Terry Mattingly

That Catholic ghost at Notre Dame of Maryland

Time for a brief trip into tmatt’s massive folder of GetReligion guilt, that niche in which I stash mainstream news stories — good and bad — that catch my attention but then get trampled in the rush to react to bigger stories. This time around, I think that this particular story deserves late attention, not because it is of massive importance, but because it represents another example of the struggle at The Baltimore Sun to recognize that the Roman Catholic Church is a big, complicated institution and that it is often important to talk to a variety of Catholics to find out what is going on.


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Why keep interviewing men on women's issues?

It was another Roe v. Wade anniversary and, as usual, the protestors on both sides of the debate were out in force on the grounds of the Colorado state Capitol. Both sides, of course, had their designated spokespersons who were available to talk to the press. This happened year after year.


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A few quick, necessary facts about Mia Love of Utah

One of the things that your GetReligionistas keep saying — to the point of aggravating many readers — is that it is often possible for journalists to spot and define a religion ghost quite easily, using relatively few lines of type in this post-USA Today journalistic world in which we live.


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"Islamists" (whatever that means) win in Egypt

As regular GetReligion readers will know, I have — for quite some time now — curious about what the word “Islamist” means when it is used in mainstream news coverage of the Islam, either in lands that are majority Muslim or those that are not. In other words, does “Islamist” mean one thing in Cairo and another thing in Detroit?


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Another unbalanced Sun report on Lori? Check

Up front, I sort of feel the need to apologize for posting on what is essentially the same topic that the Divine Mrs. M.Z. Hemingway covered earlier today.


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Whither goeth all of those former Catholics?

Sometimes, your GetReligionistas come across mainstream religion-news stories that leave us saying, “That was kind of good, but that left me wanting more.” As if that mixed message wasn’t confusing enough, the truth is that some of these stories may leave one of us “wanting more,” in a good sense, or “wanting more” in a bad sense. Some cause us to feel both ways at the same time.


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