WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – The anti-Catholicism that abounds in the mainstream media, the academy, and the entertainment world continues to both amuse and upset us greatly! Who needs morning coffee when you can read the latest stupidity about the Conclave scheduled to commence in the Vatican next week?  It’s enough to evoke peals of laughter or growls of anger. 

Being seasoned Catholic journalists who have "been there done that" we prefer the former, knowing that the latter shows more respect than is due.
 
Tim Stanley, a very fine young Catholic pundit in the UK, report that the very unfunny Ricky Gervais, whp purports to be a comedian, has called Catholics "morons."  Stanley had tweeted that, "Crowd greeting #Pope estimated at 200,000. Beat that, Richard Dawkins," to which Gervais responded, "Some people are morons, beat that, education!" (Stanley, by the way, is smart, tough, and articulate, a young talent to watch!)

WASHINGTON, DC (Catholic Online) – It’s sad but predictable that most of the mainstream TV networks have chosen "to frame" the Conclave irresponsibly.  Their respective frames reflect the media’s predictable, and reprehensible, attempt to discredit the Catholic Church while simultaneously boosting their notion of what qualities the new pope should embody. 

Hmmmmm, let’s guess, would those qualities be tolerance, flexibility, pluralism, progressivism, and the "third world?" The problem with talking about mainstream media coverage nowadays is its utter predictability, akin to "shooting ducks in a barrel."  But it’s a barrel of their own making and our responsibility as Catholic journalists to inoculate the public against their version of framing the Conclave.

Our good friend, former Vatican ambassador and Boston mayor, Ray Flynn, published some comments yesterday that summarize the media coverage with the authority of a man who spent many years as a Catholic in the Vatican. Ambassador Flynn, a master storyteller of Boston Irish persuasion, has also published an excellent novel about a papal Conclave, The Accidental Pope.