The mechanism of the Salisbury Cathedral clock shortly after its restoration, July 1956. (Folb/Topical Press Agency/Hulton Archive/Getty Images)
By now, you will have heard of Pope Francis’s visit to his Dicastery for Communication earlier this week, where he asked some uncomfortable questions. He spoke very little, but his remarks caused a bit of a stir. What he had to say, struck at the heart of the Vatican’s own journalists: “How many people does it reach?" Vatican Radio – under its new moniker of Vatican News – and the Vatican newspaper L’Osservatore Romano were the target of the pope’s query. It’s a pertinent question, given the fact the communications arm of the Vatican takes up a significant part of its budget, and it has been argued that the Holy See doesn’t get much bang for its buck. More interesting was what he later said to the editorial staff of the Dicastery, about institutional paralysis:
