Religion is hot news because Pope Benedict XVI is coming to the United States next week. He’ll be accompanied by a deluge of news media cliches and ignorance about the papacy, his relations with Catholics and non-Catholics and just about anything else that can be attributed to or blamed on the bishop of Rome.
That provoked Peter Steinfels, one of the smartest commentators on institutional religion today. His recent New York Times column anticipates a lot of silliness around Benedict’s visit. This is my favorite quote: “Breathlessness is always a problem with papal visits. The trouble with melodrama is that it displaces genuine drama. Caricature replaces character.”
Enquirer readers probably will be at the mercy of news services and syndicated columnists. We’ll be fortunate if the Associated Press assigns Dick Ostling, the Gold Standard among religion reporters. The Times also has serious, informed reporters who cover religion.
I hope the Enquirer staff remembers that most Tristate residents are not Catholics and that it’s advocacy, not reporting, when a secular daily calls the pope “His Holiness” or “Holy Father” when it’s not a direct quote.
The Enquirer has chosen not to have a religion reporter in a time when religion often plays a central role in public discourse and policy and private lives. I’m not alone in this lamentation.
Enquirer Business Editor Carolyn Picone produced a smart column on religion on a Sunday business cover page. She rightly identified the lack of religion coverage as an institutional weakness and wisely asked colleague Peter Bronson for why this might be so.
I agree with Picone and Bronson, adding demonstrably wilfull ignorance and dismissive contempt for believers as explanations for this lamentable but easily rectified Enquirer failing.
Curmudgeon Notes:
This article appears in Apr 9-15, 2008.
