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An editor recently asked me to write about some issues related to the Roman Catholic sex abuse problem. I had a wonderful time interviewing over one dozen experts. They spoke from a variety of perspectives — people extremely upset with particular church policies and doctrines and people who thought the problems arose out of failure to adhere to church doctrine.
During the past few days, your GetReligionistas have received at least two dozen notes asking if we had heard the news about Julia Duin losing her job at the Washington Times. Yes, I’ve been in contact with Julia a number of times during the past several weeks, but I will keep those private communications to myself.
For a few months now, mainstream media outlets have been attempting to tie Pope Benedict XVI to a cover-up of the clerical sex abuse scandal that plagued the Roman Catholic Church. The claims themselves haven’t made the case. In fact, those reporters most knowledgeable of the Vatican situation, such as John Allen, say that Benedict has done more than anyone else to improve how the church handles abuse cases.
Can you imagine the topics of conversation at the dinner table in the Burke household in Baltimore? My guess is that Pope Benedict XVI, the Dalai Lama and Billy Graham come up on occasion.
That sound you heard yesterday from here in Beltwayland was a giant, collective sigh. Here’s the top of the obligatory Washington Post piece, which ran on A1 instead of in the Style pages:
The way I see it, Rupert Murdoch is, all by himself, one of the most interesting puzzles in all of journalism.
As Gulf Coast residents deal with the worst oil spill in U.S. history, The Washington Post reports that — surprise, surprise — some people are finding comfort in prayer.
There are two sad elements to this story from the Los Angeles Times, titled “Gaveling for God: Christian lawyers seek judgeships in move that could blur church-state line.”
As I was working throughout the early hours of Monday morning, I had a front-row seat to the unbelievably tragic conflict unfolding in the Mediterranean Sea between Israeli commandos and pro-Palestinian activists. Except that most of the networks were limited by the holiday and the wee hours. That meant I was getting a lot of information by searching the flotilla hashtag on Twitter. What popped up was a fascinating mix of heartbreak, passionate outrage, shocking anti-Semitism and information of varying veracity.
