Don't Shoot the Messenger
This spring must have felt like Long Lent II for the Catholic Church as it faced waves of new sex abuse claims worldwide and media scrutiny. Unlike many Catholic leaders, Wall Street Journal columnist Peggy Noonan welcomed the scrutiny as one hard step in church reform. A devoted Catholic, Noonan believes the fire of journalistic inquiry revealed the worth of the institution—and its urgent need for change: "[T]he journalistic establishment in the U.S. and Europe has been the best friend of the Catholic Church … The press forced the church to change the old regime and begin to come to terms with the abusers. The church shouldn't be saying j'accuse but thank you."
That thank you may be a while coming. No one, persons or institutions, likes public criticism, and many Catholic leaders naturally circled the wagons during the recent media blitz. They rightly noted many journalists' ignorance about church history and teaching and decried sloppy reporting.
"The facts seem to be of little interest to those whose primary concern is to nail down the narrative of global Catholic criminality," charged Catholic public intellectual George Weigel, in response to a New York Times report on a Wisconsin priest accused of abusing some 200 deaf children. "[The media's narrative] … is often less about the protection of the young … than it is about taking the Church down—and, eventually, out, both financially and as a credible voice in the public debate …." In other words, the secular press has no right to wag sanctimonious fingers when they have at times sensationalized horror stories involving children to sell copy. Surely Christians of all streams have at times felt besieged by reporters seemingly bent on elbowing them out of public discourse.
The rub is, many journalists—even secular ones—are bent not on taking down the Christians but on getting the facts right. The Boston Globe's 2002 series on sex abuse in the Archdiocese of Boston is a case par excellence of journalistic integrity in the service of a community. The Pulitzer Prize-winning series is often noted for breaking the dam of global church secrecy and helping the church handle victims and abusers more responsibly. The series led to concrete changes, including a 2004 church-initiated survey of the scope of abuse in the U.S., and tougher measures for handling allegations. It helped clear away the "filth," as Pope Benedict has called abusive priests, and lead to new life.
Churches—indeed, all Christian ministries—can learn from the Catholic Church's overall response to media scrutiny. Instead of resorting to defensiveness (as did one bishop over Easter, dismissing new reports as "petty gossip"), believers might carefully listen to media depictions of the church, and prayerfully sort truth from falsehood. New York Times columnist Ross Douthat wisely noted that writing off all news media as anti-Christian hurts the church when actual bias is at work: "Attacks on the media tend to spur journalists to greater unfairness, whereas acknowledging legitimate critiques gives you more credibility, not less, when it comes time to rebut slanderous charges." Quickly and clearly responding gives believers more leverage to reshape public opinion and protect the bride of Christ against falsehood.
But more than image management is at stake in how Christians respond to media. God, in his zeal for our refinement, can use journalistic truth-telling—even from those who ask "what is truth?"—to sanctify us. Purification rarely feels good, and some critiques are found to be nothing more than hate-filled attacks. But since "there is nothing concealed that will not be disclosed, or hidden that will not be made known" (Luke 12:2), ministries can face journalistic scrutiny confidently, looking for God's judgment and grace in unlikely sources. As Catholic theologian Edward Oakes said in an April homily, "[I]f the Hebrew prophets could see the hand of God at work in the attacks on ancient Israel from the Assyrian empire, then Catholics [and all Christians] ought to be able to espy the workings of divine providence when the media bring to light crimes that should have been made public from the beginning."
A Fractured and Beautiful Faith
Streaming This Weekend, May 24, 2013
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Don Schenk
Has anyone noticed that the MSM went after the Catholic Church on the homosexual abuse issue at the same time that Obama was pushing the promotion of homosexual abuse in the military with the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" (Even now the military subjects recruitws to sessions promoting "tolerance" of homosexuality, but that's not enough for homosexual "actrivists") and the apointment of Kevin Jennings, the founder of GLSEN, the "Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network," an outfit that promotes homosexuality amoung school children, to be his "Drug-Free Safe Schools Czar"? It's been estimated by outfits like, yes, Christianity Today that the abuse problem is at lteast as bad in the Protestant churches, and in 2004 the US Department of Education estimated that the problem is "at least 100 times worse" in the public schools, but the MSM knows when to look the other way and be "discrete."
Johann Conrad
The fact is that the rate of abuse in American Protestantism is equal to or slightly worse than the Catholic Church, but that fact doesn't get much play in the media. Look it up though and take the beam out of your eye. The media was instrumental in exposing this issue, but their attempts in the last few months to personally implicate Pope Benedict have been classic smear technique. This Pope has done a lot to filter homosexuals from the priesthood before they even get into seminary. On the other side, much of anarchic Protestantism couldn't do anything about the problem even if they wanted to. Where so much of American Protestantism consists of self-appointed preachers operating outside of any denominational hierarchy, with a cadre of youth ministers given authority on no other basis than loyalty, you're asking for trouble. Let's not even talk about all the Protestant churches where fornication and homosexuality are tolerated.
Steve Skeete
I am extremely cynical about the secular media, but even a die-hard non-believer in the media like myself know that Catholic priests have been molesting children and young adults in their care - probably since time immemorial. Undoubtedly, evangelical churches also have sexual skeletons, but not of the Catholic magnitude or these too, would have been exposed long ago. The real issue here is that something is most definitely wrong with an institition whose leaders sexually afflict young persons in their care in such large numbers and in such a sustained manner. Denying this, seeking to minimize it, or accusing others of doing the same is not the answer, getting to the roots of the rot is. These roots, in my view, are at least institutional, historical and theological. Drastic and immediate surgery is needed in all these areas. The catholic church can no longer behave like it is a law unto itself, acting with impunity at the expense of innocent young lives. The wrong-doing must end now.