Elizabeth Lev has done a smash-up job in The Ten Commandments of Reporting on the Vatican
Make no mistake, information is power and those who wield it are accountable.Posted by Jill Fallon at February 28, 2013 12:31 PM | Permalink
1) Thou shalt leave your personal prejudices at the door. I have often seen Al Qaeda treated with more respect than Pope Benedict and the Roman Catholic Church. While you may disagree with the Church’s teaching on any number of things, there is no excuse to let your personal agenda define your coverage. In reporting on other world events, it is unthinkable to insert one’s personal ideas, so why is it acceptable when reporting on the Church? If all you can focus on is birth control, gay marriage and abortion and how the papacy should change its teaching, you should probably just go home. Whether you agree or disagree isn’t really the question. Your job is to understand and to report, to give background and help viewers and readers to get a sense of the bigger picture. Pope Benedict XVI has led the 1.2 billion members of the Catholic Church for 8 years, drawn crowds of millions in gatherings worldwide and brought a message of hope and love to the farthest reaches of the earth. The Pope’s CV is impressive to say the least, and he deserves respect.
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4) Thou shalt report, not distort. Millions are unable to follow these events in person, many more will not have the option of channel surfing or perusing myriad blogs for news. It is the responsibility of those who are present to report with clarity and accuracy. Many people deeply care about what is going on, and would be grateful for an unbiased account of this event.
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8) Thou shalt not resurrect anachronistic terminology. …. Constant reference to a sex abuse “crisis” is another expression that now makes no sense. Crisis is a critical event or a turning point. The crisis in clerical sex abuse took place in 2001, over 10 years ago. Since then the Church has instituted guidelines and screening so that from an average of 50 cases per year in the 70s and 80s there were only 7 credible accusations of abuse in 2010 out of 39,000 priests in the US. If any institution has shown the world how to turn things around, it is the Catholic Church. Talk of a “crisis” can only stem from disingenuousness or lack of imagination.
9) Thou shalt not apply ecclesiastical affirmative action. The Church is universal but doesn’t need to fill quotas. There are Catholics all over the world. Just walk into a Pontifical University and the colors, languages and cultures are as numerous and varied as Raphael’s pigments. The Church elected popes from Africa (Milziade 311-314), and Asia (John V from Syria 685-686) long before the Americas were even discovered. The idea that the Church should select a new pope merely based on skin color or somatic features is absurd and unnecessary.
10) Thou shalt not dismiss age or beauty. The Church has been around for a very long time and has weathered arrested, disgraced and murdered popes, invasions, persecutions and the complete loss of their lands. It has survived a reformation and a Risorgimento and is still here. For every disaster, the Church has produced something beautiful to show for it, whether it be a work of art, a spectacular structure or the glorious life of a saint. St Peter’s was made during the reformation, the Pietà carved during one of the most corrupt reigns of the Renaissance, and St Maximilian Kolbe flowered in the Holocaust. The Church knows that hardships come to an end, but in the moments of greatest pressure our finest diamonds are forged.