BENEDICT XVI: NEWS, PAPAL TEXTS, PHOTOS AND COMMENTARY

Father Z, of course, has taken to call the NCReporter, the Fishwrap.

Kansas City bishop says
National Catholic Reporter
undermines Church teaching


Kansas City, MISSOURI, Jan 25, 2013 (CNA) - Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City-Saint Joseph announced his discouragement that the National Catholic Reporter has failed to live up to the “Catholic” portion of its name.

“In light of the number of recent expressions of concern, I have a responsibility as the local bishop to instruct the Faithful about the problematic nature of this media source which bears the name 'Catholic,'” he wrote in his Jan. 25 column for his diocesan paper, “The Catholic Key”.

His comments on the National Catholic Reporter came in the context of World Communications Day, held on Jan. 24. He noted that the day is celebrated then as it is the the feast of Saint Francis de Sales, patron of journalists and the Catholic press.

Bishop Finn reflected on the role bishops play in fostering Catholic media, and their responsibility over local media for the promotion and protection of the faith.

The bishop noted that he is well-pleased with The Catholic Key and its staff, who “use the paper to teach Catholic doctrine, to provide trustworthy reflections on issues that take place in our culture, and to provide stories of apostolic life and work – particularly from our local diocese – that inspire us to live our Catholic faith more fully.”

Bishop Finn said he is similarly happy with the Catholic radio station located in the diocese, KEXS 1090, for helping Catholics to “know and live their faith.”

In contrast to these positive, faithful Catholic media outlets located in the Kansas City-Saint Joseph diocese, Bishop Finn examined the National Catholic Reporter.

“I have received letters and other complaints about NCR from the beginning of my time here,” said Bishop Finn, who was consecrated the diocese's coadjutor in May, 2004.

He continued, “In the last months I have been deluged with emails and other correspondence from Catholics concerned about the editorial stances of the Reporter: officially condemning Church teaching on the ordination of women, insistent undermining of Church teaching on artificial contraception and sexual morality in general, lionizing dissident theologies while rejecting established Magisterial teaching, and a litany of other issues.”

He noted that the problem of the National Catholic Reporter did not start under his time as bishop.

“Bishop Charles Helmsing in October of 1968 issued a condemnation of the National Catholic Reporter and asked the publishers to remove the name 'Catholic' from their title – to no avail. From my perspective, NCR’s positions against authentic Church teaching and leadership have not changed trajectory in the intervening decades.”

He noted that early on in his time as bishop he asked that the Reporter “submit their bona fides as a Catholic media outlet in accord with the expectations of Church law.”

“They declined to participate,” he wrote, “indicating that they considered themselves an 'independent newspaper which commented on 'things Catholic.'' At other times, correspondence has seemed to reach a dead end.”

Bishop Finn wrote that “While I remain open to substantive and respectful discussion with the legitimate representatives of NCR, I find that my ability to influence the National Catholic Reporter toward fidelity to the Church seems limited to the supernatural level.”

Noting Bishop Finn's column, Edward Peters, professor of canon law at Sacred Heart Major Seminary in Detroit, posited that National Catholic Reporter's use of “Catholic” in their title is canonically illicit.

“There is simply zero question about this assertion, for they 'claim the name Catholic without the consent of the competent ecclesiastical authority.' {And in fact, rebuked on more than one occasion by the competent ecclesiastical authority"!] Second, once one is shown to be acting illegally under canon law, a number of canonical responses to illicit activity come into play including precepts, the invocation of penal law, and certain sacramental consequences for organizational leadership,” Peters wrote Jan. 25 at “In the Light of the Law.”

Bishop Finn's column concluded as it began, with an appeal to St. Francis de Sales.

Realizing that by natural means he has been unable to bring the Reporter to fidelity to the Church, he wrote: “For this we pray: St. Francis De Sales, intercede for us.”

What the report does not mention is some basic info about the NCReporter that one can pick up from Wikipedia (whose information, unless openly challenged and corrected, is generally reliable, especially when they cite their primary sources). It was founded in 1964 as an independent newspaper focusing on the Catholic Church but without any connection to the Church.

Its founder, Robert Hoyt, said he wanted to bring the professional standards of secular news reporting to the Catholic press, maintaining that "if the mayor of a city owned its only newspaper, its citizens will not learn what they need and deserve to know about its affairs". (What the newspaper thinks the faithful 'need and deserve to know' about the affairs' of the Church, is lamentably nothing but relentless criticism of many Church teachings and of her hierarchy. Besides, it has gone far beyond simply reporting and commenting on Church affairs but on actively espousing causes in direct opposition to Rome.

It has consistently promoted a progressive position, presenting itself "as one of the few, if not the only truly independent, journalistic outlet for Catholics and others who struggle with the complex moral and societal issues of the day."

The intention was very admirable - to bring universal journalistic standards to the Catholic media (assuming they did not already have it) and to present other viewpoints besides what may call the 'establishment' view. In this case, however, that 'establishment view' happens to be the Church Magisterium, which the newspaper and its writers openly and regularly contest on a number of points.

But it was very clever to use the name National Catholic Reporter from the start - at which time, I don't think anyone would have objected, because even if we were in mid-Vatican-II, few suspected how progressivists would seek to hijack the adjective 'Catholic' from the Church itself. Although, as we learned above, the bishop of the diocese, as early as 1968, already condemned the publication for precisely the same reasons Bishop Finn does today.

Although the newspaper claims that it reaches 97 countries today, its audited circulation is only 33,000. But of course, it has an Internet presence which amounts to a HuffingtonPost salon for the Catholic left.

While one might understand John Allen's loyalty to the employer that enabled his own personal career trajectory, one also wonders why, with the credentials he has now notched personally, he has not thought of taking some other job (surely, there must be great offers out there worth taking), rather than continue working for a publication that so continually demeans the adjective 'Catholic' that it persists to use about itself. (It could change its name to 'Progressive Catholic Reporter' and be more honest - and since it goes to 97 countries, it is no longer just 'national', right?)