CBS News [again!!!] Distorts Catholic Outrage at its Dishonest Reporting

Catholic Exchange ^ | 8/9/03 | Tom Allen

[Polycarp]

CBS News Distorts Catholic Outrage at its Dishonest Reporting

by Tom Allen, Editor & President of Catholic Exchange

8/9/03

	Jeff Cavins' Position Twisted Inside-Out on Friday's CBS Evening News

In response to Wednesday's dishonest report on the CBS Evening News (see the Catholic World News report below), Catholic Exchange co-founder and Relevant Radio talk show host Jeff Cavins dedicated a portion of his Friday "Morning Air" broadcast to pointing out CBS correspondent Vince Gonzales' specious reporting on the issue. Cavins called for Mr. Gonzales' dismissal from CBS for violating journalistic ethics and offending millions of faithful Catholics throughout the country by misrepresenting the contents of the Vatican document in question to inflame the broader story of the Church sex scandals.

Cavins asked his listeners to call CBS (national desk in N.Y.: 212-975-4114; L.A. desk where the report originated: 323-575-2202) to politely register their complaints about Mr. Gonzales' misrepresentation of the contents of the 1962 Vatican document, and a flood of calls streamed in throughout the day. Consequently, CBS invited Cavins to an in-studio interview in Minneapolis to represent his listeners' position, and Cavins accepted the invitation.

Incredibly, CBS compounded its dishonesty by misreporting Cavins' position through "creative editing" of his comments. CBS made it seem as though Cavins and his listeners were outraged at the Catholic Church's alleged criminal "secrecy," rather than at CBS's dishonest reporting. Unfortunately for CBS, Cavins left the studio with a recording of the entire interview, and intends to demonstrate CBS' rank dishonesty on his Monday show.

Catholic World News, the National Catholic Register, and the Catholic League for Religious & Civil Rights have all expressed interest in picking up this story as further evidence of an indefensible bias on the part of the mainstream broadcast media against the Catholic Church.

To read the Web version of CBS' second dishonest report click here.

To email your reaction to CBS, click on the "Feedback" link at the bottom of this page.

CBS News Story Distorts 1962 Vatican Document

(CWN) A CBS network news report, claiming that the Holy See orchestrated a cover-up of sexual abuse by Catholic priests, is based on a gross misinterpretation of a 1962 Vatican document.

In a sensationalist report aired on August 6, CBS Evening News claimed to have discovered a secret document proving that the Vatican had approved — and even demanded — a longstanding policy of covering up clerics' sexual misdeeds.

The document cited by CBS does nothing of the sort.

In fact the network's story misrepresented the Vatican document so thoroughly that it is difficult to attribute the inaccuracy to honest error.

The CBS story is based on a secret Instruction issued to bishops in March 1962 by Cardinal Alfredo Ottaviani, then the prefect of the Holy Office(now known as the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith). That document sets forth the canonical procedures to be followed when a priest is charged with the ecclesiastical crime of "solicitation" — that is, using the confessional to tempt penitents to engage in sexual activity.

[The Vatican document, in an awkward English translation, can be downloaded from the CBS News site. CBS also offers the Latin original.]

The Vatican document deals exclusively with solicitation: an offense which, by definition, occurs within the context of the Sacrament of Penance. And since that sacrament is protected by a shroud of absolute secrecy, the procedures for dealing with this ecclesiastical crime also invoke secrecy.

In short, by demanding secrecy in the treatment of these crimes, the Vatican was protecting the secrecy of the confessional. The policy outlined in that 1962 document is clearly not intended to protect predatory priests; on the contrary, the Vatican makes it clear that guilty priests should be severely punished and promptly removed from ministry.

It is important to keep in mind that the 1962 Vatican Instruction dealt exclusively with "solicitation" as that term is understood in ecclesiastical usage, under the terms of the Code of Canon Law. The policies set forth by Cardinal Ottaviani do not pertain to the sexual misdeeds of clerics, but to the efforts by priest to obtain sexual favors though the misuse of their confessional role.

It is also important to note that because solicitation takes place inside the confessional, only the accused priest and the penitent could possibly have direct evidence as to whether or not the crime took place. If the solicitation led to actual sexual activity, that misconduct could be the subject of an entirely separate investigation, not bound by the same rules of secrecy.

The crime of "solicitation" has always been viewed by the Catholic Church as an extremely serious offense, calling for the strongest available penalties. Cardinal Ottaviani stresses that any confessor who solicits sexual favors from his penitents should be suspended from ministry and stripped of all priestly privileges. These penalties apply to all cases of solicitation, whether they involve minor children or adults of either sex. The 1962 document is not concerned with all instances of solicitation; it does not concentrate on the solicitation of children.

The CBS report claimed:

The confidential Vatican document, obtained by CBS News, lays out a church policy that calls for absolute secrecy when it comes to sexual abuse by priests — anyone who speaks out could be thrown out of the church. That is inaccurate.

While it is true that the Vatican document threatens excommunication for anyone who discloses the proceedings of an ecclesiastical trial for "solicitation," it does not bar the priest's accuser from making separate charges about the priest's sexual misconduct. In fact the document makes it clear that during the canonical trial, the accuser should not be questioned about any sexual activity that he may have undertaken with the priest; the accuser is to be questioned solely about what occurred within the confessional.

Thus, someone who was sexually abused by a priest would be free, under the 1962 Vatican policy, to bring criminal charges against that priest for his sexual conduct, while simultaneously charging the priest with "solicitation" in an ecclesiastical court.

In fact, the Instruction from Cardinal Ottaviani stresses (in section 18) that every Catholic has a solemn duty to bring canon-law charges against a priest who attempts to solicit sex through the confessional. The importance of that obligation is underlined by the fact that a Catholic who fails to report solicitation is subject to excommunication. Moreover, the penitent remains under this solemn obligation to report solicitation even if the priest has already confessed his crime.

The document on which CBS based its distorted story is a densely worded 24-page document, couched in the technical idiom of canon law, and accompanied by a 36-page Appendix that provides the formulas to be used in an ecclesiastical trial. No careful reader could fail to recognize that this was a specialized document, providing a set of procedures for a particular ecclesiastical offense. Why, then, did CBS News draw a broad general conclusion from a tightly focused legal document? Why did the network fail to distinguish between the ecclesiastical crime of solicitation and the public offense of pedophilia? The questions are worth pondering.

(This article courtesy of Catholic World News. To subscribe or for further information, visit www.cwnews.com.)

[Polycarp]

CBS Broadcasting Inc.

Catholics React To Vatican Edict

LOS ANGELES, Aug., 8, 2003


Catholics across the country were angered by a Wednesday CBS News report that focused on a once-secret Vatican document.

Jeff Cavins, who hosts a talk show on a Catholic radio network, told CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales, "My listeners are very upset and I'm hearing a different tone from our listeners. I’m hearing them say 'You know what? That crosses the line.'"

Critics say the document is concerned solely with priests soliciting sex in the confessional.

The document does deal with the confessional, but it goes beyond that to include "the worst crime": sexual acts "perpetrated in any way by the cleric or attempted by him with youths of either sex or with brute animals."

It calls for total secrecy in some cases "under the penalty of excommunication."

Some critics say the 1962 document was no longer in effect, because it was replaced by new church law in 1983.

But according to the Canon Law Society of American, in 1996 Vatican officials broadened the policy and told church lawyers it "should be followed."

In 2001, as the sex abuse scandal unfolded, a high Vatican official referred to the 40-year-old document as the policy "in force until now."

On Wednesday, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told CBS News it was in place until last summer, when they met to write new rules.

A spokesman for the bishops says it's a matter of internal church law and sin, not violations of state laws, and that the document was written to investigate priests and protect parishioners.

"To see this as a blueprint for any form of behavior is simply to misunderstand history and to misunderstand the document," the spokesman said.

Critics, including former priest Richard Sipe, disagree.

"The point is it is about sexual abuse and it is about secrecy and it is about very profound secrecy in which any sexual abuse is to be contained," he said. "It's a blueprint for secrecy."

Media outlets in New England first reported the document's existence. Now prosecutors in Massachusetts, and in California, are studying it as part of their investigation of pedophile priests in the Catholic Church.



© MMIII, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.

[M Kehoe]

I know of many inaccuracies, and editorializing the news from CBS and Rather, but the most recent one was the 2002 election. So, we are watching the election returns from all of the counties in Florida for the governors race. Ol' Danny boy comes on about 7 pm (polls not closed in the Panhandle) and says, "...it looks like a very tight race for the Florida governorship." The First lady and I sat there stunned. We had just watched election returns from 47 counties showing McBride getting his hat handed to him. Some counties as much as a 20 point difference.

Methinks with CBS's ratings going down the tubes, Ol' Danny boy might be history soon.

5.56mm

[The Old Hoosier]

I was wondering why this never got legs. I think I just figured it out.

[1Old Pro]

Related thread: Conservative leader- Schumer has anti-Catholic bias

[Cobra64]

I wouldn't know. I don't watch CBS, NBC, ABC. They don't come close to good reporting. They're all lefties.

[technomage]

CBS still has a network news program??

[Polycarp]

I don't watch CBS, NBC, ABC.

Nor do I. We don't have TV.

[Desdemona]

Not that the outrage isn't justified - it is - but what do people expect? Network "journalism" is about ratings. It always has been, even back to the days of Edward R. Murrow and Eric Severied and all the classic broadcasters (Walter Kronkite is a socialist, so he doesn't count).

Higher ratings bring higher advertising revenues. Plain and simple. So, they stretch the truth, omit little inconvenient facts, etc., sensationalize the story and VIOLA! - bonuses all around.

Now, that doesn't make it right. Currently, the "news" is more about entertainment than an actual reporting of important facts of the day. If the news people were doing their jobs, we would know more about the Federal Courts ordering the level of the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers lowered to protect some fish, thus halting barge traffic at least until the first of September. That's pertinant.

Leaving out details that change the entire meaning of the story is wrong, but what the news nets have learned is that they are rarely called on it. A good lawsuit might solve the problem.

[Timesink]

This is the nascent Mainstream Media Shenanigans ping list. Please freepmail me to be added or dropped.
Please note this will likely become a high-volume list.
Also feel free to ping me if you come across a thread you would think worthy of the ping list. I can't catch them all!

[Saint Athanasius]

Can someone ping the Media Research Center on this?!

Nice tag line :)

[Barnacle]

I removed the local CBS station from our pre-select. It doesn’t even show-up when I channel surf.

CBS, CNN - Who needs them?

The Leftists that's who.

[GOPJ]

bump