When Critics Help Institutions
In both the U.S. and Europe, the scandal was dug up and made famous by the press. This has aroused resentment among church leaders, who this week accused journalists of spreading “gossip,” of going into “attack mode” and showing “bias.”
But this is not true, or to the degree it is true, it is irrelevant. All sorts of people have all sorts of motives, but the fact is that the press—the journalistic establishment in the U.S. and Europe—has been the best friend of the Catholic Church on this issue. Let me repeat that: The press has been the best friend of the Catholic Church on the scandals because it exposed the story and made the church face it. The press forced the church to admit, confront and attempt to redress what had happened. The press forced them to confess. The press forced the church to change the old regime and begin to come to terms with the abusers. The church shouldn’t be saying j’accuse but thank you.
True.
“The church shouldn’t be saying j’accuse but thank you.”
True, in some cases. And in some cases the Church is saying thank you.
That said … when all is said, and truly said, regarding (a) grievous past and ongoing issues in the Church, including at the diocesan level and even failures in the Vatican, (b) the Church’s greater responsibility, by virtue of her own charter, to meet a higher standard of behavior and integrity than other institutions such as public schools, © the unhelpfulness of defensive and self-justifying responses when accountability and corrective action are called for, and (d) the legitimate and necessary role of the press in bringing long-hidden realities to light — and, going further, (e) the importance of the press pursuing the truth even at the cost of sometimes erring on the side of excessive zeal against church leaders, and (f) the duty of forebearance on church leaders who might sometimes find themselves the objects of excessive zeal, and the necessity of responding moderately and constructively to any such excessive zeal in the interest of moving forward on the larger issues …
…it remains the case that members of the press have at times erred, and erred seriously, in pursuing a critique of the Church, at times neither for legitimate journalistic motives nor in accordance with minimal standards of journalistic integrity. When and where that is the case, without in any way exculpating responsible church leaders, attempting to change the subject or implying moral parity or parity of victimhood, the press deserves to be regarded critically.
— SDG · Apr 5, 08:41 PM · #