Courtney McGrailDear Editor, The standard of reporting on religion in the media is appalling (your own newspaper is, thankfully, an honourable exception). I find myself time-and-again having to go to the original source of a story to get beyond the silly media spin to the truth. Pope Francis is a case in point. Repeatedly, he is portrayed in the media as undermining Catholic teaching and doctrine, this causes alarm for some Catholics. However, my appeal is for people to read what the Pope actually says rather than relying on a filter-journalist determined to spin the story in a way that provokes controversy or discord within the Church.
I was intrigued to see this week that Pope Francis was again asked by a journalist about whether or not he would be ordaining women to the priesthood. The Pope’s simple answer: no, the door is closed.
The Holy Father must be vexed by the constant repetitive nature of these questions on issues that he has been very candid about. Is it that the journalists asking the questions are slow learners or is it that they believe that, deep down, Pope Francis is a fellow-traveller determined to turn Catholicism into a vague spirituality in tune with the mood of the modern world?
Archbishop Fulton Sheen perceptively observed that “the Church has put to bed all the errors of the past for she knows that to marry the passing fads of any age is to be a widow in the next”.
“She is therefore not behind the times, but beyond the times, always fresh while the age is dying,” the archbishop observed.
Pope Francis, in his own time, knows that the Church has to shift emphasis and language, but that the truths remain timeless.
I appeal to all Catholics – particularly in the context of the Synod of Bishops on the family – to take their lead from Pope Francis and reputable publications like The Irish Catholic rather than relying on the increasingly unreliable secular press for news about the Church.
Yours etc.,
John Walsh
Drogheda, Co. Louth