Local News
Letter To the Editor
Published: May 13, 2010
Unbalanced News
To the Editor:
Balanced? Fair? Factual? Yes, there has been abuse in the Catholic Church, widespread even! And extremely well published by all kinds of media.
Most news organizations want us to believe that they are serious and committed to balanced, well researched and fair, neutral reporting. That is not what I have seen lately. I have watched and read reports about pedophile priests, some incidents going back decades. Overall, this reporting amounts to an almost wholesale damnation of the Catholic Church.
I have not seen any real attempt to put the horrible news into perspective. Do these crimes really only happen in the Catholic Church? Are other denominations immune? Reports of similar transgressions by teachers, for instance, are treated as personal crimes, which they are, and not blown up into a damnation of all teachers and the whole education system.
In the pope’s home country, Germany, some news outlets have begun to report about incidents of abuse within organizations not linked to the Catholic Church, such as preparatory schools, boarding schools used by royalty, etc. And, in a stunning display of judgment, the biggest German news magazine sees fit to publish an issue with the cover story about “The Failed Pope.”
A lot of time and ink has been spent on ‘papal infallibility’ as if this dogma included everything a pope does. … The dogma refers only to teachings of faith and morals.
Who could possibly derive satisfaction … from such superficial and one-sided reporting?
Werner Schmitz
Duluth
