope hadn’t stirred up a hornet’s nest, or so the conventional wisdom goes, the Regensburg address would probably have passed in silence. As things stand, it is instead among the most-read, most-dissected, and most-commented upon papal discourses in recent memory.

Obviously, however, everyone concedes that it would be nice to stimulate global conversation without unleashing violence and heartache. One major post-Regensburg challenge for Benedict XVI, therefore, could perhaps be formulated this way: how to create a buzz without setting off a bomb.

Foley, a man who has been on the front lines of church communications since the era of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), recognizes the depth of the challenge.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said, that sometimes in a sound-bite culture, it can take poking someone in the eye to get their attention.

Foley formulated the problem with typical candor: “People don’t like to be invited to think.”

Yet Foley said he believes the pope has two tools in his toolbox that can generate the same level of global interest as Regensburg, but without the more extreme reactions.

First, he mentioned “symbolic actions.”

“When John Paul II called religious leaders together in Assisi to pray for peace, or when left a note [expressing regret for anti-Semitism] in the Western Wall in Jerusalem, those dramatic gestures created serious dialogue by their very nature,” Foley said.

Foley noted that “not everyone was in favor” of John Paul’s decision to host the Assisi event, especially forces concerned that it might lead to religious relativism. But, Foley said, John Paul proceeded despite that opposition, realizing the potential of such an event to raise global consciousness.

Foley acknowledged that Benedict XVI does not have the same dramatic instincts as John Paul, but suggested that he can find ways to perform meaningful symbolic actions consistent with his own style and temperament.

Second, Foley said, Benedict is very adept in media interviews, noting that sessions with journalists before his recent trips to both Poland and Germany played to uniformly good reviews.

“He comes across very well,” Foley said. “He’s obviously a very well-informed, logical, kind and pastoral man.”

“I hope there will be more of the same,” Foley said, referring to live sessions between the pope and the press.

I asked if there’s any plan to arrange a session with the press before the Turkey trip, perhaps involving representatives from important news outlets in the Islamic world.

“I don’t know of any plan to do that,” Foley said, but added, “anything’s possible.”

Foley joked that one sign for him that Regensburg was destined to be a global phenomenon is that he was actually in Helsinki when the story broke – and even there, he was pressed for comment.

Foley acknowledged that Regensburg also illustrates the need to “foresee possible reactions” to papal statements, and thus to avoid language that might spark undesired blowback.

Has the lesson been learned?

“It should be,” he said, then added: “Whether or not it has been, I don’t know.”

In the end, however – whether as a result of conscious strategy or good fortune – Foley said that on balance, the post-Regensburg picture seems fairly positive.

“For one thing, because of the controversy a number of publications around the world printed the entire text of the pope’s talk, which was a very good talk,” Foley said, “stressing the need for dialogue and understanding, and the importance of philosophy as background to that.”

“Through the providence of God,” he said, “it’s turned out better than we might have imagined.”