When the director of the Vatican newspaper, Gian Maria Vian, declared a few weeks ago that “Obama is not a pro-abortion president” — a comment that came after an editorial which, on balance, spoke positively of the U.S. president’s first 100 days — ire was raised across the Atlantic. Many U.S. commentators on the Vatican roundly reviled him as a lone, liberal voice: unrepresentative of “real” Vatican thinking, ignorant of U.S. politics, and in charge of a paper that is not taken seriously at the Vatican. He was even called a traitor and pro-abortion.
U.S. commentators may take umbrage at what he says, but they are wrong not to take him seriously. American Catholics who wish to understand the sometimes vastly different Vatican view of things would do well to know more about Vian and why he said what he did.
Gian Maria Vian is firmly ensconced in the Vatican inner circle: He was personally tapped by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, the Vatican secretary of state, and the pope’s trusted right-hand man, for the job as editor-in-chief. He has known and worked with Bertone for 25 years. His family have been close collaborators with popes for over a century: Pope Benedict XVI called the Vian family “illustrious . . . with a great tradition of faithful service to the Holy See.”
Vian’s grandfather, Agostino, wrote for L’Osservatore Romano and was married in 1903 by Pius X, then patriarch of Venice. His father, Nello, also a contributor to the paper, was chief Vatican librarian and close friend of Paul VI; Gian Maria was baptized by Paul VI in St. Peter’s Basilica.
In other words: He’s not coming out of left field.
Since taking the helm of L’Osservatore Romano in October 2007, he has been widely praised in Italy for renewing the paper, transforming it from an unread chronicle to a sure place for eye-catching and original articles: Ask Vatican journalists, and they will tell you they now read the paper to get their stories.
Just last Wednesday, I attended the book launch of Vian’s new volume, In Defense of Pius XII (not yet published in English). At the event, the former editor of Italy’s conservative daily, Corriere della Sera, lauded L’Osservatore Romano under Gian Maria’s leadership. Sitting next to Vian, in the front row, was Cardinal Bertone.
All this is not to say that Vian’s views are those of the secretary of state or the pope. His statement is an “unofficial” view; and sometimes, for an organization with diplomatic responsibilities, an unofficial view is convenient. Diplomats in Rome read L’Osservatore precisely because they know it reflects Vatican thinking at the highest levels.
In my analysis, Vian’s statement and the L’Osservatore Romano’s appraisal of the Obama presidency so far may be the Vatican’s unofficial way of “raising the bar” for the new American president who is expected to visit the pope in July. What better way to receive the man who will have great power over important issues than in a climate of confident expectation, rather than condemnation? Even if “they” did not say it, they may not mind that it has been said.
DELIA GALLAGHER: You were quoted as saying, “It is my clear conviction: Obama is not a pro-abortion president.” On what basis do you hold this conviction?
GIAN MARIA VIAN: I made that statement in an interview to an Italian journalist of Il Riformista who called me on the day the president was at Notre Dame for the controversial ceremony of the conferring of the law degree honoris causa. I was in Barcelona; I gave the interview over the phone and based my observation primarily on the speech President Obama gave on that occasion — a speech which demonstrated openness. In this sense, I said that he didn’t seem a pro-abortion president.
GALLAGHER: What do you mean?
VIAN: He considered abortion, at least in his speech at Notre Dame, as something to prevent and, above all, he said, we must proceed in the attempt to widen the consensus as much as possible because he realizes that it is a very delicate issue.
CONTINUED 1 2 3 4 5 6 Next >
