Vatican Moves Forward: N.Y. Times Stays The Same
The Vatican just released a revision to a previous apostolic letter that was basically some Vatican housekeeping making it easier to give bigger punishments to clergy who break the rules, but especially the rules against abusing minors. But here's how the N.Y. Times opens their story on it:
The Vatican issued revisions to its internal laws on Thursday making it easier to discipline sex-abuser priests, but caused confusion by also stating that ordaining women as priests was as grave an offense as pedophilia.
I like that they open their stories with a lie. It saves me time. I've never read this scandal-sheet before but James told me I should take a look at this article because he knows how to fire me up. I know Rob has read this paper before. He told me it was suspicious. There are more actual facts in an average story published by the Onion.
What the Times is reporting in their opening paragraph is just not true, but it is incendiary and designed to make the reader spit on the ground immediately and curse a particular religion. The Vatican did not equate pedophilia with the ordaining of women. Author Laurie Goodstein reports from Rome but has no idea how to read a Roman document. What is she doing there?
Perhaps the Vatican could avoid incurring the wrath of Laurie Goodstein by issuing two documents so that the mention of the act of committing heresy against the holy sacraments isn't in the same document that does things like double the statute of limitations for punishing abusive priests, but why should they?
They will never please a reporter like this. Glancing at her previous work, I think she should change her title to N.Y. Times bureau chief in charge of marginalizing Catholicism. Her favorite technique is quoting N.Y. Times polls that show things like "most Catholics want women ordained" or "most Catholics don't like this Pope much." The trouble is that they use a sample of all Catholics instead of Catholics that go to church every Sunday.
Among the Catholics that I hang out with, and they're a rowdy bunch, we don't care what Catholics that don't go to mass each Sunday say or think. They are living in a state of mortal sin, and instead of attempting to get out of it, they often try to move the Church closer to where their comfy cafeteria style self-appointed doctrine puts them.
The only problem with the Catholic Church, many of them say, is that there are too many Catholics, and the tepid ones are more harmful to the Church than non-Catholics because of the way they are used by people like the obviously anti-Catholic Laurie Goodstein. There; I'm fired up!
- Comment (4)
- · Quote
- · UnfollowFollow (1)
Comments :
May '10
Re: Vatican Moves Forward: N.Y. Times Stays The Same
They have a place for those folks, it's called Protestantism. I was raised in the United Church of Christ, you know, Jeremiah Wright's Church. During the '80's I referred to it as the First Church of the DNC.
For thousands of years the Judeo-Christian mission has been to bring man closer to God. Only recently have we become so arrogant that we demand that if God wants to have a personal relationship with us, He needs to move closer to us.
May '10
Re: Vatican Moves Forward: N.Y. Times Stays The Same
EJHill
For thousands of years the Judeo-Christian mission has been to bring man closer to God. Only recently have we become so arrogant that we demand that if God wants to have a personal relationship with us, He needs to move closer to us. · Jul 17 at 4:21pm
Many centuries ago, an artist named Michelangelo captured that sentiment beautifully. God reaches out, but Man limply waits for his Creator to stretch that extra inch.
One of the truly wondrous aspects of our relationship with God is that, most of the time (excepting the sabbath), He doesn't make us come to Him. No matter how long one wanders or how far one strays, the Good Shepherd is right there, ready to take the stray in His arms and carry him or her back home. Our King and Creator kneels down to wash our feet.
If the New York Times writers knew humility, they might know God.
Re: Vatican Moves Forward: N.Y. Times Stays The Same
Humility is the key. We're all getting a little lesson in it these days and I'm actually enjoying mine. Thanks guys!
Jun '10
Re: Vatican Moves Forward: N.Y. Times Stays The Same
The Pope isn't randomly picking heresies to highlight. It's the heretics themselves that pick the hot topics, the ones that need addressing.