media reactions

Read Ed Peter's primer on excommunication should be mandatory reading for any reporter covering the issues of the Catholic Church. I love/hate watching them flail away at what they mistakenly think is the teachings of the Church.

Time Shows Media Bias in Portrayal of Pope Benedict on Abortion

During an unprecedented 25-minute on-flight press conference, Benedict left little room for interpretation: pro-choice politicians not only should be denied communion, but face outright excommunication from the Church for supporting "the killing of a human child."

Wow, sounds grave. It is, but a proper understanding of excommunication is as a "medicinal" not "vindictive" measure in Church discipline, according to the online Catholic encyclopedia New Advent:

Excommunication (Latin ex, out of, and communio or communicatio, communion -- exclusion from the communion), the principal and severest censure, is a medicinal, spiritual penalty that deprives the guilty Christian of all participation in the common blessings of ecclesiastical society.

Being a penalty, it supposes guilt; and being the most serious penalty that the Church can inflict, it naturally supposes a very grave offence. It is also a medicinal rather than a vindictive penalty, being intended, not so much to punish the culprit, as to correct him and bring him back to the path of righteousness.

It reminds me of the best line in the recent Republican Presidential debate. Romney was asked what he would say to the Catholic bishops regarding this issue. He responded, "I wouldn't say anything to the Catholic bishops..." I don't like much about him, but at least he understands what the questioner doesn't. A politician has no business instructing a church leader on how to run their church. Especially when it is a leader of a different church.

And it reminds me of this quote by Archbishop Chaput. "I don't think the government should listen to the church - the government should listen to the people and the people should listen to the church."

St. Maximilian Kolbe would be proud

Dom has a great point here.

Bishops, the Gospel, and the Internet age * Bettnet.com

I think a lot more can be done if only there is the will to do it and the expertise to pull it off. The great thing about the new media is that the cost to do it is low. How much are you paying for your blog? Not as much as, say, a daily newspaper is to print it’s daily edition.
While you can’t replace the face-to-face encounter in spreading the Gospel and sharing the life in Christ, these new media can be a very effective means for starting that process. And we’ve only just begun to scratch the surface of what can be done.

It isn't just up to the bishops anymore to evangelize people where they are at. The wealth of information available on the internet is a boon to the truthseeker.

Not that everything you read on the internet (or newspaper) is true, but being informed has never been easier. The more information available, the more likely people will find the truth. In the MSM era, they could control what people talked about. As Bear-i-tone mentioned some time back, they don't have to control what people think as long as they control what they think about.

And I am encouraged by the likes of Archbishop Chaput of Denver. He has been using the internet to release his actual speeches rather than relying on the print and TV media to "quote" him and give a summary according to their skview.

And take the very recent comments from the Pope on communion and politicians. Many skilled writers stepped right up and dissected the nuance and meaning, so a Catholic can be informed even before the 6:00 news gives their slanted soundbit.

83% of people out of touch

Or of course you can turn that around and say maybe the media is out of touch with a large majority of families. But that wouldn't do, the media moguls know us better than we do ourselves.

Parents Want Their Kids to Practice Abstinence, Support Education Programs

An overwhelming number of parents want their kids to practice abstinence until marriage and support abstinence education programs that drive that point home. Though six states have announced their intent to refuse federal funding for abstinence-only education, a new Zogby poll shows they are out of touch with Americans.

The poll found that 83% of parents want their children to save sex until marriage and a majority of families believe that programs should reinforce the abstinence message when broaching sex ed in the classroom.

"Despite left-wing pressure to abandon abstinence-only education, a survey of over 1,000 parents found overwhelming support for the programs," Family Research Council president Tony Perkins told LifeNews.com on Monday.

Why I never buy newspapers

"nor do I watch news on TV."

The Spirit's Sword: adpapers

A newspaper is, first and foremost, a business, and the purpose of any business is to make money. As is well known, newspapers do not make much money from selling newspapers. They make the majority of their money through advertising. This means the paper you buy is not- repeat, not- the foremost product of the company. Their main product is, in fact, you. To repeat, what a newspaper is selling is not news to readers, but readers to advertisers. To put it another way, when you buy a newspaper, in fact you are being sold to advertisers. (When you turn on the tv the same thing happens, except in most places you don't pay anything to watch tv.)

I am not a product and I will not be sold by anyone to anyone, especially not by morally vacuous editors who could write such a defence of their paper's disgusting stand.

I would have to agree. I hate watching the news because it is so vacuous. You are NOT assured that you are getting all the NEWS nor are you getting just the news. Mostly you are getting what will attract the most viewers. Talk about the lowest common denominator.

The Un-offendables

I love Shea's ability to sum up some groups with the patented [TM]. Think of anything else Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have done other than masquerade ask the front for the latest "outrage".

Catholic and Enjoying It!: Don Imus

One of the many nice things about living in Seattle is that I've never heard Don Imus. I get the impression he's one of these guys who has risen to fame by being obnoxious on the radio, but never having heard him I couldn't say. I notice on Drudge that he appears to have said something crass and ugly about some black female jocks or something and now is going through the de rigeur act of public show trial self-abasement with the de rigeur declarations from Professionally Outraged People[TM] that he be sacked, that America Examine Its Conscience and that toads like Al Sharpton be treated as Anointed Prophets of God.

Kathy at Relapsed Catholic has a few fine points too.

"Could someone send me a guide?"

"And be real sure to include phrases black people use affectionately towards each other that would offend coming from me but not from Tarantino or not from me in a Tarantino movie if Tarantino directed but it had black people where he was acting and not only directing and I said the line to a black person but there was more than three white people in the room and Sam Jackson said it was okay and not on the radio..."

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Can you imagine Lenny Bruce apologizing to (bad analogy chosen for decade-appropriate comparison purposes only) Martin Luther King? Can you imagine King asking him to? No, since he was busy doing actual things.

Do I approve of the coarsening of our culture, that during the Clinton administration my mom had to explain to my gramma what a blow job was? Hell, no.

But I really object to cowardly corporate whores like Imus, masquerading as outlaws until it hits the fan, while creeps like Al & Jesse pose as saints.

That is what I am saying. He makes his living off being an idiot and suddenly he offends The Un-offendable. Sorry, show a little outrage when he mocks Christianity. Or when he mocks whomever he does. Not just when he finally says something that can get Jesse and Al on TV again.

Missing the Pope

If only they had a fraction of the "respect" for Pope JPII when he was alive as they do for their biased "memory" of who he was after his death. Jeff takes out the fisk broom and sweeps this NoNewsweek article into the birdcage where it belongs.

The Curt Jester: Newsweek still sucks

I guess the MSM just loves to have it both ways. First he is painted at the mean-spirited enforcer forcing his ways on everyone, and then he is the paper-tiger and politicians that had a certain respect under JPII have totally lost it now. This is so laughably funny as a piece of analysis it is hard to know where to start. Secular politicians promoting gay marriage and abortion never cared one bit about the Pope whether it was JPII or B16.

And then with his visit to South America you know they are going to bring up the document critical of Father Jon Sobrino. So I guess the paper-tiger is back to biting. They of course frame the criticism of Father Sobrino's writings in the framework of Liberation Theology when it was a condemnation of his weak-Christology.

To borrow from Archbishop Sheen again, I am glad to see Newsweek still believes in the influence of the Pope. If they believed what they write, this wouldn't make it off the newsroom floor.

Tolerance of all things except one

Funny how the pillars of Tolerance and Diversity suddenly become bigots and narrow-minded when the subject turns to Christianity. The author of the B.C. cartoon dies and he can't even be memorialized without railing against his occasional Christian theme.

SR.com: 'B.C.,' 'Wizard of Id' cartoonist dies at 76

For a strip whose tone was lighthearted, "B.C" suddenly became controversial in the 1990s when Hart included themes influenced by his fundamental Christianity and literal interpretation of the Bible. He did so sparingly, often around holy days, but its inclusion was perceived by many readers as making him far more frank about Christianity than any of his mainstream contemporaries.

Some newspapers canceled the strip. Others pulled it selectively. On at least one occasion, the Los Angeles Times relocated it to the religion page.

Isn't that the cardinal sin of Censorship?

Other work by Hart brought criticism from Jewish and Muslim groups for what they called insensitive and at times offensive themes.

One Easter "B.C." strip showed a menorah's candles being extinguished as the candelabra morphs into a cross; the final frame included the words, "It is finished." To his critics, this symbolized a triumph of Christianity over Judaism, but Hart said it was meant to "pay tribute to both" religions.

Muslims were enraged by another "B.C." strip that ran during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. It featured an outhouse with multiple crescents – a symbol associated with Islam – and showed a cave man saying from inside the makeshift bathroom, "Is it just me, or does it stink in here?"

He swings and misses at a pitch WAY outside. Boy was he reaching for one here. First off, the crescent is rather common on old outhouses. Don't know why but I have a feeling it goes back almost as far as Islam does.

And as I have said before, for a society that often praises the masculine sacrifice to the extreme of raising suicide bombers, they are a bit on the sensitive side. No?

As far as the menorah morphing into the cross, isn't that what all good Christians think of Judaism? That the Jews were waiting for the Messiah and Christians believe Jesus was the fulfillment of Judaism? Now those still of Jewish faith would disagree and that they are still awaiting the Messiah. But that is a difference of opinions.

Anyway, Johnny Hart, Rest in Peace. You will be missed.