| Pope, cardinal falsely maligned | | | 2010-08-27 | | TORONTO, Aug. 25, 2010 - The departure to Rome of Cardinal Ouellet, Canada’s most senior churchman and a good friend of the League, was marked by some good press reports (Post, Aug. 19, Register, Aug. 23) but also by some cynical observations about the sex abuse scandal and the need to revise the celibacy requirement for priests. In response, the League pointed out that all factual evidence suggests that celibacy is not a factor in sexual abuse, and that both the cardinal and the pope have pledged themselves to greater openness in addressing the problem. The Pope and sex abuse, National Post, August 25.... | | Vatican document sparks biased response | | | 2010-07-29 | | TORONTO, July 29, 2010 - As we mentioned in a membership message July 16, The Vatican recently released updated guidelines on the handling of several issues in Church governance, including improvements to the management of allegations of the sexual abuse of minors. Because the wide-ranging document discussed the integrity of the sacraments, it also reiterated the penalties and sanctions for the attempted ordination of women. (Here are links to a detailed report from Catholic World News, and interviews by Charles Lewis, religion editor of the National Post representing two viewpoints.) While some twinning of the two topics in the public mind is understandable, given their appearance in a single document, some of the media lost no time in helping to create the impression that the Church considers sexual abuse and the ordination of women to be of equal gravity in a general sense, rather than in the strictly-defined sense of sacramental integrity. We are presently supporting several member... | | Comedy series about Jesus said to be in the works | | | 2010-05-08 | | CCRL membership message, May 7, 2010 - Comedy Central, the US comedy network whose programs often make their way to Canada on the Comedy Network, announced Thursday it has a cartoon series about Jesus Christ in the works. "JC" is one of 23 potential series the network said it has in development. It reportedly depicts Christ as a "regular guy" who moves to New York to "escape his father's enormous shadow." This Reuters article has more information, including details about the network’s comparative reticence about insulting other religions. As the article notes, most TV proposals never become complete series, but in this case some letters of concern could help make sure it doesn’t happen. Comedy Central’s CEO, Doug Herzog, can be reached at doug.herzog@comedycentral.com.... | | Focus on help, not blame, says League | | | 2010-03-31 | | TORONTO, March 31, 2010 - The only reaction any decent person could have to the abuse scandal is a determination to prevent such things from happening again, and to offer whatever help is available to the victims. Considerable progress has been made on these priorities in recent years, especially in Canada.Cases of abuse in the Church tend to get a lot more coverage than cases occurring elsewhere, even though all institutions serving youth experience the problem at about the same rate. Nevertheless, we can hardly blame the media for the abuse scandal. The problem is that there is too much focus on the blame game, and little or nothing on the needs of victims. Much of the anonymous commentary on online message boards suffers from the same preoccupation.In the commentators' zeal to tar the entire Church with the misdeeds of a minority, there's plenty of vindictiveness and no shortage of self-righteousness, but little sign of concern for the victims. - Joanne McGarry, Le... | | League criticizes unfair media coverage of sex abuse scandal | | | 2010-03-20 | | TORONTO, March 20, 2010 – The Catholic Civil Rights League today commented on the misleading coverage that some Canadian media are providing on the emerging reports of sex abuse in Church institutions in Europe. A March 18 report by Christopher Hitchens in the National Post, while more vitriolic and one-sided than most, is not out of keeping with what can be found in other Canadian newspapers. The Star, for example, headlined a March 15 report “Priest close to Pope suspended in sexual assault case,” even though the accompanying wire story gave no indication the two had ever met. Hitchens' remarks about the Vatican’s “steady complicity” in an “endless scandal” are not warranted by the record, in that most analysts credit Pope Benedict with breaking the silence that too often surrounded allegations in the past, extending public apologies and insisting on a zero-tolerance policy toward the offenders. The most reliable estimates o... | | Insist on level playing field for advertising | | | 2010-02-26 | | (From our February, 2010 newsletter)Thanks to the efforts of so many, including our membership, the pro-life advertisement featuring Tim Tebow went ahead on The Super Bowl as scheduled. While various broadcast advertising regulations blocked it in Canada, it can be viewed on many websites, including that of Focus on the Family. A survey shows that the ad had many benefits for viewers. Earlier this month, we encouraged our BC membership to ask TV station CHBC to reconsider its decision to pull an advertisement from Kelowna Right to Life. While the station has run pro-life ads in the past, it found this one too strong. As of this writing, its decision has not changed.League letter protesting the use of a picture of a frog nailed to a cross: Feb. 6 The National Post. Interesting article: Catholic Church suing Columbia pictures over use of Christ statue in apocalypse movie 2012, Agence France-Presse, Feb. 25.Let the League know: Articles, cartoons and advertising that you believe have anti... | | Misleading headlines, serious biases challenged | | | 2009-12-30 | | From the current (December, 2009) edition of our newsletter Civil Rights:Much of the media overkill and anti-Catholic bias that we have seen in print and on message boards in the past few months was focused on the charges against Raymond Lahey, former bishop of Antigonish, of possession of child pornography. The League does not comment on current charges that have yet to be heard in court. However, we do as much as we can to insist on a facts-based approach to news and particularly headline writing in the reporting of this case. Several headlines have been changed as a result of this effort, including on cbc.ca. At the height of the reporting, some message boards were closed down, but this was mainly for legal reasons.Macleans article draws responseAs Civil Rights was being prepared, Macleans Magazine (Dec. 7/09) ran a cover feature entitled “The Truth About Priests” which, while it mentioned the Lahey case, focused more generally on the fact that, according to all statisti... | | Media Monitoring and Anti-defamation Centre | | | 2009-11-23 | |
CCRL is involved with a variety of activities to combat anti-Catholic content in the media, and to work with media representatives to help secure a fair hearing for Catholic positions on issues of public debate. We are in regular contact with all national media through our press releases and our frequent interviews and articles about current issues. We believe that providing reliable information and constructive dialogue is the best way to ensure that our voice is heard.
Although much of this section is devoted to steps our members can take when they feel the Church has been unfairly criticized or demeaned in the media, the League also encourages its supporters to write a letter, send an e-mail or make a phone call in thanks for a particularly good program or article. Offensive, anti-Catholic bias does occur in many media outlets, but there are still some excellent programs and publications out there and they deserve our support. Catholic media outl... |
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