Posted on 06/17/2002 4:36:53 PM PDT by GeneD
A clearly frustrated Cardinal Francis George chastised the media Sunday during a public appearance--asking them to leave a morning worship service if they took notes and likening them to communist spies that he encountered in Poland.
In his first public appearance since returning to Chicago from the historic bishop's conference in Dallas, George recalled the times he would travel to communist Poland, when he "knew there was someone there from the government in the assembly that was recording or taking notes," he told a packed and supportive St. Giles Catholic Church in Oak Park. "You had to choose your words carefully because they would be used against the church later."
He then asked that the television cameras inside the church be removed and told the journalists in the crowd to either leave or not take any notes.
Parishioners at St. Giles Catholic Church, which was celebrating its 75th anniversary, cheered when George made his demands.
After the hourlong service, George said he was not going to use his pulpit to make comments about current affairs.
"I don't preach to give messages about public events," George said. "Those are a special 10 to 15 minutes that should not be used as a news conference."
When asked if he really meant to compare the media with communist government spies, George did not back down.
"You asked me how I feel, and that's how I feel," he said.
Bishops from across the country have been feeling the heat from the media and parishioners for what they considered a soft stance against priests accused of sexual abuse.
"The media has served [the American people] well, but there have been factual errors," George said without elaborating.
He was also frustrated because of what he called "prescripted responses" by some of the opposition groups being quoted.
"It doesn't matter what would have come out of Dallas, there were some who had a prescripted response," George said.
During the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops in Dallas, the church leaders approved a new rule that says no priest who abuses a child may call himself a priest any longer, nor may he wear the priestly garb, celebrate the mass in public or serve the church in any capacity.
George said that new edict, which Chicago would follow, would affect seven priests in the large Chicago archdiocese.
"When I got back, I started to call the priests that are affected and told them I wanted to get together with them as soon as possible," George said. "But this is going to be something that has to be done carefully because you are dealing with people's lives."
During the mass, George said it was time that parishioners and church leaders begin to "heal a broken church and heal the family."
"I can remember this one little boy with a really nice butt, so I .......opps! The press! Run for it!"
I'm so disappointed that the leaders of my Church have not learned the first basic rule of dealing with the press: defensiveness only makes the dogs hungrier. We're not talking about the confessional seal here; we're talking about lawbreakers!
The press, despite its numerous faults (including a degree of anti-Catholicism), is NOT the problem here.
A "Cardinal" is a position within a private multinational organization calling itself "The Catholic Church". He is not a member of any government, elected or otherwise. So what makes you call it a "public position"?
Does he celebrate Mass in public? Does he list the phone number to his chancery office in the phone book?
Was the God-Man whom Cardinal George purports to follow a private, or a public, personage?
He is a public man, unless he chooses to live in a monastery.
I assume he "celebrates Mass" in churches, which are gathering places for people of a certain religion. Perhaps those "churches" are more or less open to anyone who wants to enter, I can't say.
Does he list the phone number to his chancery office in the phone book?
I dunno. The local Masonic lodge is also in the phone book, does that make its Grand Poobah a "public figure" who must necessarily allow reporters to listen in on his meetings?
Was the God-Man whom Cardinal George purports to follow a private, or a public, personage?
What do these terms even mean? "Private personage"?
He is a public man,
Then, who isn't?
unless he chooses to live in a monastery.
I see. Monks aren't. Everyone else is.
Michael
And live with the consequences he is treated to in the press.
As a Catholic, I want my leaders to be open and genial to the media. There's no reason for them not to be.
Unless, of course, they've got something to hide.
George is part of the problem, being the handpicked heir of Bernardin, whose nefarious history can be read about at RCF.org. He's the one responsible for gays taking over the church in Chicago.
Now he wants to make Sunday Mass a secret ceremony, just like all those secret things that go on behind closed doors in the seminaries of Illinois?
Your arguments lack logic.
Somehow I don't think the Cardinal, all but proclaiming that he's above the press, is going to convince many people.
US media 'hounding' Vatican over sex 6/10/02
“The US media appears to act with a fury that reminds me at times of Diocletian and Nero and more recently of Stalin and Hitler,” said Cardinal Oscar Rodriguez Maradiaga, a Honduran who is widely tipped as a possible successor to Pope John Paul.
Cardinal predicts single sex-abuse exception will die 6/6/02
Cardinal McCarrick said it's up to the media to portray the lengths that prelates are willing to go to correct the problem, if only to reassure the nation's 63 million Catholics.
"I think it's important that our own people, after Dallas, say, 'OK, they've got the picture. They may have been long in getting that, but they've got the picture,'" he said.
"A lot of that is going to depend on the media. If they keep saying the bishops aren't paying attention, it will take longer. If the media says we see they've tried to pull this together, then our people will get the message.
"I believe the Catholic people of the United States really want to trust the bishops," he said. "They have to see now we are really trying. We are saying: 'We have been too slow; we have been too dull; we have been too hesitant. Now, here is what we have done. Believe us.'"
You mean "public figure" as it is used for the purpose of a libel suit? Sure, I'll buy that. That's not the way we were using it.
sinkspur was using "public figure" in a different context, namely (as far as I can tell) "someone who must necessarily allow the media at all of their meetings because the public has a legitimate stake in what is said". That kind of "public figure", which, I had thought, included primarily government officials, but apparently (according to sinkspur) includes practically everyone except monks. Understand now?
It also says there were television cameras and reporters.I would like to hear the rest of the story.
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