Editorial

The Catholic Herald drops three issues in summer. This allows our staff members to take some needed vacation time. Usually we find that things slow down in summer.

But not this year. The Vatican didn't pay attention to our vacation schedule! Two important documents were released since July 5 (our last issue).

Our Web site (www.madisoncatholicherald.org) includes daily news feeds from Catholic News Service. So interested readers in the Diocese of Madison were able to access news about the two documents: Pope Benedict's Motu Proprio released July 7 promoting wider use of the Roman Missal of 1962 in Latin and the statement issued July 10 by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith on Catholic doctrine on the church.

Catholics and others concerned about these two documents could also go directly to the Web sites of the Vatican and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops for reliable information.

Awful secular media coverage. However, often people do not go to these Catholic Web sites. They get their news from the secular media. Unfortunately, many television, radio, newspapers, and Web sites carried absolutely awful coverage of these two documents. Awful is perhaps the mildest word I can use for the incorrect, incomplete, and biased anti-Catholic news coverage I saw.

Most of the reports included very few direct quotes from the Vatican documents. Some of the articles included more negative comments from those opposing the Vatican than from the Holy Father or Cardinal William Levada, who issued the church document.

Headline in State Journal. Perhaps the worst was an Associated Press article with a headline: "Pope: Protestants are going to hell" published in the Wisconsin State Journal in Madison on July 11. This headline totally misrepresented the Levada document and I'm sure caused many Catholics and people of other faiths to question what the Vatican was doing.

Msgr. James Bartylla, director of vocations for the Diocese of Madison, wrote a letter to the editor published in the Wisconsin State Journal on July 13. He called the headline "grossly incorrect." He quoted from the Levada document which says about Protestant ecclesial communities, "In fact, the Spirit of Christ has not refrained from using them as instruments of salvation, whose value derives from that fullness of grace and of truth which has been entrusted to the Catholic Church."

Monsignor Bartylla added, "Why does your headline erroneously and directly contradict what is said in the document reported upon? I completely agree with this recently-issued document of the church. I love Pope Benedict XVI, and I also love my Protestant brothers and sisters in Christ. There is no contradiction in this three-part statement."

Response from paper. In an e-mail shared with me, Julie A. Shirley, news editor for the State Journal, thanked Monsignor Bartylla for writing and said. "I am planning to put a correction in Saturday's paper as well as to speak with the copy editor who wrote the headline, which I agree was insensitive and a gross mischaracterization of the pope's remarks."

The State Journal did publish a clarification with a very small headline in the July 14 issue. It said: "A headline on Page A3 of Wednesday's State Journal mischaracterized comments made by Pope Benedict XVI, who said in a recent statement that only the Catholic Church 'has the fullness of the means of salvation.'" In contrast to the initial large headline, this article almost needed a magnifying glass to read!

Lesson to learn. There is a lesson from this: don't believe everything you read or hear in the secular media. Go to the church sources and read the Catholic Herald. I would encourage readers to turn to Page 22 of this week's Catholic Herald [print edition only] to read the Levada document in its entirety. Also see Pages 2 and 3 for coverage of the Motu Proprio on the Roman Missal, including Bishop Robert Morlino's comments.

Mary C. Uhler

Mailbag

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Citizens must protect rights

To the editor:

In the July 5 edition of the Catholic Herald Bishop Morlino wrote a very nice piece on the meaning of liberty and our God given freedom.

Despite Christ's sacrifice at winning true freedom and all authentic human rights, the Church leadership in the past has thought otherwise. At the request of King John of England, in August 1215, Pope Innocent III declared the Magna Carta invalid via a papal bull. In addition, the Pope excommunicated the English Barons who tried to press for the Magna Carta clauses to be carried out.

Are there parallels still today as the Church attempts to use its religious power to threaten members of the U.S. Congress?

In the founding of our Republic, the American colonies placed heavy reliance on the Magna Carta in their battles against the crown of England.

Christ's sacrifice indeed won our freedom and rights, but only the constant vigilance of American citizens will protect those rights from usurpation by government or religious power.

Don Lund, Stoughton

Thanks for contribution

To Bishop Morlino:

I wish to acknowledge with deep gratitude your diocesan contribution from the 2006 Appeal for the Catholic Campaign for Human Development.

In his first encyclical, Pope Benedict XVI defines clearly a vision for a just society which includes eliminating poverty and protecting human dignity. He writes, " . . . within the community of believers there can never be room for a poverty that denies anyone what is needed for a dignified life." (Deus Caritas Est, #20).

Your recent contribution of $23,328.41 from your 2006 Catholic Campaign for Human Development (CCHD) collection will make a real difference in our efforts to break the cycle of poverty in America. Thank you very much for this generous support.

Your leadership, as well as the faithful and committed service of your diocesan director, Susanna D. Herro, are sources of great encouragement to all of us.

Timothy F. Collins, executive director,
Catholic Campaign for Human Development, Washington, D.C.