EVANSTON (IL)
Evanston Review
BY BOB SEIDENBERG
CITY EDITOR
The media's constant penchant to look for conflict in stories sometimes drives religious people to be frustrated with the media and feel that journalists aren't covering the most important issues, Cardinal Francis George and other religious leaders said Monday during a symposium in Evanston.
Cardinal George and several other religious leaders served as presenters at the symposium on religion and the press at Northwestern University. The gathering was co-sponsored by the Sheil Catholic Center and Northwestern's Medill School of Journalism.
Meanwhile, a number of journalists who regularly cover religion, including NBC News 5's Mary Ann Ahern and Evanston resident Robert McClory, a former Roman Catholic priest and professor emeritus at Medill, served on the media panel, asking questions in between and after the presentations. ...
Similarly, on the sexual abuse scandal involving priests, the media necessarily reported the story about the abuses, which Cardinal George called "deeply perverse" and a "betrayal" to church members.
He said some rumors, though, were accepted as true, and the great efforts of the Roman Catholic church to help victims often went unreported.
The church and other faiths are centuries old, and have a different relationship with their followers than secular institutions, he said.
Perhaps, "we (religion and the press) simply have to live with that (the difference) ... and do the best with it" we can, said the cardinal.
Posted by kshaw at July 28, 2005 07:26 AM