Talk about your anti-Church bias. The cover of today’s Boston Herald has a headline and photo splashed across the top of the page: “Church ousts nun and her pup from home.” The photo caption says: “Sister Stephen Marie will not be allowed to take Lori to the retirement home she will be forced into in September.” What conclusion are we to draw? There’s that big, nasty Archdiocese of Boston again, stomping the little guy, only worried about the bottom line and oppressing women.
Of course, that’s not really what happened. If you read the actual story, you get a much different view. This very elderly nun—we’re never told her age, but she looks to be in her eighties at least—is living along in an empty convent at a now-closed school. She’s being moved to a retirement home—by her religious order, not the archdiocese.
There is no bitterness or resentment in anything Sister Stephen Marie says, and while she’s understandably sad to be leaving her longtime home, she seems to understand the necessity.
“It’s not safe for me to be here alone and the (Sisters of St. Joseph) feel it is better to be with my sisters in a community,” she said, patting Lori. “But I would still take my apartment here if I had a choice.”
In fact, the entire thing seems like a non-story. What could have been a bittersweet human-interest feature instead became just another cudgel with which to beat the Church. Yet another ignominious move by the Herald to join the Boston Globe in finding ways to attack the Church.
Technorati Tags:Boston, Catholic, media bias
bk_keywords:Boston, Catholic, nun.
You’d never know that the paper was owned by a Catholic, Pat Purcell.