Yesterday, I wondered how the local newspapers would cover Sunday’s Boston Catholic Women’s Conference compared to their coverage of the men’s conference on Saturday.
Once again the Boston Globe did a decent job with their article entitled, “Catholic women hear O’Malley’s call” while the Boston Herald surpassed its own anemic effort from yesterday by giving us … nothing. Usually I’m excoriating the Globe for it’s biased coverage, but in this case, they beat their cross-town competitor hands down.
As for the article and conference itself, attendance was better for the women than for the men, mainly because the weather wasn’t an obstacle anymore. A lot was much the same as the reactions to the day before. We learned from the article that the conferences cost $300,000, which I should reiterate is not coming from the archdiocese but entirely from ticket sales, exhibitor fees, and whatever donations the organizing committee of volunteers can raise. It’s really very impressive that they can pull this off.
And that dollar amount includes a very, very large bill from the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority for the use of the building—the only venue large enough to hold it—and for the lunches provided to attendees.
(I should add, in the interest of full disclosure, that I did some paid work for the conferences for which I received remuneration.)
I think the two conferences show a real vitality in the the archdiocese and that lay Catholic fervor is not limited to Voice of the Faithful or the Council of Parishes or other protest groups.
Technorati Tags: Catholic | Boston | media | Boston Globe | Boston Herald |
