May 2, 2011
Does this otherwise thought-provoking Washington Post review of a photography exhibit at the Philadelphia Museum of Art include ignorant anti-Catholic sneers? Absolutely.
The Church, says critic James Edward Kaufman, “Ignored the AIDS crisis that inspired the work.” That is simply false, as any AIDS victim who received care at the New York Archdiocese’s St. Vincent’s Hospital or from Catholic religious orders in the early to mid-1980s could attest. Kaufman’s tone, meanwhile, reveals someone whose rage at the Church runs deep.
The latter is fair enough. Many of us are angry with the Church’s attitude toward gays. That anger, however, doesn’t absolve those of us who write for publication from getting the facts right.
