Earlier this month, the Peoria Diocese in Illinois announced it had closed its diocesan newspaper, to be replaced with eventual “new strategies in a wider communications plan,” according to its bishop. What “plays in Peoria,” however, is already part of a trend unlikely to slow: Bishops are cutting print publications or shuttering operations altogether, only Read more
I was reading the Los Angeles Times before I went to my first rock concert. Before my first PG movie, probably. I’ve been reading the Times for so long I can remember when it was conservative. I would get the paper for my dad from the driveway every morning. Standing in bare feet on the Read more
Indonesian seminarians are being provided with an additional set of skills – and not ones you’d necessarily expect. A Catholic group in Indonesia’s conflict-torn Papua province is teaching the seminarians to report on events in remote areas where there is limited access for journalists. Rights activists often criticise Indonesia’s mainstream media for reporting news based Read more
Nearly two decades ago, I was asked to become the editor-in-chief of the weekly newspaper published by the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of Japan. My first reaction was gut-hurting laughter. When I caught my breath, I said to the priest who had been sent to present the proposal, “Look at my face!” It was, indeed, unprecedented Read more
Just hours after the announcement that a top official for the U.S. bishops’ conference had suddenly resigned on July 20 citing “possible improper behaviour,” a newly launched Catholic media venture, The Pillar, published a nearly 3,000-word article alleging that the priest, Msgr. Jeffrey Burrill, had engaged in “serial sexual misconduct” by frequenting gay bars and Read more
At least three formal complaints have been lodged with the Ombudsman’s office over the Samoa Observer newspaper’s front page treatment of a young transgender victim of suicide. There have been mixed reactions to the paper’s more personal apology published in the Samoa Observer on Tuesdayover the signature of the editor in chief Gatoaitele Savea Sano Malifa. Read more
Outrage has erupted in Samoa after a newspaper published a photograph of a dead trans-gender woman. The suspected cause of death is suicide. The 20-year-old computer student was a regular at the Catholic Church of Taufusi. She was discovered in a church hall on Friday morning local time. A photograph on the front page of Read more
An Italian journalist has been blasted for reporting in newspapers the answers by several priests she misled in confessionals. Laura Alari, who writes for Quotidiano Nazionale, invented stories about herself that she told priests during the sacrament of Confession. She pretended to be a lesbian mother asking to baptise her daughter, a woman who lives Read more
On 13 June 2013, Pope Francis granted an interview to Israel’s Channel 2 TV at Santa Marta, the Vatican guesthouse where he lives. That interview made history; it was the first time that a TV crew entered Santa Marta to interview the pope. What is not known, however, is that immediately afterwards Francis asked to Read more
It seems there has been a significant issue with bullying at a Wellington College. Dramatic headlines in the Dominion Post, such as, “Bullied teen’s broken neck fear” are almost a compulsory read; particularly when accompanied by an equally dramatic picture of a slight boy in hospital. Reading further, the article names the college and its Read more