The Media Pig Pile Begins at the Conclave
Rachel Zoll, the AP religion writer, tells us what’s what:
VATICAN CITY — Cardinal Bernard Law, whose failures to stop sexually abusive priests sparked the worst crisis in American church history, led a Mass for thousands mourning Pope John Paul II at St. Peter’s Basilica on Monday after police whisked away a victim protesting outside. Law celebrated the Mass without disruption, saying in his homily that Italian, Polish and other pilgrims were inspiring in their huge tribute to John Paul. Nearly 3 million mourners flooded Rome for the pontiff’s funeral last week.
Say what? A cardinal celebrates Mass in Vatican City and the fact that he does so “without disruption” is news? A protest is going to disrupt a memorial Mass for Pope John Paul II in the middle of Vatican City a couple of days after the venerated man is put in the ground? Huh? Let’s read that again. Okay, one person, identified as a “victim” shows up outside a church (how does the AP know?), and that’s in the lead of the article? When “thousands” were at the Mass? Gimme a break.
We hold no brief for Cardinal Law, and for all we know, he may be a scoundrel, but this piece was pre-written to fit a template, in our opinion. We expect to see a whole lot more of this in the coming days, both in the print press and on TV.
UPDATE
Meanwhile, Reuters has found someone to criticize the Cardinals’ keeping their thoughts on their work and their mouths shut:
Andrew Greeley, sociologist and religious affairs commentator from Chicago, sharply criticized the cardinals’ silence in the period before the conclave. “Cardinal (Joseph) Ratzinger is trying to run the pre-conclave period like he runs the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Catholic lay people have a right to know what’s going on,” he told Reuters.
Yeah, that’s right. We remember all the other Conclaves — John Paul I and II, Paul VI, John XXIII, and even Pius XII — those Cardinals were chatting up the press and the “lay people” all the time. They couldn’t stop yakking at Pius X’s Conclave in 1903. Mind you, we would have no problem if the Cardinals chose to operate in a different fashion, but the public’s “right to know” in this case is manufactured out of whole cloth.
The beat goes on.