A Council Father's reminiscences

Shane of Lux Occulta has sent me a link to an interview that was given by the late Archbishop Thomas Morris, emeritus of Cashel and Emly, to Kieron Wood, religious affairs correspondent of RTE in 1992. Archbishop Morris had been a Bishop for two years when the second Vatican Council started. At some points, the interview seems a little naive twenty years on, but there are some gems. I thought that this was a good insight from the Archbishop:

At the opening Mass of the Council, I was near the altar and heard Pope John XXIII speak about the serious difficulties and sufferings of earlier Councils because of undue interference of the civil authorities, Kings and Emperors and so on. I put a note in the margin of the sermon: what about interference by the media?

It’s an almost insuperable temptation for the media to influence the events they report, perhaps by an implication of approval or disapproval. I felt that good Pope John wasn’t aware that this would happen, but I saw it happening. I knew the Irish journalists who were reporting and I saw their methods, though they weren’t the most reckless of the reporters there.

Later, he says:

There was a lack of foresight on the part of the people organizing the Council. They should have organized relations with the press and media a bit better.

Fifty years on, I think the penny is beginning to drop ...