Saturday, April 16, 2005

Where's the Media Outrage?

"In the fourth sordid case involving city teachers this week, a Queens English instructor is under investigation for having sex with two female students, the Daily News has learned."


Throughout 2002 the papers splashed stories about priestly pedophilia on the front pages, relentlessly. This was not a bad thing and really helped to purge our Church. But why is there no equal sense of outrage at the teacher pedophilia scandal? Where are the calls for a national survey to investigate how many cases of teacher abuse has occured in schools from 1950-today?? I am seriously asking this question because I think if people were exposed to the same relentless media stories on teachers as they were on priests there would be a true purge of this problem.
I was watching Aaron Brown on CNN last night which was all about the conclave - I think Brown is smart and has done a decent job covering the Pope's sickness and death. One report showed a screenshot of The Cardinal Ratzinger Fan Club and I was delighted to see this. Unfortunately the report was on the push for Cardinals to become Pope and people might have gotten the impression the Fan Club was a site pushing for this. Christopher Blosser has done a great job with this intelligent and humorous site and now has directed the press to the FAQ to help dispel this notion. Be sure to check out the Links Page though because it is top notch, not to mention the blog. It has been wonderful to hear the praises for the "Panzerkardinal" and his excellent homily in the media. The Fan Club has probably become more well known in the past week than it has been since it started in 2000. This is great, but if there is a run on Cardinal Ratzinger Beer Steins, don't bother trying to buy mine - no matter how high the price you will have to pry it from my cold, dead hands.

Friday, April 15, 2005

I don't see it online but the headline of today's two Newsday reports from Rome was:

PAPAL CHOICE MAY TURN BACK THE CLOCK

This was over an article on how JPII centralized power in the Church and how the next Papacy will change this. Part of this is true - JPII's stature, intellect, and sheer force caused Rome to be more the focus of attention than it sometimes is meant to be. Of course since the Church was falling apart over the past 30 years a strong Papacy is just what we needed. The other "report" was about how Opus Dei may influence the election of the next Pope and how weird and secretive, rich and scary this group is. Of course mention is made of the use of mortification of the flesh. Sometimes I think Newsday should just change its name to the Anti-Papist Times.

Thursday, April 14, 2005

Fixing what's broken


"Campus ministry is broken, Father Brian Barr says, and he’s determined to fix it. "

Wednesday, April 13, 2005

Run for your lives! The John Paul II priests are exhibiting signs of piety!!
Rally Supports 3 Fired Nuns

These 3 nuns did not have their contracts renewed because the Diocese is trying to inject the New Evangelization into the campus ministry. It is unfortunate that people do not understand the mess this diocese and the Church has been in for 30 years and what needs to be done to turn things around. I don't like the idea of anyone losing their job, but these 3 nuns will not be out on the street - one of the sisters belongs to the Dominicans of Amityville. They just put up their mansion in the Hamptons for sale at $25 million. As far as the sisters feeling unappreciated in the Church, I have a suggestion:

Check out these sisters!

And these sisters!

And these sisters!

And these sisters!

These sisters are very appreciated in the Church and their communities are growing. Perhaps the fired sisters should learn from this.

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Good Priest - Bad Priest

Guide to Chinese Food at Angry Twins
Public Editor coming for Newsday

"Speaking at a meeting of the Long Island Association, Timothy P. Knight said it was critical for Newsday to create the position of ombudsman or reader's representative. "

"But sources said a leading candidate is editorial writer Bob Keeler, a veteran Newsday journalist who wrote a book about the paper's history. In 1996, he won the Pulitzer Prize for stories about a Catholic parish in Westbury."

Newsday is still suffering from the fallout from its massive circulation fraud. Having lost most of its longtime columnists and editor, the paper is still trying to repair the damage to its prestige. This paper, which has a monopoly on Long Island, has a pretty obvious liberal bias and an ombudsman would be a good move. More importantly for this blog's concerns, the paper is simply one of the most anti-Catholic in the nation. Hopefully an ombudsman would help remedy this. But if Keeler is chosen, then this will amount to placing a tissue on the top of a huge pile of horse manure. Keeler is a member of the paper's editorial board and a longtime employee. The ombudsman should be from the outside and neutral. As far as the anti-Catholicism of the paper, Keeler is a Voice of the Faithful-Call to Action-National Catholic Reporter type of Catholic so I doubt he would change anything.