Well, there is no question that the buzz-worthy story of the day is the further adventures of the modern shepherd who is now being hailed as the Cold Call Pope.<\/p>\n
Trust me, it would be easy to jump into the doctrinal implications of this story, because the stakes for the church and the papacy are very high. Rod \u201cfriend of this blog\u201d Dreher has already gone straight there:<\/a><\/p>\n Why is this such a big deal? Because if the pope himself told a Catholic to defy licit Catholic teaching on something as central to the faith as the Eucharist, the implications are enormous. To be sure, there are pastoral reasons why this mercy might be extended to people. \u201cFather Bergoglio,\u201d as the Pope reportedly identified himself on the call, might well have extended them. But the pontiff doing the same thing, and so casually, is potentially explosive. A pope simply can\u2019t say, \u201cDefy the church, don\u2019t worry about it.\u201d Well, he can say it, and he might have done; the papal spokesman declining to talk about it is hardly confidence-inspiring.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Meanwhile, I would like to try to focus on what GetReligion does \u2014 which is to look at the journalism element of this story. And what we see there is another side effect, in this 24\/7 digital news age, of this pope\u2019s highly personal approach to pastoral care. He wants to deal with people as a pastor \u2014 Father Bergoglio, indeed \u2014 instead of having to go through the numbing mechanisms of statecraft and lofty papal statements. <\/p>\n The problem, for journalists? This is highly newsworthy material and, well, journalists cannot listen in on these private pastoral calls. It\u2019s like we are seeing white smoke above the Vatican and no one really knows where it came from or what it means.<\/p>\n The top of the CNN story<\/a> is as good a place to start as any:<\/p>\n (CNN) \u2014<\/strong> Pope Francis called an Argentine woman married to a divorced man and reportedly told her that she could receive the sacrament of Communion, according to the woman\u2019s husband, in an apparent contradiction of Catholic law.<\/p>\n Julio Sabetta, from San Lorenzo in the Pope\u2019s home country, said his wife, Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona, spoke with Francis on Monday.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n OK, so the information isn\u2019t even coming from Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona herself, with her offering her take on what she believes that the pope said to her (let\u2019s hope she took careful notes). Instead, this information is coming through a man who is, to say the least, involved in this complicated situation \u2014 yet who did not hear the call at all.<\/p>\n That leads us to the alleged content of this call:<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Jacqueline Sabetta Lisbona wrote to the pontiff in September to ask for clarification on the Communion issue, according to her husband, who said his divorced status had prevented her from receiving the sacrament.<\/p>\n \u201cShe spoke with the Pope, and he said she was absolved of all sins and she could go and get the Holy Communion because she was not doing anything wrong,\u201d Sabetta told Channel 3 Rosario, a CNN affiliate.<\/p>\n A Vatican spokesman confirmed the telephone call but would not comment on the conversation\u2019s content.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n <\/p>\n So what did the pope actually say?<\/p>\n The bottom line is that no one actually knows what Pope Francis said. So who is supposed to straighten out this basic problem?<\/p>\n This is a perfect example of a syndrome that I have heard quite a few Catholics discussing. The problem is not that they consider this pope\u2019s words and actions heretical, or anything like that. Instead, some Catholics believe that Francis is \u2014 at best \u2014 simply naive about how his actions and his words \u2014 alleged words or on-the-record remarks \u2014 will be framed in public media. Or is he intentionally flying trial balloons?<\/p>\n Meanwhile, what is the Vatican saying about what the pope allegedly said?<\/p>\n Over at The Daily Telegraph<\/em>, the scribe known as @holysmoke simply stated:<\/p>\n Vatican declining to comment on \"private conversation\" re Pope and divorced woman.<\/p>\n \u2014 Damian Thompson (@holysmoke) April 23, 2014<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n