On the most difficult issues of the day, the Catholic press always has prided itself on reporting the nuances that the general media misses. Such was the case again this week in reporting on Pope Benedict XVI’s supposedly new comments on evolution in a new book. The CNS story set the pope’s comments in the broader context of faith and science; it also stated clearly that the pope’s comments weren’t new at all but came from a discussion with former students last September. Others, such as this Associated Press report, weren’t so clear. The AP story, for instance, doesn’t say until the fifth paragraph (and only in passing, at that) that he made the comments at a meeting with fellow theologians, and doesn’t say until the 11th graf that they came seven months ago.
Regular readers of CNS might also remember that there was another CNS story last September on the meeting itself. While that story doesn’t have the pope’s comments — the meeting, of course, was closed — it did quote one participant as saying that the gathering did not advance any significant shift in direction on the church and evolution, another nuance that some reporters might have missed when they first saw the book this week.
Filed under: CNS | Comments Off
Elizabeth Maneeley of Sacred Heart School in Warner Robins, Ga., speaks with Franciscan Sister Rose Pacatte April 11 in the exhibition hall during the National Catholic Educational Association convention in Baltimore. Thousands of Catholic educators decended on the Baltimore Convention Center for the April 10-13 NCEA convention on the theme “Anchor of Faith, Harbor of Light.” (CNS photo/Owen Sweeney III,
Capuchin Father John Celichowski, pastor of St. Martin de Porres Parish in Milwaukee, baptizes one of 15 children during Easter Mass April 8. Twenty-three children and adults were received into the church at the Easter liturgy. Father Celichowski said the parish celebrated the sacraments of initiation on Sunday, rather than during the Easter Vigil, because of the number of youths participating in the initiation process. (CNS photo/Sam Lucero,