The New York Times picks up the story from Newsday that I blogged on Friday. Bishop William Murphy is revamping religious formation at all levels in the Diocese of Rockville Centre and this has got the local dissenters in a twist. Of course, the NYT’s article depicts the Catholic faith as a free-for-all between orthodoxy and “explorations” of “contemporary notions,” i.e. medieval repression v. modern freedom. And those quoted for the article are from the usual list of dissenters, progressives, VOTF types and so on.
Among American Catholics raised in the years after the Second Vatican Council of 1962-65, church teaching has usually mixed orthodoxy with contemporary notions about the value of dialogue, self-exploration and the full-fledged participation of women in society. Whether by coincidence or not, theirs has been the generation of Catholics that produced the first widespread alarm about the sexual abuse of children by priests, a problem said by some to date back many generations.
Not too subtle there. The connection is supposedly that those who reject orthodoxy are the ones who stopped child abuse. Except it isn’t true. At Catholic World Report, we’re been among the many orthodox Catholics who have been crying out against this abuse for years.
“World Ending Tomorrow; Women and Minorities Hardest Hit”
Technorati Tags: bishops, catechesis, Catholic, dissent, liberalism, media bias, orthodoxy, Voice of the Faithful
I wonder, now that VOTF is out from under the covers and is acknowledged by most as a liberal to radical activist group—will the mainstream media regularly identify it as such in its stories—-or will it does what it always seem to do for such groups—paint them as “Just Plain Folks.” Of course, rarely is an orhodox group or individual in tune with Church leadership allowed to escape without some “right-wing” type labeling