I received a phone call this morning from a PR flack for a religious order of women—yes, apparently religious orders need PR flacks because, you know, their raison d’etre isn’t getting The Message out or anything, the original form of Public Relations—and so this PR flack wants Catholic World Report to write a story.
He asks me if I’m familiar with the order. I say No, I’m not, I only know the name. He goes into the canned spiel about their important work and then gets to what he evidently believes is the news hook that will compel me to write a story about the sisters’ amazing deeds (and incidentally give them independent media praise to include in their fundraising appeals.)
Not going to convince me
The order held a dinner recently to hand out awards to a couple of people they believe represent their values. The recipients? Katie Couric and Rudy Guiliani. Now I’m aware that Couric, after losing her first husband to cancer, has done a lot of work for cancer treatment and that Guiliani did a bang-up job as mayor of New York City during and after 9/11. But there is no way I’m going to be convinced that these two should be honored by a Catholic institution, never mind a religious order. Giuliani is a bald-faced adulterer, not to mention pro-gay and pro-abortion. Couric is just as pro-abortion and pro-gay. These honors are a scandal to the faithful and a slap in the face to the Word of God and the Church’s teachings.
