Newspapers are gasping

The past week has seen newspapers all over the world focusing on Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church in their front page articles. It is important to check out some sources on this phenomena.

First, the NY Times published an article in which it was stated that Pope Benedict, then Cardinal Ratzinger, intervened to prevent an American priest from facing the full onslaught of the charges of pedophilia that had been laid against him.

There followed an article by Christopher Hitchens, The Great Catholic Coverup , in the National Post.

Everywhere the mainstream media is persecuting Pope Benedict and the Catholic Church. This morning, on talk radio here in Halifax, I heard Andrew Krystal say "is it time to fire the Pope?"

Sheesh, where the heck is journalistic integrity? Facts are coming to light that show the NY Times had no hard evidence for that story and yesterday -

Fr Thomas Brundage, the former Archdiocese of Milwaukee Judicial Vicar who presided over the canonical criminal case of the Wisconsin child abuser Fr Lawrence Murphy, has broken his silence to give a devastating account of the scandal – and of the behaviour of The New York Times, which resurrected the story. -
Damian Thompson, in the Telegraph, March 30

As Father Brundage says: "The fact that I presided over this trial and have never once been contacted by any news organization for comment speaks for itself."

Journalistic integrity? Not.

The truth is that newspapers are a dying breed, and the New York Times has already been bailed out at least once before. Readership is declining quickly, as the internet is replacing the old-fashioned newspaper as the news media of the present. Not to mention the fact that all that paper surely must be bad for the environment. Where are the "green" folks when it comes to this topic of newspaper pollution?

What better story could a newspaper come up with really? I mean this is Holy Week, the most venerated week in the Catholic Church. And let's face it, the one organization that it is still okay to bash in these days of political correctness is the Catholic Church. The reason? The Catholic Church is the ONLY organization that speaks unrelentlessly about the paganization of our culture, in clearly stating the immorality of abortion, euthanasia, the practice of homosexuality, divorce, pornography. Despite her obvious failures, which Pope Benedict is readily admitting and working hard to correct. What other group is speaking so loudly and so clearly about what ails our society? The Church is ringing warning bells about where we are headed, and the media want to shut it up. Plain and simple.

This is what you can expect in a culture that has become pagan. So what we should expect next is outright persecution of the Church in the west. No, we won't be tortured physically or put to death, but we will see Catholics especially, as well as fundamental Christians, charged in kangaroo courts with hate crimes, with being intolerant. Some of the things we are already seeing are home schoolers being fined for removing their children from the public schools and the children's aid agencies dividing families and removing children from those who don't comply. We are seeing Christian pastors held hostage by human rights commissions because they deliver the Biblical message that homosexual activity is sinful and leads to death. We already know of one woman who has spent over 7 out of the past 15 years in jail for peacefully protesting abortion. Expect it all, it is coming. Unless there is a large scale repentance of our society.

A few months ago, a group of Bible-believing Christians and Catholics drew up and signed the Manhattan Declaration in which they stated that they would hold to their Christian principles despite the pressure of society upon them to relinquish those principles. Men of the calibre of James Dobson and Chuck Colson signed that Declaration, and I heard James Dobson say that he and his wife Shirley are prepared to go to jail if it comes to that. If strong-principled men like this are seeing evil times ahead, we should be paying attention and getting ready. Getting ready means nothing other than

Put on the full armour of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put on the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled round your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming - Ephesians 6:10-17

There is some very good reading on this, here are some links.

A Response to the New York Times, Father Raymond de Souza

Scoundrel Times, by George Weigel

Thomas Peters, at American Papist

Damian Thompson, Blogs editor of the Telegraph Media Group

Mercator Net

David Warren