Vatican rejects new international Catholic press union

July 18, 2011

Having withdrawn support from the Union Catholic International de la Presse (UCIP), the Vatican has now issued a statement decrying the group’s move to reconstitute itself as the International Catholic Organization of the Media (ICOM).

In April, the Pontifical Council for the Laity said that UCIP should remove the word “Catholic” from its title. The move was prompted, the Vatican explained, by grave concerns about the finances and management of the group, and the lack of accountability in its leadership. At the time, UCIP leaders said that they would respond to the Vatican’s concerns.

Now the Pontifical Council for the Laity has followed up by saying that the new group, ICOM, should remove the word “Catholic” from its title for the same reasons. The Vatican complained that UCIP officials had never responded to their concerns, and that ICOM—if it was a new organization—had improperly claimed the intellectual products of UCIP.

 

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Further information:

• La Union Catolica Internacional de Prensa Deja de Ser ‘Catolica’ (Zenit)
• Vatican pulls support from international journalists' group (CWN, 4/4)