Here’s the point about press coverage. Perhaps you could call it my manifesto on the subject.
American press coverage of the papacy has had a single overriding theme for twenty-five years: the dissonance between what the Pope represents and the way American Catholics actually live their lives.
There are numerous variations of this, but that’s the essence of it.
And there is, of course, truth to that. Much truth. It’s newsworthy, certainly.
(I would suggest, though that it’s not a truth limited to the issue of contraception. Most of us don’t live our lives in total faithful response to the radical call of the Gospel. “Most American Catholics,” if you look at the way we live, certainly seem to “disagree with” Jesus Christ when it comes to that whole two coats and lilies of the field business. But somehow that’s not newsworthy. )
But I’m going to suggest that there’s more to the story, and that an over-dependence on that meme, as well as, in the present context, the “God’s Rottweiler softens his image and preaches about Jesus and stuff” meme are tired, overused and not useful for exploring the complexities and realities of this papacy and the response to it.
It’s worth talking about those who disagree with Pope Benedict. But it’s also worth, in the reporting of those differences, pushing those who disagree to account for the specifics of their reasoning, in the context of an understanding of what the role of the papacy actually is vis-a-vis Catholic teaching.
And it’s also worth – and perhaps pretty interesting – talking to those who are inspired by Pope Benedict and are learning from him: laity, religious, priests and bishops alike. Seminarians. Book-buyers. Internet-discussion participants.
I’m not saying there’s not a gap in understanding. There is. But what’s lacking is an informed, critical examination of that gap, as well as a look at the other side – who’s buying all those Pope Benedict books…and why? Who are these people who are shifting their thinking on liturgy because of what they’re reading and seeing from Pope Benedict? There are Protestants who have appreciated Pope Benedict’s theological work for decades. Who are they and what do they appreciate in him?
Throw the old template away. It’s worn out and obscures more than it clarifies. Clean out the Rolodex and replenish it with new names. Tell us something we don’t already know.
That is, I think what it’s called, isn’t it?
News?
Amy,
Way to go! Right on! Now, could you submit this as a guest column to the NY Times, LA Times, or Washington Post? Of course, the best place for this to be used would be as the basis for a skit on Saturday Night Live, since the press seems to be taking its cues from that show about its presidential race coverage.
Catholics should point out those references in the media concerning the Church that are false, incomplete or misleading, but why do we continue to have the expectation that the secular media will or must tell our story? Further, it seems to me, that the reliance of Catholics on secular institutions, such as the media, as a privileged source for information about their Faith is a curiousity that has its roots in the Church itself and it manifests our own inability to present who we are and what we are about in a straightforward, intelligible and convincing way. While the faithful are called to pour energy and resources into institutions that were effective for 19th and early 20th century models of evangelization– efforts to create contemporary Catholic media and communications outreach remains elusive. If reporting on the Church is inadequate, the enemy is not just the secular media, it is ourselves.
I’m trying to think of some stuff here that a reporter might use as a starter for a story.
German-American Catholics. I mean, pretty much everybody has a little German in them, just like pretty much everybody has a little Irish in them. The ethnic group did a lot of church building, and still is very dominant in some areas. But it’s not a group that gets much press except during Oktoberfest, or maybe a German choir. Here’s Benedict XVI hailing from Bavaria, the home of Oktoberfest, a stone’s throw from Austria, and one side of his family coming from extremely northern German-speaking bits of Italy. Maybe there’s a story here.
Ordinary young Catholics (the kind not going to seminary or planning to make a career in it) who have a thing for theology, or are really into apologetics, or who are really into evangelization. (Not necessarily overlapping.) What draws them to these intricate subjects, especially since American culture doesn’t much value them? Intellectual challenge, competitive instinct, love of God and man, or what?
Anybody else got ideas for a story you’d like to read?
…”the dissonance between what the Pope represents and the way American Catholics actually live their lives.”
Bravo, well put.
As a former non-Catholic, I can speak for myself when I say that this angle would play to my sensibilities, and what I saw around me. Growing up in Boston as a non-Catholic, surrounded by “alleged” Catholics and knowing a modicum of what their church taught, this angle of reporting would have played to my prejudice.
This is not a sales plug by any means, but one of your books advertised on your ad-bar on the right helped me piece together one of the reasons this may be the case (at least to the disconnect between what the Catholic church teaches, and how Catholics live); i.e., the Faithful Departed
For what it’s worth.
It would be easier, of course, to know the theological underpinnings of those who disagree with Benedict and JPII if a certain Cardinal Ratzinger hadn’t seen fit to get so many of them expelled from their academic positions…
“But what’s lacking is an informed, critical examination of that gap, as well as a look at the other side – who’s buying all those Pope Benedict books…and why? ”
You know, it used to be *expected* that Catholics would revere the Pope, at least acknowledge his teachings (even if they didn’t always live up to them) etc. That *some* still do is about as newsworthy as “dog bites man…”
I know most of you guys are much younger than I am. But, what is a meme? I see it very often and I really cannot find a definition and I cannot guess from the contexts. Thank you.
Meme:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meme
BobN:
Other than Father Charles Curran, could you please name the American theologians that Cardinal Ratzinger got “expelled from their academic positions”? Please, name one. If your assertion is factually correct you shouldn’t have any problem identifying the many individuals who were the supposed victims of John Paul II and Ratzinger’s actions.
As for the “theological underpinnings” of Father Curran’s disagreements with the Church, these are readily available notwithstanding his departure from the faculty at the Catholic University of America since he has continued to publish his views prodigiously since coming to SMU.
Indeed, I would venture to say that the supposed “chilling effect” on theologians that JPII and Joseph Ratzinger allegedly wrought is a sham. If there has been a crackdown it doesn’t seem to have had much effect since we still hear the same tired voices over an over again saying the the Church is wrong and must change. Although engaging in some “fraternal correction” in order to “strengthen the brethern” in the faith, as is their mandate, both John Paul and Benedict have shown enormous restraint and charity in addressing dissent.
John
John M. Breen:
Were this my field, names might come tripping off my tongue. As it’s not, I don’t know any. Judging from your post, you’re more up to date than I, so surely you know of quite a few German, Dutch, and Belgian theologians seen to the door over the last decade. The papacy isn’t out of touch with just American Catholics. (I’ve never understood the impulse to deny the obvious and intentional, even explicitly enunciated, policies of conservatives in the Church. I think what they’ve done over the decades is shameful, but you’d think supporters wouldn’t feel the need to minimize their triumph through denial.)