Rome – On October 18, Cardinal Baldassare Reina signed a statement expressing his “deep solidarity and closeness to journalist Sigfrido Ranucci and his family” after the serious attack he suffered. Noble words — at least on the surface. “Every act of violence and intimidation against those who seek and tell the truth is a blow struck against everyone’s freedom,” the prelate wrote, adding that we must “pray that every media worker may investigate without fear.”
But what kind of freedom of the press is Cardinal Reina talking about? The same one that the Vicariate of Rome, under his own signature, tried to muzzle on March 12, 2024, when it released a statement threatening legal action against those who had “improperly and in a deliberately partial way disseminated documents”? That text — which did not name Silere non possum, though everyone knew who it referred to — was nothing more than a clumsy and intimidating attempt to silence those who were exposing what was not supposed to be told inside the Vicariate.
Reina, after all, only speaks to those who play by his rules: to those who guarantee harmless questions and a domesticated narrative of reality, one that never dares to touch what lies beneath the surface. It matters little whether the interviewer is an amateur influencer, a non-journalist, or the parishioner from Tor Pignattara — what counts is that they don’t disturb.
Of course, despite the threats, no legal action was ever taken — and it couldn’t have been otherwise. What was falsewas not what Silere non possum published, but what the Vicariate of Rome claimed. The articles were based on original, signed, and stamped documents, authentic evidence that exposed a corrupt system, the same one Pope Francis himself once called “corrupted,” which still stands today because no one has had the courage to dismantle it.
And so one must ask: what truth does Cardinal Reina seek to defend? The truth of television journalists who deal only with harmless topics, far from his sphere of power? The truth of non-journalists invited to the palace for gentle, non-threatening interviews? Or rather, the truth of those who — without affiliations or personal agendas, but with the sole intent of shedding light on what makes the Vicariate of Rome an unlivable structure — dare to denounce the amoral familism and abuse of power thriving within the Lateran Palace?
The paradox is glaring: violence is condemned only when it doesn’t affect one’s own interests, while those who expose clerical privilege and corruption are attacked and threatened with zeal. It is, after all, the same behavior shown by the organizations responsible for Italy’s stagnation at 49th place in global press-freedom rankings: they preach transparency and independence when it concerns others, but behind closed doors they decide everything according to their own convenience, enforcing silence and complicity. Freedom of the press is celebrated when it’s convenient — and trampled when it’s not.
It should also be remembered that the same cardinal did not utter a single word of condemnation for the vandalic attack on the statue of Saint John Paul II near Termini Station — an episode that would have deserved at least a brief statement. But Reina speaks only on social or political issues, never on those truly affecting his own diocese. In this sense, he has learned well from the one who appointed him: they speak about everyone and everything, as long as it doesn’t mean looking into their own house.
This double morality defines a certain part of the Church — particularly the one promoted in the last twelve years — that prefers to appear righteous rather than be righteous; that issues hollow statements while letting truth rot in drawers. They talk about “respect,” yet forget that the first respect owed is to the truth itself — even when it burns. Perhaps Reina’s solidarity is sincere. But if it is, it cannot be occasional or based on convenience. One either defends press freedom always — even when it reaches into the sacred precinct — or not at all. As long as these prelates use the word “truth” as a shield, they will continue to betray it every time someone truly free brings it to light.
d.P.A.
Silere non possum