Good Call

If you check out my favorite website, you'll see that the Pontifical Council for Inter-religious Dialogue has recently sent letters of blessing and goodwill to both the Hindu and Moslem communities on the occasion of their significant religious holidays. I would like to see the Vatican detractors take a potshot now, having read those letters. The Vatican singlehandedly does more to stimulate inter-religious dialogue than any other institution on the face of the planet. But where is the media coverage of these important gestures? Yet- when the CDF issued its statement regarding homosexuality, it made world news headlines. It's interesting to note not only how selective the news media are in their coverage, but the nature of their selectivity. I would like a bias-free and informed news media, please. I would like journalists to cover the Catholic Church in all of its dimensions (or desist entirely) and know some basic facts about the subject matter they are covering. I've had to write two letters to the Detroit News & Free Press about their misleading and biased coverage of Catholic news. One article was devoted to the Pope's celebration of his 25th anniversary; aside from glaring inaccuracies and a clear ignorance of the structure of the Holy See, they spent most of their ink examining the ways in which the pope has failed and speculating on his retirement. A second article, also betraying a clear ignorance of Archdiocesan government, announced the release of the Archdiocesan Pastoral Plan known as "Together in Faith". Rather than simply report the mere existence of this Plan and its stated objectives, the author of the article chose to highlight one priest's opposition to the Plan- which priest's comments indicated that he too misunderstands the stated objectives of the Plan nearly as much as the author. I sat in multiple meetings learning about the Plan and reading the documents related to it. Could not the journalist have done the bare minimum and at least read the document? Instead, he used it as an opportunity to badmouth the Cardinal.

Whatever happened to responsible, thoughtful journalism? Why can't every institution be as impartial and generous as the Vatican?