The Boston Globe is reporting this morning that the Boston archdiocesan spokesman is stepping down. A bunch of papers are picking up the story and even the Associated Press. I’m not sure what the big deal is.
Fr. Christopher Coyne was thrown into the then-unofficial job of archdiocesan spokesman back in 2001-2002 when the Scandal first broke. At the time, the official spokesman was Donna Morrissey, a young laywoman who has since left to work for the American Red Cross. But there two problems: first, as usual, the layman was kept out of the loop. It was obvious that Morrissey was often sent to speak to the press without having been given the whole story herself. Second, when the media wants to show the face of the institutional Catholic Church, they want someone with a Roman collar under his face. Donna didn’t fit the mold, so Fr. Christopher Coyne was brought in, and he provided the added benefit of being able to speak authoritatively on Church teaching.
I have never understood why dioceses need tly challenge the theologians of Al-Azhar, the most prestigious and authoritative seminary in Islam, not only to condemn terrorism but also to issue punishment for bin Laden, Zarqawi, et al? And why haven’t these esteemed Muslim theologicans done so?
Islamic terrorists are doing nothing but taking God’s name in vain in using it as a justification for murder. If I recall, that violates one of the commandments. The fact that Church leaders charged with safeguarding spiritual truth cannot see that and challenge those who undertake such atrocities speaks volumes about the intellectual and spiritual corruption manifest in the contemporary Church at its highest levels.