Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI has established a private foundation for the formation of aspiring Catholic journalists in collaboration with the German conservative newspaper Tagespost based in Würzburg. It will be known as The Tagespost Foundation for Catholic Publicity and according to the newspaper and will support bio-ethical research projects financially while helping Catholic media to cover a broader range of subjects.

The Pope Emeritus expressly invited everyone to support his foundation with donations and legacies. “I want the Catholic voice to be heard”, Benedict had declared.

For the coming year, the foundation will collect and provide 450,000 euros (£383,750) to train volunteers how to develop digital projects, write background reports and do research on bioethics and the protection of life.

The Association of Catholic Publicists in Germany said in a statement that its members were astonished that the former Pope considered it right to promote Catholic journalism by establishing a private foundation within one single publication. As a former Archbishop of Munich, the existence of the more established body, the Institute for the Promotion of Aspiring Journalists, based in Munich, which was founded in 1968 after the Second Vatican Council and is financed by the German dioceses, must surely be a household name for him.

The association found it “more than strange” that the Pope Emeritus “was entrusting significant financial resources to one single publication bypassing the institute and thereby the bishops’ conference”, the statement continued. “The association hopes that the new foundation is really concerned with promoting Catholic journalism and not supporting the self-promotion of a single publication and its understanding of Catholic public relations.”

In a private audience when it celebrated its 50th anniversary in Rome in November 2018, Pope Francis told the institute's 400 journalists: “Germany can consider itself lucky that among its numerous journalists both in the secular and church media, it has so many institute members. Thank you for observing and, when you see that something is wrong, for openly stating that it is wrong.”

What was striking as far as the new foundation was concerned was that according to the editor of the Tagespost, Oliver Maksan, it aimed to be independent, the institute's spiritual adviser, Br Helmut Rakowski OFMCap, told domradio.de. There were already more than enough Catholic voices in German journalism, he said. “I think its aim is to be independent of the German Church, that is of the bishops, while we are a Church institution founded by the bishops and the dioceses,” he said. Asked if he, too, was surprised by Benedict’s new foundation, Rakowski replied: “If it is really about training journalists, then we are glad and say it’s a great initiative. But if it is a case of supporting the Church’s PR work, then we will be working along two different tracks." Journalism was not about proclaiming church teaching but had the task of being critical, highlighting backgrounds and being committed to the truth, said Rakowski.

The Tagespost foundation wanted to concentrate especially on gender equality, the protection of life and of marriage and the family, his interviewer recalled. Did this tally with the institute’s aims? The institute wanted to give aspiring Catholic journalists the best journalistic training possible, said Rakowski.