On Sunday's CNN Newsroom, Susan Candiotti slanted toward the liberal opponents of the Catholic Archdiocese of Cincinnati's updated morality clause for its schoolteachers. Candiotti played up how the "new contract now has a litany of thou-shall-nots, including no sex outside marriage; no in-vitro fertilization; no remarriage without an annulment; no homosexual 'lifestyle;' and no public support of any of those."
The correspondent sympathized with the plight of one teacher who is "walking away from her dream job after 14 years," due to the archdiocese's "morality clause on steroids," which reemphasizes the Catholic Church's teachings on sex: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
Catholic Church
By Matthew Balan | June 2, 2014 | 4:43 PM EDT
By Matthew Balan | May 12, 2014 | 2:50 PM EDT
On Sunday, the Washington Post's Anthony Faiola spotlighted how Pope Francis is supposedly "the most old school of any pope since at least Paul VI" with regard to his consistent teaching on the Devil. Faiola underlined that "Francis has not only dwelled far more on Satan in sermons and speeches than his recent predecessors have, but also sought to rekindle the Devil's image as a supernatural entity with the forces of evil at his beck and call."
The liberal newspaper's London bureau chief also pointed out how the pontiff "praised a group long viewed by some as the crazy uncles of the Roman Catholic Church — the International Association of Exorcists," much to the dismay of dissenting Catholics inside the Church who want to downplay or deny the existence of Satan:
If a Koran-Burning Threat in Florida Was Major National News, Why Isn't a Satanic 'Black Mass' at Harvard?
By Tim Graham | May 10, 2014 | 12:31 PM EDT
Isn't a Satanic Mass at Harvard as national a news story as a potential Koran burning in Jacksonville? Just before the 9-11 anniversary in 2010, pastor Terry Jones – who they mocked for having a congregation of 30 even as they treated him as hugely influential – threatened to burn a Koran, drawing a major media uproar, even a TV question to the president.
Catholic bloggers and CNSNews.com reported the story on Thursday and Friday that a Harvard student group is planning a “black Mass” on Monday, a satanist event designed to mock the Catholic church. Other than two mentions on “The Five” on Fox News Channel, the national media is AWOL. Journalists think...hey, Catholics don’t threaten to kill people and riot over it.
By Matthew Balan | May 5, 2014 | 12:27 PM EDT
John Heilprin of the Associated Press played up how the Catholic Church supposedly "sought to limit its responsibility for the global priest sex abuse scandal" in front of a United Nations committee on torture. Heilprin repeatedly underlined how the Holy See underwent a "grilling" by the UN panel for allegedly violating an "international treaty against torture and inhuman treatment" in its handling of the scandal.
However, the correspondent glossed over the committee's ideologically-tinged slam of the Church's longstanding stance against abortion, which it labeled "psychological torture." By contrast, Reuters' Philip Pullella and Stephanie Nebehay mentioned this attack near the end of their Monday report on the meeting:
By Brent Bozell | May 3, 2014 | 9:15 AM EDT
Buyer beware those promising a “Catholic education.”
St. Mary’s Institute (SMI) is the Catholic grade school in my wife’s New York hometown, Amsterdam. It is affiliated with St. Mary’s Catholic Church, whose pastor Father John Medwid pens the opening to the Saint Mary’s Institute annual newsletter.
By Matthew Balan | April 28, 2014 | 7:57 PM EDT
ABC, CBS, and NBC spotlighted the issue of child sex abuse by priests on their Saturday morning and evening newscasts – twenty-four hours or less before the Catholic Church canonized Popes John XXIII and John Paul II. CBS and NBC both uncritically turned to the president of Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), but didn't mention her controversial affiliations with prominent anti-Catholics.
CBS and ABC also hyped how "some of the faithful have complained the canonization process was fast-tracked." ABC's Terry Moran even inserted some slanted labeling of the Catholic practice of venerating the relics of saints on Saturday's World News, and wondered if modern people could relate to the Church's examples of holiness: [MP3 audio from the networks' reporting available here; video below the jump]
By Dave Pierre | April 1, 2014 | 10:34 PM EDT
In a newly released annual audit of abuse by independent experts, it was reported that there were only ten contemporaneous abuse allegations made against priests even deemed "credible" in all of 2013 (out of some 40,000 active priests) and that the "fewest allegations and victims" ever were tabulated since annual reports were first compiled in 2004.
This is obviously good news. But predictably, the mainstream media is notably silent about this very positive report, even though in years past when the numbers were less encouraging, the media fell over themselves to breathlessly report any unflattering statistics which they could dig up.
By Tim Graham | March 27, 2014 | 9:04 AM EDT
As the media boosted President Obama's meeting with Pope Francis on Thursday morning, none have noticed how the reportedly weekly-Mass-attending Vice President Joe Biden made remarks in Los Angeles at a "Human Rights Campaign" event last Saturday night. Biden expressed disbelief and outrage that anyone's still taking Catholic teaching on sexuality seriously in this modern age.
The gay newspaper The Washington Blade reported Biden used words like "close to barbaric" to describe the present system of religious liberty -- the notion that a religious employer doesn't have to hire (and can fire) gay activists. Biden even said "the world -- God willing -- is beginning to change." He then cited Pope Francis (out of context) saying "who are we to judge?" (video below)
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By Mark Finkelstein | March 24, 2014 | 9:15 AM EDT
Jimmy Carter has blamed the Catholic and Southern Baptist churches for the abuse of women around the world. According to Carter, men around the world use the doctrine of those churches on the role of women as justification for abusing women.
Appearing on Monday's Morning Joe, the former president said: "with the writing of St. Paul, you can selectively take verses out of the Bible and you can justify women not being able to be priests and so forth, so the Catholic church and the Southern Baptist Convention and others quite often say well women are not qualified to have an equal role in the service of God as men. And of course men all over the world take this as kind of a proof that they can abuse their wives or pay less pay, you know?" View the video after the jump.
By Kyle Drennen | March 14, 2014 | 2:50 PM EDT
NBC, ABC, and CBS marked the one-year anniversary of Pope Francis being elected leader of the Catholic Church with positive stories about the Pontiff's personal style while impatiently pleading for him to reject the moral values he swore to uphold. [Listen to the audio or watch the video after the jump]
On Thursday's NBC Today, correspondent Anne Thompson summed up a discussion she had with a group of students at Loyola University by proclaiming: "Now, these young Catholics don't expect change on the divisive issues of contraception, gay marriage, or abortion. But they are thrilled that that's not all the Pope talks about." She added that they were happy avoiding such social issues and "getting back to the original message of Jesus Christ."
By Matthew Balan | March 13, 2014 | 6:48 PM EDT
MSNBC's Ronan Farrow marked the one-year anniversary of the election of Pope Francis on Thursday by browbeating the Catholic Church for supposedly thwarting the fight against AIDS in the developing world, and for the Church's apparent lack of action in stopping genocide. Farrow played up how "Church social policies often fly in the face of skyrocketing HIV rates," and bemoaned how "the Church does still ban contraception in those places. Is that costing lives?"
The neophyte TV host asked one of his priest guests, "You don't think that it's irresponsible, given the emphasis on mercy and the preservation of life, that there's not more leeway on that doctrine?" He also played up how "brutal conflicts in countries with significant Catholic populations demand attention that some say the Church is failing to provide," and faulted the Church for its apparent inaction during the genocide in Rwanda almost 20 years ago: [MP3 audio available here; video below the jump]
In AARP Magazine, Actress Susan Sarandon Parades Her 'Social Consciousness,' While Aging Hipsters Became 'Landed Gentry'
By Tim Graham | February 9, 2014 | 7:18 AM EST
Left-wing actress Susan Sarandon is 67 and on the cover of the new edition of AARP Magazine. We learn that while her mom is a staunch Republican, her siblings “run the gamut” in their politics.
"I have come to believe firmly in nature," Sarandon says. "We had the same parents, but everyone's very different." The liberal magazine reports “She cannot pinpoint the reason for her social consciousness.” As a girl, she was redistributing the wealth with dolls: