Following is the statement of the Editor-in-Chief of L’Osservatore Romano, Prof. Andrea Monda, to the resignation of Lucetta Scaraffia, editor in chief of Women Church World, and the members of the publication’s board.
Statement of the Editor-in-Chief of “L’Osservatore Romano” Prof. Andrea Monda
I acknowledge Prof. Scaraffia’s free and autonomous decision to discontinue her cooperation with L’Osservatore Romano, and to consider as closed her editorship of “Donna Chiesa Mondo” (“Women Church World”).
Along with our very best wishes, we offer her our sincere thanks for the valuable work she has done in these years, with great commitment and in full freedom.
In these few months since my appointment as Editor-in-Chief, I have guaranteed Prof. Scaraffia and the group women on the editorial staff the same complete autonomy and the same total freedom that have characterized the monthly insert since its inception, by refraining from interfering in any way in the the printing of the daily newspaper’s monthly supplement, and limiting my contribution (to suggesting topics and persons to engage) to be freely evaluated by Prof. Scaraffia and the editorial staff.
In no way did my efforts undermine the scope of the Donna Chiesa Mondo monthly. Indeed, its budget was entirely confirmed and its translation and circulation in other countries always guaranteed, notwithstanding the Curia’s general need for cost-containment.
My commitment has been and continues to be that of empowering the daily edition of L’Osservatore Romano (certainly not in terms of competition, but of complementarity with the supplement) as is natural and right as it may be.
In no way have I chosen anyone, man or woman, with the criterion of obedience. If anything, on the contrary, forbearing to intervene in the monthly supplement, in creating the daily edition I sought comparisons that were truly free, not built on the mechanism of one against the others, or of closed groups. And I did so precisely in the sign of the openness and parrhesia requested by Pope Francis, with whose words and with whose Magisterium we all identify.
If, on the basis of current ecclesial and cultural events, I have devoted attention to topics such as that of plurality and difference in the world of the Church, this derives solely from the centrality that these topics have acquired, thanks precisely to the role of women.
This coming Monday, 1 April — just to offer an example — a round-table on the publication of an essay, signed by 17 highly regarded theologians and scholars, entitled “La voce delle donne” (“The voice of women”) (Ed. Paoline), will be held in the editorial offices.
I can offer my assurances that the future of L’Osservatore Romano’s monthly supplement has never been under discussion; and therefore, that its history will continue uninterrupted. Without clericalism of any kind.
