Dolan Is No. 1 Newsmaker in Religion Reporters' Poll

By Mary Garrigan
Rapid City Journal
December 29, 2012

http://rapidcityjournal.com/lifestyles/dolan-is-no-newsmaker-in-religion-reporters-poll/article_63e885a9-2e14-55ec-8adf-b038cc5e963f.html

Cardinal Timothy Dolan, named Religion Newsmaker of the Year for 2012, comforts mourners after a funeral for teacher Anne Marie Murphy at the St. Mary Of The Assumption Church in Katonah, N.Y., on Dec. 20. Murphy was among the 26 victims in the Newtown, Conn., school shooting.

Republican presidential candidate, former Mass. Gov. Mitt Romney, visits St. Paul's Lutheran Church while campaigning in Berlin, N.H., in 2011. Romney, a Mormon, was popular with evangelical Christian voters in his losing presidential bid.

Cynthia Wallace, left, and partner Julie Fein spin a few dance steps as they prepare to take their wedding vows early in the morning in the courtroom of Judge Mary Yu in the King County Courthouse, becoming among the first gay couples to legally marry, in Seattle.

Madeline Slota, 8, holds a candle during a vigil in remembrance of the Newton, Conn., shooting victims at Green Lake Park in Seattle on Dec. 15. The vigil was held after Adam Lanza killed his mother and 20 children and six adults at Sandy Hook Elementary before taking his own life.

Before the slaughter of innocents in a Newton, Conn., school on Dec. 14 sent a grief-stricken nation into mourning, religion journalists voted the top 10 religion stories of 2012.

While the No. 1 U.S. religion story in December 2012 was, without a doubt, the school attack that killed 20 first-grade students and six adults, it happened after the Religion Newswriters Association ballot deadline. But the mournful search for meaning that will follow, as religious people discern religion’s role in future debates about mental health and gun control, promises to remain an important story in 2013.

RNA members — professional journalists who cover religion — voted on the year’s other significant religious events and put the U.S. Catholic bishops’ opposition to national health care legislation that mandated contraception coverage at the top of the list. Related to the top story, the top religion newsmaker was Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York, who became the point man for Catholic objections to required coverage of contraception, sterilization and morning-after drugs in Obamacare.

The Top 10 Religion Stories of the Year, as chosen by RNA members, are:

1. U.S. Catholic bishops lead opposition to Obamacare requirement that insurance coverage for contraception be provided for employees. The government backs down a bit, but not enough to satisfy the opposition.

2. A Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life survey shows that "nones” is the fastest-growing religious group in the United States, rising to 19.6 percent of the population.

3. The circulation of an anti-Islam film trailer, "Innocence of Muslims,” causes unrest in several countries, leading to claims that it inspired the fatal attack on a U.S. consulate in Libya. 

4. Mitt Romney's Mormon faith turns out to be no  issue for white evangelical voters, who support him more strongly than they did John McCain, in the U.S. presidential race.

5. Monsignor William Lynn of Philadelphia becomes the first senior Catholic official in the U.S. to be found guilty of covering up priestly child abuse; later Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City, Mo., becomes the first bishop to be found guilty of it.

6. The Vatican criticizes the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, an umbrella group of U.S. nuns, alleging they haven't supported church teaching on abortion, sexuality or women's ordination.

7. Voters OK same-sex marriage in Maine, Maryland and Washington, bringing the total approving to nine states and the District of Columbia. Also, Minnesota defeats a ban on same-sex marriage after North Carolina approves one.

8. The Episcopal Church overwhelmingly adopts a trial ritual for blessing same-sex couples. Earlier, the United Methodists fail to vote on approving gay clergy, and the Presbyterians (USA) vote to study, rather than sanction same-sex marriage ceremonies.

9. Six people are killed and three wounded at worship in a Sikh temple in suburban Milwaukee. The shooter, an Army veteran killed by police, is described as a neo-Nazi.

10. Southern Baptist Convention elects without opposition its first black president, the Rev. Fred Luter of New Orleans.



Contact: mary.garrigan@rapidcityjournal.com