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Several years ago, as the clergy sexual abuse story kicked into high gear, papal biographer George Weigel made an interesting comment about a practical reason that many top officials inside the Vatican were failing to grasp the anger of many American Catholics — especially the anger of traditionalists who usually are Rome’s strongest defenders.
There is no one correct way to write a news story, other than to tell the truth of what you’ve observed and gathered. Reporting is more an art than a science, and that was clear earlier today in how The New York Times and The Washington Post differed in their descriptions of Pope John Paul II’s funeral in St. Peter’s Square.
Is there anyone else out there who would like an update on the status of that CNN International report about the future location of the heart of Pope John Paul II? While everyone else talked about the hopes and dreams of Polish leaders, CNN posted this:
Maybe it’s just me, but I find it sort of amazing that The Daily Mail believes the following information is a hot news story. In fact, I would argue that it would have been a much more important story if the Prince and his Lady fair had elected not to recite a major-league prayer of repentance.
Damon Linker, former editor of First Things, has written a provocative (and sometimes annoying) essay on how he believes Pope John II’s moral absolutism has affected Americans’ discussions of embryonic stem-cell research and the court-sanctioned dehydration death of Terri Schiavo:
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Did Pope John Paul II have a preference, or a premonition, about who might succeed him? This is not an angle appearing in many stories about the coming papal election, but two mainstream media outlets reported it in 2003.
