Why do the media 'go after' the church?

Why do the media go after the (institutional) church?

Because the hierarchy wears a big sign that says, KICK ME.

A martyrdom complex, perhaps?

I think it has something to do with the Catholic Church being viewed as reactionary. The media still thinks of the Church in its pre-Vatican II days of fond memory. Not exclusively of course but I have found secular journalists to be pretty ignorant about religion in general. They know there have been some changes and there are dissidents nowadays in the Catholic Church but they know little of the theology of Vatican II.

I also think that the clergy sexual abuse crisis gave the media an opportunity to play "gotcha" as it were. Of course the Church handed them things on a silver platter, like the way some of the abusers were recycled. But I think overall the coverage was very biased against the Church. For one thing in following the crisis in the media, I never came across an article which did a profile on the accusers. Another thing is that the whole coverage had a touch of voyeurism about it.

NY is still a big "catholic" town. They're news from the pettiest bishop to the wayward priest. Down here in TX, the Baptists are just as big in the news and when they screw up, it's often page 1. A lot of "catholic league" types love to play like the church is still fighting the KKK. these folks need to just put their long pants on and grow up.

This crisis is about power and hypocrisy. Archbishops Chaput and Dolan demand that other organizations be held to the same standard. The Boy Scouts and the public schools do not go to the lengths to cover up the crimes of their leaders as the bishops do. Moreover, the public schools and Boy Scouts do not claim to be God's representatives on earth. As a cradle Catholic, I would hope the bishops would hold themselves to a higher standard than the rest of society. Since they clearly do not, I am glad the press does.

Steve

It is NOT anti-Catholic to point out that terrible crimes were commited followed by a series of cover-ups. Individuals have been found responsible for the abuse but not one person has taken personal responsibility for the cover-ups. The laity knows that those in authority chose to protect priests while sacrificing their children.

The power of a bishop. All of a sudden my mind flashed back to when I first started to work for the U.S. Post office in 1950 as a mail carrier. The first day, when I was leaving to go out of the post office to deliver mail, it was pouring rain. I noticed this carrier standing by the door. I was told that he got his job without taking a postal exam but because the bishop pulled some strings. Back then, a postal appointment was difficult to get, test wise. Competition for $1.19 an hour job was fierce. As I got to the door, I heard a supervisor ask this young man with a mail bag on his shoulder," What is it, why are you standing here," and I heard the youg man say, " it's raining ouside. Looking back, I can see where the bishop wanted to help this young man but failed to think things out. Their still not thinking things out

Your opinion piece and analysis is very balanced; thank you.

I refuse to think of us Catholics or our Church (big C) as victims. Victimhood only gives us permission to whine; and nobody likes whiners. Victimhood is an excuse not to change what must be changed, to make atonement, to do good, to live the Beatitudes in the world. Victimhood is negative energy and promotes "religious and ecclesial depression."

Although the USCCB's take on media has not always been realistic or helpful, they do have a page on 'media bias' and how to respond to it that is in synch with your views; it's worth a look for those who prefer victimhood: how to respond rather than react; how to assess if a response is even necessary: http://www.usccb.org/comm/MediaBiasFinal.pdf

I wish people who get so upset about how the media critiques the Church would spend their time and efforts giving a home to a lonely pregnant girl.

The secular media goes after the Church for the same reasons that the NCR goes after the Church. The Church is counter-cultural, a sign of contradiction to the ethos of the world, in our present day the sex-drenched ethos of the world. The media and unfaithful Catholics yearn for the Church to bend Her knee to world. She will not. As Christopher Hitchens said in a debate with Bill Donohue, "If the New York Times was not anti-Catholic, the Church would not be doing its job." Amen, Christopher and three cheers for Dolan. NCR, your idea of the Church is aging faster than a feminist nun....

Mr. Ferullo, as an Episcopalian, I can safely state that most of the upper East side wealthy crowd these days (Mayor Mike included) are far more likely to be spending time celebrating the High Holy days in a shul (temple), not at Choral Evensong in one of our churches. The Vanderbilts, Morgans, and now even Mrs. Astor, are long gone from our pews, and the flock, both in number and average income is a shadow of what it was 50 or 90 years ago. It would have been far more accurate to state that the New York Board of Rabbis doesn't throw it's weight around like the RC church.

"Why do the media go after the (institutional) church?"

I'll add a part of it this Church's position on abortion.
With the sexual abuse scandal, I noticed articles that would add in the Church's teaching on abortion to the article reporting on a sexual abuse case.

There is an excellent article in the November issue of PHILADELPHIA MAGAZINE entitled, "Sins of the Father," by Richard Rys. It concerns one Father Charles Newman, once head of Archbishop Ryan High School, the largest Catholic high school in Philadelphia. He now "sits in jail after stealing nearly a million dollars. But as one family knows, he committed acts of evil far more chilling than that."

Art Baselice and his wife Elaine are friends and join in the Vigiling each First Friday from 12 noon to 1 o'clock outside the Philadelphia Archdiocesan offices at 222 N. 17th Street. They are good people. Elaine graduated from the same high school I did.

The story of the grooming, sexual abuse and introduction to drugs of the younger Art Baselice by Fr. Charles Newman, a sociopath and narcissist is heartbreaking but no less chilling then some of what one reads in the 2005 Philadelphia Grand Jury Report.

That young man eventually took his own life.

What it all comes down to in the end is the horrific abuse of power and authority by members of the hierarchy of the most powerful religious denomination in the world.

As old Lord Acton said, "Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely."

All religious institutions should be required to obey the civil laws that the rest of us do.

There should be no exception in law that gives more protection to those who sexually exploit girls, boys, women, men or vulnerable adults or their enablers, or traffic in them for sexual exploitation, then to the victims of such abuse and exploitation. Our country's state laws should reflect that but that is not yet the case.

Sister Maureen Paul Turlish
Victims' Advocate
New Castle, Delaware
maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

In a May 2002 interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, Cardinal [[Oscar Maradiaga]] claimed that Jews influenced the Boston Globe to exploit the recent controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. This provoked outrage from the [[anti-Defamation League]], especially since Maradiaga has a reputation as a moderate and that he is regarded as a papabile.[http://www.adl.org/PresRele/ASInt_13/4135_13.asp ADL Outraged by Honduran Cardinal's Jewish Conspiracy Theory]

Bishops are used to complete control of spin. That's why they buy newsprint by the role and ink by the barrel to publish house organs. It's telling how Abp. Dolan won't engage on the issue only be outraged that anything was published. So much is self-affirmation and assertion and the regional and district managers (bishops and archbishops) toe the official line.

Re: Paulte,
You have not been reading enough if you think there have been no profiles of accusers.

The bishops do such a bad job that they deserve much more criticism. They have posted a version of the Roman Canon on their webside in which the text (unless corrected today or yesterday) literally says the Mary is the mother of Joseph her spouse. This is a dereliction of duty on a terrain which is their primary responsibility. They had three months to vet the text carefully but only 5 bishops gave any sign of having looked at it.

I read the archbishop's blog, Hoyt's article and re-read Dowd's article. I can understand the archbishop feeling the church is overly criticized. Empire's often attract criticisms.

The NY Times is not a diocesan newspaper. That freedom of religion and a free press are located in the same Constitutional amendment perhaps offers that sibling tension within the same household.

In re-reading Dowd's article I wanted to find snidely, sneering comments that mocked the 'other-Christ' in Pope Benedict. I didn't find them. I saw comments on his humanness, not to be confused with compassionate humanitarianness.

The Catholic Church is not a humble institution. It seeks to get around laws, to have special considerations, to be treated differently. It is a good institution with many flaws and errors in judgment, i.e. its humanness.

As a Catholic, I don't like to be criticized for the wrongs of other Catholics; I don't like to be scorned because some Catholic priests are pedophiles; I don't like to be accused of molesting children; and I don't like to be categorized with all the other Catholic problems, narrow thinkers, bigots, within our church.

But unless and until the institutional church becomes less secretive, less empire-like, less arrogant, less associated with the power and elites in this country and around the world, less discriminatory against women and gays, then the Catholic Church is fair game for a very public press when the Church speaks from its "moral" foundation. It is not anti-Catholic to be critical of the Church. Many are waiting for the Church to be what is suppose to be.

The way I look at it, it's not the Catholic Church that is getting a going over,it's the failed leadershop. The failed leadership is not the Catholic Church.The Church does not hand the bishops anything on a silver platter. The bishops think they own everything. Come to think of it...They do. PLEASE, DO NOT BLAME MY CHURCH FOR ANYTHING....

Hey, Joe, long time no hear. I've been reading your blog for a while now and just had to respond to this.

There is a terrible, anti-religion feeling in the air for a while that has been getting stronger, especially in this century. I'm embarassed to admit that I am an alumna of Columbia High School in Maplewood, New Jersey, which made international headlines a few years ago after the school banned ALL holiday music at Christmastime.

And wait until you hear what has happened to me recently. One of my male co-workers had a very bad fire in his apartment. His kitchen was completely torched and had to be recreated from scratch. At the time, I had just closed on a new co-op apartment which, for a variety of reasons, I knew I wouldn't be moving into right away. I told him that if the smoke or water damage at his place made his apartment uninhabitable, he was welcome to stay at my new, otherwise unoccupied home for as long as he needed.

I call it "being a good Christian." The investigative division of the government agency where I work called it "sexual harassment," and I had to hire my own attorney at my cost to refute this charge. Isn't this disgraceful? I thought that we were supposed to have a "diverse" workplace which shows respect and tolerance for the different ways in which we were raised. Well, I was raised in the WWJD (What Would Jesus Do?) tradition, and look what happened. Jesus would tear his hair out over this!

Another aspect of this case that gets my goat is this: it's obvious in the current climate that when civil rights and political correctness intersect, the latter is going to prevail. I don't know that that is what our founding fathers, who were men of God themselves, intended.

Joe, for obvious reasons I am not using my real name here. But you have my e-mail; it would be good to hear from you.

F.S.

The question that arises from the editorial is why, if the wielded political power of the Catholic Church is what attracts journalists' attention, stories that have nothing to do with that political power, such as the priest who fathered a son by a parishoner. The impact of that story is a person in authority, someone who should have kept his distance in order to be a disinterested source of help, compromised the integrity of his work, endangered one entrusted to him, and recklessly brought into existence a fragile life he had no intent of nurturing. The political dimension is negligible. If other leaders in other settings--religion, medicine, education--make the same failing, they should received the same attention.

To say that the Orthodox Jewish Community in the New York City metropolitain area, the NY Times' main circulation area, is a minor player is ridiculous.

Although it is true that the number of Episcoplians has declined in Manhattan in recent years, the church is still a massive landowner in the City due to bequests from such wealthy deceased members.