I remember when JP2's interview came out in print, "Crossing the Threshold of Hope," in 1994. I recall, at the time, wondering about the format, an interview. It occurred to me at the time in a vague manner what I'll describe now as an awareness of a possible conflict of interest. I remember reading the beginning of the book—I was in high school, I must've been 15 or 16. I recall the prefatory remarks about the uniqueness of the format, even the historic. Something like, no Pope had ever gone on the record with a journalist before. I recall, faintly, being at the time impressed by that. I also recall, wondering how Mondadori (the journalist interviewing JP2) got the privilege.
Perhaps, as a native Washingtonian growing up 'inside the beltway' I had already become accustomed to the press pool, and dozens of reporters and even the mass media apparatus. This book seemed to favor private enterprise while treating on the matters of the catholic faith by the universal pontiff. I didn't bother to understand at the time how those ends could be reconciled. "I'll talk about the faith to you." "You right it down, sell it and make a lot of money." That's another way of putting it.
Also, as a teenager, I was also largely unaware of theology as a science—and thus as a profession. Or of best journalistic practices pertaining to the disclosures of bias or of financial interest. I'm sure everything was on the up and up with how that book was rolled out. It was a great book. The Pope had a very natural way of addressing concerns which the reporter presented fairly as being on the mind of many of the faithful and of the public at large.
Still, the issue remains, even if the case above merely suggested it as opposed to being an actual instance of it—it was not at all, as far as I can tell—an instance of profiteering. So, the question: what's the right way to publish concerns about the faith in a broad manner whereby the concerns of any conflict of interest can be completely alleviated?
It comes up again with the current publication of the Sarah & Benedict XVI book on celibacy. Amazon France was listing it as their number 1 best-seller at the time of it's initial release. Maybe it's as simple as a full-disclosure statement within the publication itself. But whatever it is, I think it would be a safeguard against anyone smearing the church, or any theologian, any journalist or publisher with the smear that they're profiteering.
