It's a miracle the Onion is still in business with news like this. http://www.philly.com/philly/wires/...ap_apnewsbreakvaticangetsfoxmediaadviser.html And just to complete the awesome, Burke is a member of Opus Dei. I'm a DC United fan, so I, as a matter of course, hate the Red Bulls. But you know, a couple of years back, I started to feel really sorry for their fans, and so now I don't know how I feel about NYRB. I'm a Lutheran, and so we're sort of the sworn enemies of the Catholic Church. Y'all get my point?
My wife, who was Lutheran before she converted, says that Lutherans are Catholics without the rules. So I guess you are kinda right.
You know the best thing that would help the Vatican avoid communication blunders? Humility and a commitment to telling the truth in a spirit of lovingkindness. Not something Fox News is overly committed to. Or the RC hierarchy, so this seems a good match.
Great idea! Now if only the Pope can talk Jesus Christ into making a live appearance with Bill O'Rielly, it will make it so much easier for Christians to convince Atheists that the resurrection was real.
My response would be, stop committing policy blunders. I HATE HATE HATE that phrase, perception is reality. I get the point of it, but I hate the phrase. Because typically it's used as shorthand for people making the argument that the solution to a problem isn't fixing the problem, it's lying to people so they don't understand what the problem is. And that really doesn't work that often. The Catholic Church's problem is NOT that people have a false perception of its policies toward pedophile priests, or liberal nuns in the US, or social issues or Obama's health care plan. The problem is that people have an accurate perception of the Church's policies and they don't like the policy. Tricking people isn't a viable solution! They shouldn't have hired a Fox News guy to improve their press relations, they should have hired a child victim advocate. They should have hired someone who works with the uninsured. Etc. etc.
Ah, yes. Opus Dei and the Knights of Columbus. They can really rock the house. I agree. That's why I think the best policy would be telling the truth in humility and lovingkindness. Blunders are going to happen in any institution. Doesn't matter if it's a small house church or the Vatican, mistakes will happen. Own up to them and make amends. Don't act like a corporation, act like The Body of Christ. But as has been typical for at least 1600 years, this particular institution acts like is more interested in covering its institutional ass than in doing its mission. I basically lost a job in a library at a Catholic college because something I said got back to the Arch Abbot. This is about 6 years ago A student in a class I was teaching was complaining about how the media was attacking the church and running a coordinated smear campaign (let's see, how many threads have we talked about how conservatives see themselves as persecuted and victimized?). I pointed out, not impolitely, that actually, the media is doing something the Church should be doing. The victims are not the "Church" (by which this particular student and the Arch Abbot, and most of the current Bishops mean the hierarchy) but Catholics. Those were, in every single case that I know of, Catholic children, from Catholic families, being molested. The hierarchy did nothing to solve the problem those Catholics were facing. The media, on the other hand, brought the problem into the open so it could (finally) start to be dealt with. The Church is still struggling through this problem, entirely because the Hierarchy sees itself as the Church, and not just as a part of the Church.
My siblings & I hammer the Church at every family gathering and our older, super Catholic parents just shrug as if to say "We know, we know. But we there's nothing we can do about it." I'm of the opposite opinion, of course. Not speaking out is what got the Church in this mess to begin with. This happens all the time to institutions that become too big and insular with little regard for their constituency.