took and mixed in with three measures of flour until
all of it was leavened." Matthew 13:33
From the August/September 2007 Issue
The Truth Be Told:
Catholic Media and the Need for an Independent Catholic Voice
Robert McClory
Robert McClory is Associate Professor Emeritus in the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. He is also the author of the forthcoming book "As It Was in the Beginning: The Coming Democratization of the Catholic Church."
“You shall know the truth,” says Jesus in St. John’s gospel, “and the truth shall make you free.” At this moment in history, the Catholic Church as institution is neither an advocate nor preserver of the truth. It has largely succumbed to the tactics of the spin doctors who inhabit the worlds of commerce and politics. Nowhere is this more evident than in the official voice of the church in this country – in its public relations statements, in its radio and television presence and especially in its diocesan press. Do not look for balance here. Look not for integrity or fair mindedness either.
In this captive situation there is one voice, issuing Pravda-like declarations and wallowing in the majesty and triumphalism of the hierarchy. For many diocesan newspapers (there are a handful of exceptions) the one interesting personality is the local bishop – where he’s been, where he’s going, what he thinks. In one issue of a certain diocesan paper I see with regularity, I found the bishop’s name mentioned 12 times on the first three pages, along with four photos of his excellency. Not too far behind in these publications is the pope –where’s he’s been, where he’s going, what he thinks.
Rarely is there any analysis of what bishop or pope is saying, and God forbid that any criticism of church leadership should creep into a story. Dissent, even on matters that are not essential to the faith, is treated as gravely wrong. And when some issue of disagreement or some scandal cannot simply be ignored, it is dismissed as overblown and often blamed on the “anti-Catholic secular” press.
Meanwhile, the church press makes feverish efforts to revive old Catholic devotions as central to Catholic piety: the rosary, stations of the cross, Eucharistic adoration. This is accompanied by an emphasis on visions, miraculous cures, prophecies and holy people with stigmata. Often mentioned is the unsubstantiated assertion that this is what “faithful” Catholics want, especially young Catholics. When I open the diocesan press or listen to a station on the Relevant Radio network (subsidized by the U.S. bishops) or watch Mother Angelica’s EWTN network, even for a minute or two, that is what I encounter. And I want to shout, “Stop it! This is not the church I belong to.”
Given these bizarre conditions, the importance of an independent Catholic voice cannot be stressed too much. At the national level, the National Catholic Reporter and Commonweal magazine try to meet this need. Though not independent, America and US Catholic magazines also contribute. At the local or regional area a handful of publications also present an alternative view. For example, American Catholic, a quarterly published in Connecticut has long served this role in the New England area. Leaven, in the Rocky Mountain region, has been doing the same thing. But given their small budgets, limited readership, and complaints from “faithful” Catholics, independent publishers, editors and writers can become discouraged.
I think it is important that they and their readers do not throw in the towel. The most important reason is this: The church of Vatican I – the top-down, authoritarian, rigidly centralized church – is in its final stages. We live, I firmly believe, in the era of the Last Hurrah. That church, as it is, can no longer command blind obedience and unquestioned loyalty for the simple reason that people know too much; they see through pretense and bluff. That is, of course, why so many are leaving the church today.
What’s needed then are robust, informed, stubborn Catholics who won’t leave, who realize that so much that blows out of the Vatican and issues from the canned church press represents a kind of desperate thrashing around to force people to think like they used to. I can think of no better example of this thrashing than the Vatican statement in July declaring that the Catholic Church is the only true church and that Protestant churches don’t even deserve to be called churches. What’s needed are grounded people who love the church of the gospels, not the walled up citadel it appears to be.
This is where the independent press can serve in these times. It is a Catholic press that does not have all the answers. But it is a press that struggles with tradition, faith and reason, examines problems honestly with input from the local level and probes what lies ahead. It is the sort of press much needed today. And that is the truth.