Fr Federico Lombardi, the Vatican press spokesman, tried to dissuade Pope Benedict XVI from going ahead with the Peter Seewald interview, it emerged this week.
According to the Italian blogger Andrés Beltramo, Fr Lombardi had said that in the current media climate it would be “a huge risk”. The Pope, though, was not worried. Beltramo says he responded to Fr Lombardi’s comments with “the knowing smile of a Pope who knew what he was doing".
But was he right to dismiss Fr Lombardi’s concerns? The media always tend to simplify and distort what the Pope says; many Catholics believed last weekend that he wanted to change Church teaching on condoms – until they actually read what he said. Even now, his comments still cause confusion.
