Journalist John Allen spoke to a sizeable crowd of Northwestern students and Evanston residents at the McCormick Tribune Center Forum on Oct. 30. His topic: “Rome, the Vatican, and the American Catholic Church.”
His two-hour lecture, which began at 7 p.m., focused on what he called the “top five myths about the Vatican” as perceived by American Catholics.
Through his work for CNN and as senior correspondent for the National Catholic Reporter, Allen has spent the last six years living and working in Rome. He has also written several books about Catholicism and the Vatican.
Though the United States is predominantly Protestant, Allen said the 67 million Catholics living in the country have an important voice. Many feel what Allen calls a “deep cultural divide” exists between the American Catholic Church and Rome.
American Catholics, Allen says, often believe some of the following myths about the Vatican.
• There is such a thing as “the Vatican.”
From afar, Allen said, the Vatican seems like a cohesive organization. However, he said that the structure surrounding the pope isn’t some sort of “Stepford Wives” community. The people within the Vatigan’s hierarchy whom Allen has interviewed rarely agree with each other.
• The Vatican is the the controlling center of the Catholic Church.
“Creativity in the church never comes from Rome,” Allen said. The bishops and cardinals who reside there do not have the time nor resources to micromanage. According to Allen, there is a “myth of absolute control” surrounding dealings in Rome.
• The Vatican is immensely wealthy.
People assume the pope and his subordinates in Rome lay around on velvet cushions all day being hand-fed grapes by chaste nuns. That’s not true, Allen said. “They are not over there living off the fat of the earth.” A cardinal that Allen interviewed made $72,000 a year — pittance compared to a high ranking CEO in a major company.
• The Vatican is a highly secretive institution.
According to Allen, “Most people don’t know how the system works,” and thus are confused about what the Vatican is doing. Despite the fact that most church business is conducted in Italian, officials in Rome are not trying to hide anything.
• Every priest, bishop and cardinal wants to be pope.
Most people don’t recognize the “immense, crushing burden that constantly being in this role implies.” This idea of so-called “red fever” may have some basis: Allen said there are certainly careerists in Rome. Yet the vast majority of cardinals “run for the hills” when a new pope is being selected.
Allen said that the Vatican impacts American society as long as Catholics in the United States have a political voice. Tension in the relationship between the Vatican and American Catholics doesn’t look like it will disappear anytime soon.