Giving Pope Some Love on Anniversary: Italian Media Have Different Take Than U.S.

ROME -- From my perch in Italy this week, I've been wondering whether the New York Times and I were at the same celebration for Benedict XVI's fifth anniversary as leader of the Roman Catholic Church. The indictment of his pontificate printed in the Times would have us believe that the occasion was marked by scowls and howls, but from St. Peter's Square, things looked quite different.

The festivities got a running start in Malta, where the Pope was greeted by throngs lining the streets to show their support and appreciation. Archbishop Paul Cremona of Valetta welcomed the pope with the words, "Holy Father, we already know who you are." This was just one reminder that for most of the Catholics on that historical island, the media does not define the papacy. Indeed, an astonishing 25 percent of the Maltese population came out to see the pope, significantly delaying his arrival at the Grotto of St. Paul, where some 50,000 showed up for Mass.

While the New York Times article told the story Benedict's papacy through instances of sexual abuse, the Italian media have a different take, and the Maltese hailed him as another St. Paul, who was shipwrecked on their island 1,950 years ago.

In fact, Benedict's encounter with the sex abuse victims of Malta proved Catholics can find healing and reconciliation within the Church despite the horrific experiences some endured. During the private encounter, the pope was reported to have had tears in his eyes as he listened to the stories of suffering and betrayal.

While the BBC reported that the pope was avoiding the question of pedophile priests -- again misusing the word pedophile, which only applies to 0.03% of sex abuse cases -- Pope Benedict was meeting with eight men, such as Lawrence Gresch and Joseph Magro, who both declared afterward that they found peace with the Church as a result.

My Politics Daily colleague David Gibson, who was reporting from Rome, suggested that Pope Benedict met with the Maltese "under pressure," but it wasn't the first such meeting; he took the U.S. media by surprise by encountering a group of people who had suffered molestation in Washington, D.C. back in April of '06. (And let's not forget that it was Benedict who spontaneously instigated this unprecedented outreach, listening to and praying with these victims, not the world media.)

Back in Italy, the national news agency ANSA, published a very different view of these five years than that of the New York Times; the Italian press outlet rightly remembered the achievements of this pontificate, including his "triumphant 2008 visit to the United States," and his 2009 visit to Africa, where the controversy generated by his skepticism regarding condom use for the prevention of AIDS "did nothing to diminish the enthusiasm of a young and vital Catholicism," ANSA reported.

AP's Nicole Winfield claimed that Benedict suffers from a "chronic inability to manage his message," whereas Elisa Pinna of ANSA noted that the pope's most important messages, from his three encyclicals, "God is Love," "On Christian Hope" and "Charity in Truth," to his book Jesus of Nazareth, were not only acclaimed, but were bestsellers worldwide.

Regarding the sex abuse situation, ANSA praised Pope Benedict for his efforts dating from his days as Cardinal Ratzinger when he was "one of the first to recognize the gravity of the situation" and for his "rigorous and transparent policy" in dealing with sex abusers.

In the United States in the 1970's, a shocking 10 percent of priests had been accused of molesting a minor under the age of 18. This number dropped to 8 percent in the 1980s and by the time the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith led by Cardinal Ratzinger was put in charge of the problem in 2001, the number had dropped to less than 4 percent. Since 2001, the number of priests accused of sexual abuse with a minor has diminished to the point where last year there were only six accusations of clerical sexual molestation toward someone under 18. This decrease has been credited to the norms enacted by the man who became Pope Benedict.

Twice the New York Times cited Benedict's controversial 2006 speech in Regenburg to justify Benedict's papacy as one that "has been marked by missteps, mismanagement and media disasters."

That same incident however, earned the pope the title of "Benedict the Brave" from the Wall Street Journal, which took a very different view of the affair. In that spirit, bishops in both Germany and the United States took the opportunity to praise Benedict's courageous steps forward in dialogue with Muslims and Jews. Benedict has visited three synagogues the New York, Rome and Cologne as well as mosques in Istanbul, Amman and Jerusalem, but this significant gesture didn't rate mention in the Times piece.

In Italy, the great papal dilemma was what do you get the guy who has the Vatican Museums and all of its stuff? This year, the Italian Bishop's Conference came up with the perfect anniversary gift by proclaiming Monday April 19 a day of prayer and inviting Italians in every parish in throughout the peninsula to drop into Mass or to pray a Rosary for both Pope Benedict and for the victims of sexual abuse.

While the New York Times report dismissed Pope Benedict as an "interim pope" intended to give the "Vatican a breather" after the 26-year pontificate of John Paul II, a look at the long history of the papacy suggests that predicting papal reigns is a tricky affair. After all, Pope Sixtus V managed to rebuild the city during his five-year pontificate and in 1900 Pope Leo XIII opened the Holy Door for the Jubilee at the age of 90, despite a decade of reports of his imminent demise.