Patten says Vatican media must reallocate resources

The Vatican’s media must “up its game” for the digital age and move towards a more streamlined and joined-up operation, former BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten said this week – but he hinted there are likely to be problems ahead on the road to reform. The Catholic peer and former chairman of the Conservative Party, is head of the Vatican Media Committee formed last year to recommend reforms.

“Given the … immediate global dissemination of news and opinion, we felt that the Holy See needed to strengthen its operations to respond rapidly to a constant news cycle and in different languages,” he said in the World Communications Day lecture at St Patrick’s Church, Soho, in London on Wednesday. “What is needed is more visual, multi-media content.”

Rome’s media budget was not being wisely spent, he insisted. Around 85 per cent of the net cost of its communications outlay was on financing the newspaper and radio. “Television and social media services are very professionally run but very under-resourced,” he said. A Vatican commission has been set up to consider the Media Committee’s recommendations.