When the liberal mainstream media, both in the Church and secular versions broke the abuse scandal beginnin in the mid 1980's but especially in 2000, I thought it was all an anti-Catholic maneuver to discredit the Church and her conservative moral teachings, especially those surrounding sexuality, like LGBTQ issues, birth control and especially the liberal Sacrament of abortion.
However, these liberal media outlets, like the Boston Globe were actually an instrucment of the Holy Spirit, in my most humble opinion, to bring light to the darkness of what the bishops of the Church were doing to the Catholic Church by their grotesque mismanagement of the Church which goes beyond the mismanagement of miscreant clergy.
Today, there are those in the hierarchy here in the USA and the Vatican that would like to censor conservative Catholic news sources on the social media platforms who have broken very serious and important news very recently and gives a voice to those who think the Church's woes can be traced to liberal ideologies especially as it concerns mercy which enables sin and scandal or denial that sin is sin as in the case of Uncle Ted. It's the old "winks and nods" that were spoken of back in 2002 as the source of the clergy sexual misconduct scandal.
Today we know it is homosexualist clericalism. Thus this article from a new media internet platform is quite informative:
From Got Religion:
The growth of conservative Catholic outlets, for example, and their ability to break stories against “Uncle Ted” has coincided with the internal struggle contrasting what traditionalists see as inadequate news coverage from the mainstream media regarding Pope Francis’ leadership. Filling that void are conservative journalists and bloggers on a mission to expose what they see as the Vatican’s progressive hierarchy.
However, these liberal media outlets, like the Boston Globe were actually an instrucment of the Holy Spirit, in my most humble opinion, to bring light to the darkness of what the bishops of the Church were doing to the Catholic Church by their grotesque mismanagement of the Church which goes beyond the mismanagement of miscreant clergy.
Today, there are those in the hierarchy here in the USA and the Vatican that would like to censor conservative Catholic news sources on the social media platforms who have broken very serious and important news very recently and gives a voice to those who think the Church's woes can be traced to liberal ideologies especially as it concerns mercy which enables sin and scandal or denial that sin is sin as in the case of Uncle Ted. It's the old "winks and nods" that were spoken of back in 2002 as the source of the clergy sexual misconduct scandal.
Today we know it is homosexualist clericalism. Thus this article from a new media internet platform is quite informative:
From Got Religion:
The growth of conservative Catholic outlets, for example, and their ability to break stories against “Uncle Ted” has coincided with the internal struggle contrasting what traditionalists see as inadequate news coverage from the mainstream media regarding Pope Francis’ leadership. Filling that void are conservative journalists and bloggers on a mission to expose what they see as the Vatican’s progressive hierarchy.
In 2002, an investigation by The Boston Globe unearthed decades of abuse by clergy never before reported to civil authorities (click here for links). These days, accusations of wrongdoing within the Catholic Church are being exposed by smaller news organizations. No longer are mainstream outlets setting the pace here. Depleted newsrooms and not wanting to do negative stories about the pontiff have spurred conservative Catholic media to fill the journalism void.
Indeed, it’s a small group of influential blogs and news websites that has helped to inform millions as well as drive the debate.
The sex-abuse scandals that dominated news coverage over the summer are not going away. In the latest allegations to hit the U.S church, John Jenik, an auxiliary bishop in the Archdiocese of New York, is under investigation after being accused of sexual abuse. First to the punch with the story soon after Cardinal Timothy Dolan made the announcement was CruxNow, a Catholic news site, and not any of the three competitive New York City dailies.
The revelations regarding Jenik could be just the start of a new flood of allegations going into 2019. The Justice Department recently sent a request to every Roman Catholic diocese in the country ordering them not to destroy documents related to the handling of child sexual abuse cases. The request to preserve those files, first reported by the blog Whispers in the Loggia, is yet another sign that the prove is expanding after the Pennsylvania grand jury report.
The blog, which reports on the Catholic hierarchy like no other, has become one of several must-read sites that have come to prominence in the past year. Indeed, The New York Times picked up the story — running it in its Sunday editions on Oct. 28 — a few days later.
Whispers in the Loggia is operated by Rocco Palmo, a former correspondent US correspondent for the British-based Catholic weekly The Tablet. Palmo, who is based in Philadelphia, also co-chaired the first Vatican conference on social media convened by the Pontifical Councils for Culture and Social Communications.
Palmo isn’t alone when it comes to niche sites breaking news on what may be the biggest scandal in the church’s 2,000-year history. While Palmo and CruxNow treat the subject he covers like a traditional journalist without an agenda, those with a particular point of view have been strong in helping report out this story.
The key takeaway here is this: it has been sites featuring mostly conservative voices — doctrinally speaking — where some of the best reporting has taken place over the past three months. Specifically, the independent blogs run separately by noted Italian journalists Aldo Maria Valli and Marco Tosatti.
Fluency in Italian (or help from Google Translate) is important here. Both Valli and Tosatti were contacted by whistleblowing Archbishop Carlo Maria Vigano, who penned an 11-page letter this past August 25 describing a series of events in which Pope Francis was allegedly aware of the allegations made against McCarrick years ago and that restrictions placed on him by Pope Benedict XVI had been ignored. It was those bloggers who helped spread Vigano’s memo to several key websites, including the right-leaning National Catholic Register and LifeSiteNews.com.
Another place to look is journalist Rod Dreher’s popular blog at The American Conservative. (Full disclosure: Dreher and I were once colleagues at The New York Post). Not only is Dreher an astute observer of the church, he also breaks news as when a Vigano letter in September appeared on his blog before it landed on other sites.
Aside from Valli, Tosatti and Dreher, another major player in more conservative circles has been Church Militant, a website aimed at Catholics unhappy with the direction this pontiff is taking the church. Founded by Michael Voris in 2006 as St. Michael’s Media, Church Militant was considered a fringe player until this summer. The growing scandals, fueled by a Pennsylvania grand jury report that showed decades of abuse by prelates, catapulted Church Militant into larger view. Voris’ editorials and news coverage, highly critical of the Vatican hierarchy, brought with it newfound readers and viewers.
Voris’ exclusive interview with Paul Kalchik, a Chicago priest suspended after removing and burning a rainbow gay pride flag used in his church’s sanctuary — an action taken despite the diocese’s objection. In years past, such an interview would have been obtained by that city’s largest local newspaper, in this case The Chicago Tribune, or by one of the major national TV or cable networks (if they were interested in religion, which is rather rare).
There are also voices on the religious left worthy of journalism attention. America, the Jesuit-run magazine, has been one of the biggest advocates of the pontiff and his progressive stance on issues such as the acceptance of the LGBT community and issues surrounding climate change. While they have not broken stories regarding the ongoing sex-abuse allegations, the magazine has produced a series of opinion pieces aimed at defending the pontiff’s role and the church as a whole.
Led by Father James Martin, the magazine featured a newsworthy piece in August by him under the headline, “The witch hunt for gay priests.”
Sidestepping traditional news organizations will only increase as media companies move away from objective reporting. While the Internet has led to the fragmentation of audiences, it has also benefitted journalism when it comes to the church scandals and this deep wound continues to afflict the Catholic Church. Journalists and general readers alike need to bookmark these sites in order to know and understand what’s going on with a story that isn’t going away anytime soon.
10 comments:
Well, this isn't exactly breaking news, but here is an observation about PF reported by an Argentinean, Paul Vallely, in 2013. I would not expect the NCR to post this:
“Yes I know Bergoglio [, says a Jesuit superior from another Latin American country]. He’s a person who’s caused a lot of problems in the Society and is highly controversial in his own country. In addition to being accused of having allowed the arrest of two Jesuits during the time of the Argentinean dictatorship, as provincial he generated divided loyalties: some groups almost worshipped him, while others would have nothing to do with him, and he would hardly speak to them. It was an absurd situation. He is well-trained and very capable, but is surrounded by this personality cult which is extremely divisive. He has an aura of spirituality which he uses to obtain power. It will be a catastrophe for the Church to have someone like him in the Apostolic See. He left the Society of Jesus in Argentina destroyed with Jesuits divided and institutions destroyed and financially broken. We have spent two decades trying to fix the chaos that the man left us.”
That came out almost immediately after the pope's election.
"That came out almost immediately after the pope's election."
Yes, if the cardinals in their pre-conclave deliberations had done anything resembling responsible due diligence, they would have known that Bergoglio had wrecked the Church in Buenos Aires just as he is now wrecking the whole Church. My goodness, many of us--simple laymen in the sticks with no particular insight--knew pretty well what was coming within the first 30 seconds we saw him standing on the Vatican balcony. We had seen those same eyes before, the exultant but somehow glassy gleam in the eyes of sisters and priests wielding jackhammers to wreckovate our churches in the 1960s and 1970s, in the "no there, there" eyes of previous church-wreckers like Bernardine. Even in those first seconds, it seemed clear--to my wife and me as we looked on in horror--that he was envisioning exultantly the "I have the power" jackhammer with which he could now wreck the whole Church. Why was this not evident to anyone who counted?
https://www.catholicleague.org/washington-post-makes-false-claims/
"Here are the data on the number of clergymen (priests and deacons) who have had a credible accusation (not substantiated) made against them during the year listed."
2004....22
2005....9
2006....14
2007....4
2008....10
2009 ....6
2010....7
2011....9
2012....6
2013....9
2014....6
2015....7
2016....2
2017....6
Pax.
Mark Thomas
It is best to read critically for information and not lazily for opinion.
Henry, you're assuming that the Cardinals did not WANT this outcome. And Mark, that they are being transparent with the records.
Yes, the numbers suggest that there's probablu no safer place for minors than the Catholic Church. The whole business of "protecting the children" is just a smokescreen diversion from the massive problem of homosexual clergy. And the abuse of minors is probably the least of the damage they've done--to doctrine, liturgy, and morality.
I may have posted this before, but in case I did not.
There was a B comedy film from the 1960's called McHale's Navy Joins the Air Force. Throughout the movie, the incompetent Ensign Parker (played by Tim Conway) keeps accidentally being in the right place at the right time and continues to be promoted. The last scene of the movie shows him as President of the United States, fumbling about, not knowing how to properly use the microphone he is addressing the country with.
When Bergoglio walked out on that balcony, I immediately recalled that scene: Someone with no business holding office now occupies the highest office. The fact that he took the name Francis bothered me too--too much like what some 70's neo-hippie might choose, given the "Brother Sun Sister Mooon" version of Francis that seems so pervasive in the modern Catholic mind. Perhaps it was all instinct, but my gut told me this was going to be a hard stretch for the Church. So far, nothing has changed my mind.
Father, I know this does not belong here but I wanted you to see this. I found this on Father Z's website. Happy Thanksgiving.
"In recent weeks I recall reading here and elsewhere some encouraging speculation and projections about the numbers of vocations produced by traditional vs. non-traditional types of communities. I’ve discovered that my parish seems to support those projections. We have both the Ordinary Form and the Extraordinary Form. There are 3 OF Masses each weekend, and one EF.
Recently the parish published information about all the vocations we’ve had from our parish in the last roughly 60 years. Between the years of 1965 and 2007 we had a grand total of 3. However, in the last 10 years since our parish has added the EF, we’ve had 9 new vocations, of which 7 are from EF attending families – 1 priest, 2 brothers, and 4 sisters.
Of the two OF-produced vocations, one is a priest from a very conservative family, who now celebrates the EF himself and has allowed that to greatly influence his OF ars celebrandi.
Bear in mind that there are easily 5 times as many people attending OF Masses at our parish than EF, and yet the EF vocations outnumber them 7 to 2. If you were to assume equal numbers of people at each form, and then extrapolate the data, you’d end up with somewhere around a 15-1 preponderance in favor of the EF. Absolutely amazing.
As we know, the plural of anecdote is data. This is what I’ve been talking about and writing about for a long time. The knock on effect of the Extraordinary Form. "
"The Witch Hunt for Gay Priests?" LOL - they are out in the open, no need to hunt them down.
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