Vatican Inc.

[Magda Hassan]

::facepalm:: Hardly seems the right choice to me but then he has lots of experience working for a organisations wanting to cover up child sexual abuse. So maybe he's perfect.

God's spinner: Tory peer Lord Patten becomes the Pope's media advisor just two months after leaving BBC on health grounds

• Former Cabinet minister will advise the Vatican on how to use the internet
  
• Pope Francis wants to reach a wider and younger audience
  
• Patten stood down as BBC Trust chair in May after heart surgery
  

By Tom Mctague, Mail Online Deputy Political Editor
Published: 22:25 AEST, 9 July 2014 | Updated: 22:33 AEST, 9 July 2014



Tory peer Lord Patten has become a spin doctor for the Pope - just two months after stepping down from the BBC for health reasons.
The former Cabinet minister will advise the leader of the world's Catholics how to use the internet to get his message across - including sites like Twitter and Facebook.
Lord Patten said the part-time role was 'important and challenging' - despite leaving the BBC in the lurch in May after having major heart surgery.


Pope Francis wants to reach a younger audience around the world and has brought Tory peer Lord Patten in to the Vatican to be a media advisor

The 69-year-old was admitted to hospital with serious chest pains and underwent a successful bypass operation that saved his heart from major damage.
At the time, Lord Patten said he had to stand 'on the advice of my doctors'.
He said: 'I have concluded that I cannot continue to work at the same full pace as I have done to date, and that I should reduce the range of roles I undertake.'

Lord Patten will now chair a Papal committee over the next year which is expected to report in the summer of 2015. He said the post was unpaid.
Their goal is to re-vamp the Holy See's online presence and communications strategy in an effort to reach a wider and younger audience.



Former BBC Trust chair Lord Patten will help the Pope's spin chief

The Vatican already has a number of websites and Twitter accounts, including that of Pope Francis (@pontifex) in nine different languages.
The Pope also has six separate communications departments, including a press and internet office and a communications council.
It also has a newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, and a radio station, Vatican Radio, which broadcasts in 40 languages.
The appointment is the latest high profile move by Pope Francis to shake-up the Vatican since he was elected to succeed Pope Benedict last year.
The Argentinian pope has vowed to overhaul the Vatican's tarnished institutions after decades of corruption and scandal.
Lord Pattern said: 'This is an important and challenging part-time assignment over the next year. I'm looking forward to beginning work in late September.'
The Oxford university chancellor, a leading British Catholic, is said to be easing himself back into work and will hold his first Vatican meeting this autumn.

According to the Financial Times, Lord Patten has said the committee wants to develop a 'digital strategy' and ways for the church to speak to those already committed Catholics.
Lord Patten also wants to expand the range of Vatican's range of media outlets, which include a newspaper, television and radio station.

During his time at the BBC, he was criticised for the number of positions he held including serving as Chancellor of Oxford University and Co-Chair of the UK-India Round Table.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-...ounds.html