Zenit editors resign en masse

October 10, 2011

The editors of the Zenit news agency have resigned en masse, citing a disagreement with the Legionaries of Christ, who own the international Catholic news service.

The editors of the English, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Arabic editions of Zenit all submitted their resignations on October 7. (The service did not currently have an editor for its German-language edition.) The mass departure causes an immediate crisis for the news agency, which has amassed an email list of 450,000 to which it sends its daily news stories.

The 6 outgoing editors said that they were leaving Zenit "with great personal sadness," but were troubled by a decision to make the agency more closely aligned with the interests of the Legionaries. They explained: "The initial vision of ZENIT was never to make it a service of a particular congregation, but rather of the universal Church. This has been the spirit with which we have worked throughout the years, and the spirit we could not betray."

The founder and director of the Zenit agency, Jesus Colina, had already been dismissed in late September after a series of disagreements with his Legionary overseers over similar questions of editorial vision.

 

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Further information:

• Zenit’s editors quit over Legion decision (CNA)
• Zenit's founding editor forced to resign (CWN, 9/29)