BishopAccountability.org
	Authors Question Media Coverage of Church By Jeffrey Simpson The Chronicle-Herald May 22, 2011 http://thechronicleherald.ca/Books/1244714.html When Bishop Raymond Lahey flew to Ottawa from England in 2009, border guards searched his laptop and found child pornography. His arrest occurred mere weeks after he’d announced an out-of-court settlement worth millions of dollars for the victims of Roman Catholic priests in his diocese of Antigonish. The events may have been shocking but they were hardly surprising for those who have been paying attention to years of headlines about pedophile priests and clerical abuse. Reports about these latest revelations strengthened a stereotype that’s been around for a while. And it provided religious writers Peter Kavanagh and Michael Higgins the entry point to a project they’d been discussing; on how media coverage of clerical sex abuse has affected the credibility of the Catholic Church. "It is unfortunately a sad story that is still working its way to a conclusion," Kavanagh says in a recent email interview about Bishop Lahey. "At this point it is fair to say that regardless of what happens at trial, the story of Bishop Lahey itself doesn’t match the hype . . . at the time of the charges." Kavanagh and Higgins have teamed up to write Suffer the Children Unto Me: An Open Inquiry into the Clerical Sex Abuse Scandal (Novalis; $21.95). Their book explores how the media have reported on — and influenced — the crisis. "It is not so much a question of doing things wrong," Kavanagh says. "The media has its own mores, codes of conduct, structures and biases but often fails to be sufficiently reflective about these realities. "Having said that, we live in a society that seeks sensation, a rush to judgement and simple explanations to complex questions. The Lahey story is but one example of hype, end-of-the-world tone and a need for final judgement immediately." Kavanagh and Higgins explore the question of whether the media has an anti-religious bias, yet their book is not a blanket condemnation of the reportage on the church. "Without doubt the media is to be congratulated and praised — and has been by senior members of the church — for bringing the reality and extent of the sex-abuse scandal to light," Kavanagh says. But the reporting turned into a "feeding frenzy," he says. "The stories of Ireland, Germany, the U.S. and Canada became a context for everyone rushing to find a ‘smoking gun’ — a chain of responsibility, an excuse to bring down an institution. "It is not so much that the media is anti-religious as the media thinks of itself in a position to judge religion and to pass sentence when it is found wanting." The Catholic church has also made several mistakes in its handling of the institutional abuse, he says. "Far too often the church has bungled opportunities to be open, clear, contrite and sincere," Kavanagh says. "There are a lot of gun-shy people afraid to confront horror in a way that actually leads to reconciliation. This is partly the obverse of the media’s behaviour. "The church is suspicious of the media in the same way the media is suspicious of the church and this creates problems of communication." Jeffrey Simpson is a staff reporter with The Chronicle Herald.
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