Tuesday, March 16, 2010

The ranting rubbish...

...of The Times on the subject of the Catholic Church is getting beyond gross. The poor author of today's bizarre rant sounds as though she is slightly drunk. What's the motive here? Does she think she is going to fulfil the 19th-century anti-Catholic bigots' dream, and "crush the evil Church of Rome"? What fantasies does she cherish?

4 comments:

UKViewer said...

Joanna,

The Church is going through a torrid time with the media - I regret to see it treated in this way, always on the back foot, and apparently, having to refute stuff, after the event.

Common decency should allow allegations to be put to the church to answer before publication, but common decency is obviously absent in some media.

Even as a former member of the RC Church, I do not believe this level of abuse can be fair, and a lot of it is accusation, without an the benefit of the evidence being examined and tried

The Church will be in my prayers - as I think it needs it at the moment.

RichardH said...

I was brought up in the traditional Church of England: I was for many years agnostic but am now increasingly drawn to the Catholic Church.

I do not think that members of the Church should be too downhearted at all the obloquy in the press: it has certainly not had a discouraging effect on me and will, I am sure, pass fairly soon.

The Catholic Church is one of the very few remaining institutions that is today a source of moral philosophy in a determinedly secular and self-destructive society.

I am moving slowly towards seeking reception into the Church but would like to talk to an English speaking priest. I live in France and my French is good but there are some subtle philosophical points that I should like to discuss that might be beyond me in a language other than English.

Take heart, all will I am sure be well.

Geoff Callister said...

Joanna,
Your readers may be interested in the following which I posted today on the Facebook Group: "Catholics Who Condemn the Media's Recent Treatment of the Pope", at:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=365801888885

'The sole raison d’etre of newspapers is to make a profit, and the one thing they’re scared of is falling circulation. So - all we have to do, besides not buying The Times ourselves, is to suggest the same to everyone in our e-mail address lists. In addition, we persuade as many friends as possible to join this Facebook group, and for each of them to suggest that all of their friends stop buying it as well. The numbers could quickly be in the hundreds of thousands: after all there are over 6 million Catholics in the UK, and I cant imagine any of them buying it once they’re aware of the true situation. My Catholic friends are incandescent about it.'

It’s true that other newspapers have been running these stories recently but theirs is just an ephemeral, band-wagon effect (apart from the dear old Guardian which has always been a lost cause for Catholics). The Times, on the other hand, appears to have been running a focussed, malevolent anti-Catholic campaign now for 2 years: look at their on-line archives.
This technique worked against The Sun when Liverpool readers boycotted it over its similarly fictitious Hillsborough coverage, resulting in a public apology!

Just another mad Catholic said...

Dear Joanna

Ruth Glendhill can't tell her transubstatiation from her crucifix, and when it comes to defending the Church Lord Rees-Mog is as effective as a catflap in an elephent house.

On the brightside it seems that the Rev. George Pitcher of COFE has a soft spot for the Church as evidenced by his comments on the Telegraph website and our brother Damien is also quite the attack dog :)

Best from Bristol
Jack