L'Osservatore Romano
Encyclopedia
L'Osservatore Romano is the "semi-official" newspaper
of the Holy See
. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released. The publication prints two Latin mottoes under the masthead
of each edition: Unicuique suum ("To each his own") and Non praevalebunt ("[The gates of Hell] shall not prevail"). The current editor-in-chief is Giovanni Maria Vian
.
Today, the paper takes a more objective and subdued stance than at the time of its foundation, priding itself in "presenting the genuine face of the church and the ideals of freedom," following the statement by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in an October 2006 speech inaugurating a new exhibit dedicated to the founding and history of the newspaper. He further described the publication as "an instrument for spreading the teachings of the successor of Peter and for information about church events".
The daily Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano is published in the afternoon, but with a cover date of the following day, a convention that sometimes results in confusion. The weekly English edition is distributed in more than 129 countries, including both English-speaking countries and locales where English is used as the general means of communication.
on 1 July 1861, a few months after the Kingdom of Italy
was proclaimed on 17 March 1861. The original intent of the newspaper was unabashedly polemical and propagandistic in defence of the Papal States
, adopting the name of a private pamphlet financed by a French Catholic legitimist
group. The 18 September 1860 defeat of papal troops at Castelfidardo
substantially reduced the temporal power of the Pope, prompting Catholic intellectuals to present themselves in Rome for the service of Pope Pius IX
. This agenda supported the notion of a daily publication to champion the opinions of the Holy See.
By July 1860, the deputy Minister of the Interior, Marcantonio Pacelli (grandfather of the future Pope Pius XII
), had plans to supplement the official bulletin Giornale di Roma with a semi-official "rhetorical" publication. In early 1861, controversialist Nicola Zanchini and journalist Giuseppe Bastia were granted editorial direction of Pacelli's newspaper. Official permission to publish was sought on 22 June 1861, and four days later, on 26 June, Pius IX gave his approval for the regulation of L'Osservatore.
The first edition was entitled "L'Osservatore Romano - a political and moral paper" and cost five baiocchi
. The "political and moral paper" epithet was dropped before 1862, adding instead the two Latin mottoes that still appear under the masthead today. The editors of the paper initially met in the Salviucci Press on the Piazza de' Santi Apostoli, where the paper was printed. Only when the editorial staff was established on the Palazzo Petri in Piazza dei Crociferi and the first issue printed there on 31 March, was the wording "daily newspaper" added to the masthead.
After the breach of Porta Pia
by Italian troops in September 1870, L'Osservatore Romano solidified its opposition to the Kingdom of Italy, affirming obedience to the Pope and adherence to his directives, stating it would remain faithful "to that unchangeable principle of religion and morals which recognises as its sole depository and claimant the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth". Soon after, L'Osservatore began to replace the Giornale di Roma as the news organ of the Pontifical State. This development was obvious during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII
, who acquired the paper's ownership and sealed its semi-official status in 1885.
. The edition was printed by the Cathedral Foundation, publishers of The Catholic Review
.
, the church's teaching authority. They cannot have such a value unless a high-ranking bishop
is writing a more solemn text, and not a mere theological opinion; otherwise, L'Osservatore does not have the authority to write or approve encyclical
s and papal allocution
s.
For instance, a 2008 article expressed the wish that the debate on brain death
be re-opened because of new developments in the medical world. An official spokesman said that the article presented a personal opinion of the author and "did not reflect a change in the Catholic Church's position".
Newspaper
A newspaper is a scheduled publication containing news of current events, informative articles, diverse features and advertising. It usually is printed on relatively inexpensive, low-grade paper such as newsprint. By 2007, there were 6580 daily newspapers in the world selling 395 million copies a...
of the Holy See
Holy See
The Holy See is the episcopal jurisdiction of the Catholic Church in Rome, in which its Bishop is commonly known as the Pope. It is the preeminent episcopal see of the Catholic Church, forming the central government of the Church. As such, diplomatically, and in other spheres the Holy See acts and...
. It covers all the Pope's public activities, publishes editorials by important churchmen, and runs official documents after being released. The publication prints two Latin mottoes under the masthead
Masthead (publishing)
The masthead is a list, published in a newspaper or magazine, of its staff. In some publications it names only the most senior individuals; in others, it may name many or all...
of each edition: Unicuique suum ("To each his own") and Non praevalebunt ("[The gates of Hell] shall not prevail"). The current editor-in-chief is Giovanni Maria Vian
Giovanni Maria Vian
Giovanni Maria Vian is an Italian professor of patristic philology, journalist. Vian was born in Rome. He is editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano since 2007.-Editorial positions:...
.
Today, the paper takes a more objective and subdued stance than at the time of its foundation, priding itself in "presenting the genuine face of the church and the ideals of freedom," following the statement by Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone in an October 2006 speech inaugurating a new exhibit dedicated to the founding and history of the newspaper. He further described the publication as "an instrument for spreading the teachings of the successor of Peter and for information about church events".
Editions
L'Osservatore Romano is published in nine different languages (listed by date of first publication):- Daily and weekly in ItalianItalian languageItalian is a Romance language spoken mainly in Europe: Italy, Switzerland, San Marino, Vatican City, by minorities in Malta, Monaco, Croatia, Slovenia, France, Libya, Eritrea, and Somalia, and by immigrant communities in the Americas and Australia...
(1861/1950) - Weekly in FrenchFrench languageFrench is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
(1949) - Weekly in EnglishEnglish languageEnglish is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
(1968) - Weekly in SpanishSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
(1969) - Weekly in PortuguesePortuguese languagePortuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
(1970) - Weekly in GermanGerman languageGerman is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
(1971) - Monthly in PolishPolish languagePolish is a language of the Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages, used throughout Poland and by Polish minorities in other countries...
(1980) - Weekly in MalayalamMalayalam languageMalayalam , is one of the four major Dravidian languages of southern India. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India with official language status in the state of Kerala and the union territories of Lakshadweep and Pondicherry. It is spoken by 35.9 million people...
(2007)
The daily Italian edition of L'Osservatore Romano is published in the afternoon, but with a cover date of the following day, a convention that sometimes results in confusion. The weekly English edition is distributed in more than 129 countries, including both English-speaking countries and locales where English is used as the general means of communication.
History
19th century
The first issue of L'Osservatore Romano was published in RomeRome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
on 1 July 1861, a few months after the Kingdom of Italy
Italian unification
Italian unification was the political and social movement that agglomerated different states of the Italian peninsula into the single state of Italy in the 19th century...
was proclaimed on 17 March 1861. The original intent of the newspaper was unabashedly polemical and propagandistic in defence of the Papal States
Papal States
The Papal State, State of the Church, or Pontifical States were among the major historical states of Italy from roughly the 6th century until the Italian peninsula was unified in 1861 by the Kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia .The Papal States comprised territories under...
, adopting the name of a private pamphlet financed by a French Catholic legitimist
Legitimists
Legitimists are royalists in France who adhere to the rights of dynastic succession of the descendants of the elder branch of the Bourbon dynasty, which was overthrown in the 1830 July Revolution. They reject the claim of the July Monarchy of 1830–1848, whose kings were members of the junior...
group. The 18 September 1860 defeat of papal troops at Castelfidardo
Castelfidardo
Castelfidardo is a town and comune in the province of Ancona, in the Marche region of central-eastern Italy.It is particularly remembered for the Italian victory over a "volunteer" army defending the Papal States, on September 18, 1860...
substantially reduced the temporal power of the Pope, prompting Catholic intellectuals to present themselves in Rome for the service of Pope Pius IX
Pope Pius IX
Blessed Pope Pius IX , born Giovanni Maria Mastai-Ferretti, was the longest-reigning elected Pope in the history of the Catholic Church, serving from 16 June 1846 until his death, a period of nearly 32 years. During his pontificate, he convened the First Vatican Council in 1869, which decreed papal...
. This agenda supported the notion of a daily publication to champion the opinions of the Holy See.
By July 1860, the deputy Minister of the Interior, Marcantonio Pacelli (grandfather of the future Pope Pius XII
Pope Pius XII
The Venerable Pope Pius XII , born Eugenio Maria Giuseppe Giovanni Pacelli , reigned as Pope, head of the Catholic Church and sovereign of Vatican City State, from 2 March 1939 until his death in 1958....
), had plans to supplement the official bulletin Giornale di Roma with a semi-official "rhetorical" publication. In early 1861, controversialist Nicola Zanchini and journalist Giuseppe Bastia were granted editorial direction of Pacelli's newspaper. Official permission to publish was sought on 22 June 1861, and four days later, on 26 June, Pius IX gave his approval for the regulation of L'Osservatore.
The first edition was entitled "L'Osservatore Romano - a political and moral paper" and cost five baiocchi
Papal States scudo
The Roman scudo was the currency of the Papal States until 1866. It was subdivided into 100 baiocchi , each of 5 quattrini...
. The "political and moral paper" epithet was dropped before 1862, adding instead the two Latin mottoes that still appear under the masthead today. The editors of the paper initially met in the Salviucci Press on the Piazza de' Santi Apostoli, where the paper was printed. Only when the editorial staff was established on the Palazzo Petri in Piazza dei Crociferi and the first issue printed there on 31 March, was the wording "daily newspaper" added to the masthead.
After the breach of Porta Pia
Porta Pia
Porta Pia is a gate in the Aurelian Walls of Rome, Italy. One of Pope Pius IV's civic improvements to the city, it is named after him. Situated at the end of a new street, the Via Pia, it was designed by Michelangelo in replacement for the Porta Nomentana situated several hundred meters...
by Italian troops in September 1870, L'Osservatore Romano solidified its opposition to the Kingdom of Italy, affirming obedience to the Pope and adherence to his directives, stating it would remain faithful "to that unchangeable principle of religion and morals which recognises as its sole depository and claimant the Vicar of Jesus Christ on earth". Soon after, L'Osservatore began to replace the Giornale di Roma as the news organ of the Pontifical State. This development was obvious during the pontificate of Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII
Pope Leo XIII , born Vincenzo Gioacchino Raffaele Luigi Pecci to an Italian comital family, was the 256th Pope of the Roman Catholic Church, reigning from 1878 to 1903...
, who acquired the paper's ownership and sealed its semi-official status in 1885.
20th century
The English weekly edition was first published on 4 April 1968. On 7 January 1998, that edition became the first to be printed outside of Rome, when for North American subscribers, it began to be printed in BaltimoreRoman Catholic Archdiocese of Baltimore
The Metropolitan Archdiocese of Baltimore is a particular church of the Roman Catholic Church in the United States. The archdiocese comprises the City of Baltimore as well as Allegany, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Garrett, Harford, Howard, and Washington Counties in Maryland...
. The edition was printed by the Cathedral Foundation, publishers of The Catholic Review
The Catholic Review
The Catholic Review is Maryland's largest paid weekly newspaper, distributed by mail to nearly 60,000 households. It serves as the newspaper of record for the archdiocese of Baltimore, covering most of the state. It has been printed since the 19th century....
.
21st century
As of 1 July 2011, the English language edition of the L'Osservatore Romano for North American subscribers is once again published in Rome; it had been published by the Cathedral Foundation of Baltimore since 1998.Editors-in-chief
Past editors-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano include:- Nicola Zanchini and Giuseppe Bastia (1861–1866)
- Augusto Baviera (1866–1884)
- Cesare Crispolti (1884–1890)
- Giovan Battista Casoni (1890–1900)
- Giuseppe Angelini (1900–1919)
- Giuseppe Dalla Torre di Sanguinetto (1920–1960)
- Raimondo ManziniRaimondo ManziniRaimondo Manzini was a veteran Catholic journalist and former Christian Democratic member of Italy's Parliament, who was director of L'Osservatore Romano from 1960 to 1978....
(1960–1978) - Valerio Volpini (1978–1984)
- Mario Agnes (1984–2007)
- Giovanni Maria VianGiovanni Maria VianGiovanni Maria Vian is an Italian professor of patristic philology, journalist. Vian was born in Rome. He is editor-in-chief of L'Osservatore Romano since 2007.-Editorial positions:...
(2007–present)
L'Osservatore Romano and the Magisterium
A common error made by journalists and theologians is interpreting the texts of L'Osservatore Romano as if they were of official value for the MagisteriumMagisterium
In the Catholic Church the Magisterium is the teaching authority of the Church. This authority is understood to be embodied in the episcopacy, which is the aggregation of the current bishops of the Church in union with the Pope, led by the Bishop of Rome , who has authority over the bishops,...
, the church's teaching authority. They cannot have such a value unless a high-ranking bishop
Bishop
A bishop is an ordained or consecrated member of the Christian clergy who is generally entrusted with a position of authority and oversight. Within the Catholic Church, Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox Churches, in the Assyrian Church of the East, in the Independent Catholic Churches, and in the...
is writing a more solemn text, and not a mere theological opinion; otherwise, L'Osservatore does not have the authority to write or approve encyclical
Encyclical
An encyclical was originally a circular letter sent to all the churches of a particular area in the ancient Catholic Church. At that time, the word could be used for a letter sent out by any bishop...
s and papal allocution
Allocution
Generally, to allocute in law means "to speak out formally." In the field of apologetics, allocution is generally done in defense of a belief. In politics, one may allocute before a legislative body in an effort to influence their position on an issue...
s.
For instance, a 2008 article expressed the wish that the debate on brain death
Brain death
Brain death is the irreversible end of all brain activity due to total necrosis of the cerebral neurons following loss of brain oxygenation. It should not be confused with a persistent vegetative state...
be re-opened because of new developments in the medical world. An official spokesman said that the article presented a personal opinion of the author and "did not reflect a change in the Catholic Church's position".