Greg Popcak decries the Catholic press for having failed to do its duty in the Scandal. He notes that most (all?) diocesan newspapers have a conflict of interest because they are reporting on their own publishers, their bishops, and thus failed to be anything more than a public relations rag. He even criticizes national Catholic media, like Zenit, for failing to cover the Scandal. Instead of the secular media cleaning the Catholic house, it should have been Catholics who did so, he says.
Well, there are some of us who were trying that. Way back in the early 90s, Catholic World Report was covering the Scandal in its first issues. We have been unafraid to criticize bishops (and continued that boldness when we started Catholic World News in 1996. It’s precisely our independence that allows us to be so self-critical of the Church. The irony is that it is just that critical spirit that gets us in trouble with so many. There are many people who don’t like t he fact the CWR and CWN tell the hard truths about the Church, bishops, priests, and laity. (Some of them even appear on Greg’s blog at HMS.)
In reality, an independent and hard-hitting Catholic press does exist, but you won’t find it in your diocesan newspaper. But we’re out there.
This is really good to know, Dom. In the past, my wife and I have been extremely discouraged at how little of what we know is happening around here is reported – and at how little fellow parishioners and members of the diocese know about the people who are ‘leading’ us. As with government, a free and bold and fair press always helps to clean up the scum that grows into organizations.
To be fair, nan, both Catholic World Report and the National Catholic Reporter were way ahead of the secular press on the Scandal. It’s just that no one was listening. And, dare I say, not enough Catholics read Catholic World Report, compared to reading the secular papers.