Inside
NCR Of
news, editorials and waiting for George
The article about various fissures
at Franciscan University of Steubenville, Ohio, is not a typical NCR cover
story, as if there were such a thing.
Because many observers, using the contentious argot of our times,
regard NCR as liberal and Steubenville as conservative,
this may be a suitable occasion to make a further distinction: between
reporting and editorializing.
We at the National Catholic Reporter have, we believe, one of the
most loyal readerships ever assembled. This, readers constantly indicate, is
not only because of said liberal stance but because we report the news as
fairly and fully as we can, good news or bad, without fear or favor -- people
want to know whats happening and want to be able to trust the messenger.
If we let them down betimes, our readers are kind enough to assume we are
working to get it right.
This reporting of the news should be distinguished from our
editorials or other opinions. We try at the same time to open our pages to a
wide variety of views.
Now back to Steubenville. Within the institutional church this
little school has a significance out of proportion to its size. Several heavy
hitters from the Vatican have gone out of their way to praise it as a model of
Catholic education and even to visit or lecture there. While it might not be
NCRs model school, every effort was made to be fair and to give
Steubenvilles leadership an opportunity to respond.
Author John Allen says he received generally good cooperation from
the university. During a three-day visit in mid-January, media relations
officers helped him connect with most of the people he wanted to see -- though
it should be noted that PR staff sat in on his interviews (except the ones they
didnt know about).
We were unsuccessful in our efforts to interview three key
figures, perhaps understandably: Third Order Franciscan Fr. Thomas Bourque,
whose orthodoxy was put under a microscope when he was tapped as Scanlans
successor; Fr. Edmund Carroll, Bourques provincial superior and chair of
the universitys board; and Professor Mark Miravalle, whose interest in
Marian revelation was flagged by some sources as an area of concern. In each
case Allen left repeated phone messages, e-mails and faxes, to no avail.
Chicagos Cardinal Francis
George has been a conspicuous presence in our recent letters pages (Dec. 17 and
Jan. 28 issues, for example). We are happy to make room for him, but his
letters leave me personally puzzled. They seem to indicate that George is eager
to share his views with our readers. Yet, as we prepared the stories to which
his letters refer, the cardinal declined repeated requests for interviews. At
first his spokesperson would get back to us with the refusal, but eventually he
stopped bothering to pass along the cardinals regrets.
It seems to me the cardinals highly commendable yen for
accuracy would have been better served had he given us the benefit of his views
in the first place. If this were a presidential campaign one would be tempted
to call this tactic putting a spin on prickly stories, but everyone knows a
prince of the church wouldnt stoop to that.
Dont worry, Cardinal, well still publish your
letters.
In response to Pamela
Schaeffers article on abortion in our Jan. 21 issue, several people have
asked for more information on the Seamless Garment Network. Their address is
P.O. Box 792, Garner, N.C. 27529.
In his recent Navajo article, Roads less traveled
(Jan. 21 issue), Arthur Jones mentioned that when one of their most prominent
medicine men, Frank Mitchell, climbed the sacred mountains to gather the
requisite plants and herbs, he was naked. In the interests of propriety we wish
to amend that to half-naked.
And while were setting the record straight: Those who were
fascinated by our interview with New Zealand Fr. Jim Consedine and his views on
restorative justice, headlined A call for prisoner amnesty (Dec.
31-Jan. 7 issue), should note his correct e-mail address: jimconse@xtra.co.nz
I mentioned here two weeks ago that
a certain school of thought attributed the amazing football success of the St.
Louis Rams to the fact that the pope offered Mass in their Trans World Dome a
year ago.
A letter from Melanie Zuercher countered: Its only
fair to point out that the Rams have not lost a game in the Trans World Dome
since the Mennonites were there for their major convention in July.
Furthermore, she warned, the next big Mennonite convention would be in
Nashville, home of the Tennessee Titans, so its obvious that even
the promise of a visit from the Mennonites is enough to inspire
winning football. The Titans narrowly lost the Super Bowl.
At first Zuercher was shy about using her name -- we
Mennonites are so darn humble sometimes -- but with such a track (or
football) record its hard to be humble.
Meanwhile, the media had it that the famous Pink Nuns, who won
acclaim by praying for, and securing, glorious weather when the pope visited
St. Louis, had now applied their prayer power to the winning Rams. As Aristotle
or Yogi Berra said, failure may be an orphan, but success has many parents.
-- Michael Farrell
National Catholic Reporter, February 11,
2000
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