Pope Francis Thanks Vatican-Approved Journalists For Their 'Delicate' Reporting

In an unprecedented meeting with a group of Vatican-accredited journalists, Pope Francis thanked them for their “delicacy” in reporting on scandals wracking the Catholic Church.

Meeting in Clementine Hall at the Vatican, some 150 t members of the International Association of Journalists Accredited by the Vatican  heard the pontiff praise them in an hour-long meeting for the respect they show in covering Church-related affairs. "In a certain sense, being a journalist is choosing to touch with your hands the wounds of society and of the world," said the pope. "This is an occasion for me to thank you," he continued.

Francis recognized their "delicacy which they have often had in talking about the scandals of the Church, of which there are." He said:

"I would like to add the delicacy that you so often have in speaking of the scandals in the Church: there are some, and many times I have seen in you a great delicacy, a respect, an almost, I say 'abashed' silence. Thank you for this attitude."

This comes just weeks after Cardinal Giovanni Becciu was convicted and sentenced to five and a half years in prison for his involvement in a real estate scheme. Becciu has insisted that he is the victim of a conspiracy. 

Formed in 1978, the association had never been granted a formal audience with a pope. He spoke to each journalist individually, after a brief address. Recognizing them as “travelling companions,” Francis said,  "Journalists, producers, photographers: you are a community united by a mission." "I know your passion, your love for what you do, all the effort you put in," he said.

"The beauty of your work … is that of grounding itself on the solid rock of responsibility to the truth, not on the fragile sand of gossip and of ideological interpretations," Francis said. “It is not based on hiding the truth and even miseries, without glossing over tensions but avoiding unnecessary scandal, but trying to capture what is essential in the light of the nature of the Church.”  He asked the journalists to combine "information with reflection, speaking with listening, discernment with love."

 “This does good for the People of God, for the humblest people, for the Church itself, which still has a way to go to communicate better: with testimony, first with words,” he told his listeners.

Many of these journalists have accompanied Pope Francis on the more than 40 trips outside of the Vatican in more than 10 years of his papacy.