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This, dear readers, is what the editors of The Palm Beach Post think of the religion beat and any traditional Catholic and Christian readers who remain on their subscription lists.
As one would expect, the best newspaper in Florida is continuing to cover the Terri Schiavo case, even as the national and global media focus on events at the Vatican. Here is a direct link to The St. Petersburg Times website dedicated to the life and death of Terri. The news for today is that the precise location of her body and its immediate fate remain unknown. There also is a roundup of clergy views on the case, most of which are pro-life, and, from recent coverage, a profile of the other woman in Michael Schiavo’s life. As the pope story grows, this link is the one to keep for the aftermath of the Schiavo drama.
For those following the post-Christian Science Monitor Iraq story, Robert F. Worth of The New York Times has a new wrinkle. There is another sign that the Sunni leaders are not united, and what a symbolic sign it is — a group of clerics have urged their followers to join the Iraqi police. The key: “The edict, signed by 64 imams and religious scholars, was a striking turnaround for the clerics, who have often lashed out in sermons at the fledgling army and police force and branded them collaborators. Prominently missing from the signers was Harith al-Dari, the leader of the Association of Muslim Scholars and one of the most influential Sunni Arab clerics in Iraq, who is said to have close ties to the insurgency. Still, the directive, which carried the signature of Ahmed Hassan al-Taha, an imam at an important Baghdad mosque who has been a strong critic of the occupation, seemed to represent a significant step.”
As we continue to wait and watch, I wanted to note a few sites that are collecting online reporters’ resources linked to the life and work of Pope John Paul II.
The St. Petersburg Times‘ detailed report on Terri Schiavo’s final hours is elegant and rigorously balanced. The article, which appears under a five-person byline, is a moving account of the grief felt by Michael Schiavo and his brother, by Terri’s siblings and parents and by the protesters who have demonstrated outside the Pinellas Park hospice.
Bad news from Rome. The pope’s urinary tract infection produced a fever that was serious enough that he was administered the last rites. This was, of course not the first time that he had been administered the sacrament of the anointing of the sick, and I went to bed last night with the happy news that he had stabilized.
Earlier today, I tried to post a link to the very first New York Times article on the death of Terri Schiavo. However, the server locked up and I lost it. I did, however, save the URL for later.
Scott Gold of the Los Angeles Times is the first mainstream reporter on the story about a new order of priests to be called Missionaries of the Gospel of Life. The order will devote the majority of its efforts to resisting abortion and euthanasia through political organizing.
Howard Kurtz is already up with a roundup of the final media issues in the Terri Schiavo case. Lots of links to people on the right as well as the left, but the emphasis once again is on the pundits. It you want another blast of the “I know what Terri Schiavo would have wanted” opinion, then by all means click here and read it. I expect more and more coverage now on the pope’s feeding tube as the press moves on to the next story. Reporter Daniel Williams at The Washington Post is already listening to the Catholic debates and, no surprise, finds that some are already not-so-gently asking if this pope is being a good Catholic at this moment. The key: Please help GetReligion spot the good and the bad in the hard news coverage in the next 48 hours or so. Let us hear from you.
