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It’s the official organ, but it does not necessarily agree with the Pope, simply because bureaucracies (such as the Vatican) have a life of their own and often individual members of them come to feel that they are somehow more important than the person or entity that the bureaucracy theoretically serves. This paper came out with something that seemed to undercut the Vatican last year when the Pope was condemning a bill that was before the Italian parliament (relating either to gay marriage or abortion, I don’t recall which).

Theoretically, the Pope can replace people in charge of these different organs of the Vatican, and he has made some changes, not all of them successful. Cdl Bertone, for example, while better and more loyal to the Pope than Sodano was as Vatican Secy of State, simply hasn’t been up to the job and has made some rather confused decisions.

I think a new communications director is needed, since this has been a repeated problem: the Vatican has either communicated badly, or strange mixed messages have been given by people within it who had another agenda. While they are virtually always revised afterwards, the damage is done.

Incidentally, this same issue of the paper had an article on the second page, inside, describing the US bishops’s opposition, praising it, and giving lengthy quotes from Abp Chaput, who was probably the most extremely and most articulately opposed to Obama’s appearance. So I think we’re seeing internal Vatican politics being expressed at L’Osservatore, and it will be interesting to see what if any action the Pope takes on this.