We recently commented on an article by Rachel Donadio of the New York Times as an example of its tendency to allow editorial commentary to creep into its hard news stories. Donadio wondered whether the Vatican “will confront the failures in church leadership that allowed sexual abuse to go unpunished.” She added that “the culture of the church [...]
According to a recent New York Times poll, the pope’s favorability rating among Catholics at the end of March was 27 percent. After hearing the non-stop negative media reports over the past month, his favorability rating jumped to 43 percent. How can this be? It was due to the backlash. When asked whether the media have been harder [...]
There is no media outlet more obsessed with old stories about sexual abuse in the Church than the New York Times. In a recent front-page story, complete with a color photo, there was a story on William Cardinal Levada, former archbishop of San Francisco and current head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. One [...]
There are many ominous signs surrounding the visit by Pope Benedict XVI to England in September. First, there are now over 100,000 Brits who have signed “certificates of de-baptism” renouncing their former Christian status. Second, there are hate-ridden atheists like Richard Dawkins who are paying anti-Catholic lawyers to investigate the possibility of arresting the pope for [...]
Steven Mulvain, a 23-year-old employee of Britain’s Foreign Office, sent an e-mail memo to Downing Street and other government offices saying that when Pope Benedict XVI visits England in September it would be “ideal” for him to open an abortion clinic, bless gay marriage and introduce a “Benedict” brand of condoms; there were other suggestions of [...]
Philip Pullman’s new book, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, became available in the U.S. on May 4; it is published by Canongate U.S. The publisher was kind enough to send us an advance copy of the new book, no doubt hoping that we would give it some free publicity by hammering it. They may [...]
As the term ended in May for the Connecticut State Legislature, a bill seeking to extend the statute of limitations in cases of sex abuse cases never came to a vote, thus securing a victory for Catholics. This victory was in no small part due to our tireless work in educating the public on how HB [...]
On May 17, the New York Times ran a front-page article on New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan trying to pin some dirt on him, but as usual the story contained nothing. Times reporter Serge F. Kovaleski had been investigating Archbishop Dolan for a year, and he gave it his best shot in this article. There was nothing for Dolan [...]
On May 16, the New York Times ran an editorial titled, “Justice for Child Abuse Victims,” that unfairly criticized the Catholic Church. The Times said “The Catholic Church is working against the interests of child abuse victims in state legislatures around the country,” citing as proof its attempt to block laws in states that would amend the statute of limitations [...]
