" PAST " STRIKE THE SHEPHERD

 

"Strike the Shepherd…


that the sheep may be scattered." Zech. 13:7



The annual ante Easter anti Easter campaign in the Media has been going on for over 20 years now. This year’s effort started off with deceptive simplicity. The New York Times rehashed the story of a paedophile priest in Milwaukee Diocese about 20 years ago. It was taken up by the BBC and the London Times who also lent on the Irish abuse scandals (FOUNDATION March 2009). The ABC was quick to latch on. Later a German paper tried to get a run out of a case in Munich of a similar vintage.

Because of the way in which the stories were written (very badly, without checking sources and lacking consistent logic) it was difficult at first to see what was going on. But after a little while it became clear: the purpose of the exercises was an endeavour to attack Pope Benedict XVI by trying to show him to have been derelict in his duty when a Cardinal and even to portray him as an evil criminal conspirator. The ultimate goal then was to attack the credibility of the Church, using the victims of abuse as a “human Shield” for this scurrilous attack. .

After a couple of weeks, the claims were widely exposed on the Internet as having no adverse connection to the former Cardinal Ratzinger at all, whether American, Irish or German cases were considered. This did not stop the main activators – the NYT, the London Times, the BBC and even the ABC tried harder. In the case of the NYT, its story had been torn to shreds by the Philadelphia Bulletin and by Newsweek Online, as well as on the Internet. But it continued re-hashing the piece using increasingly hysterical language, which got to the point of being laughter provoking. The BBC, especially BBC Online, was something else. Its approach was one of coldly malicious propaganda – facts were abandoned – they were inconvenient – and hyped up questions replaced statements – “Will the Pope Resign?” .And stories were illustrated with photos of the Pope taken from behind ( suggesting he had turned his back on….whoever you wish to choose) . This is all too reminiscent of Goebbels era WWII NAZI propaganda sheets. How strange the BBC should thus reveal its models for emulation. The German story has faded for lack of substance. And the ABC, having acquired a taste for expressing its long held anti Catholicism, has latched onto a press release by arch dissident Hans Kung - deludedly styled "a letter to the Bishops of the world" - which is simply a bucket of bile hoisted at the Holy See, and was doing its best to promote it on Radio National

A stunt by the would – be “atheist “(who can believe in atheists?) Dawkins seeking to have the Holy Father arrested and charged with “crimes against humanity” when he visits the U.K.in September, has been conclusively shown to be nothing but a stunt. But the same Media collaborators ran it for a week or so as if it were a substantive issue, simply because it helped hype the propaganda by creating an atmosphere of crisis.

So the principal players, in the midst of this campaign, dropped their camouflage of “professional journalism” and have openly espoused what we had long believed to be the truth about them. They stand revealed as propaganda machines for anti Catholic Church operations, largely due to the fact that their staff have long since espoused abortion, contraception, homosexuality, same sex “marriage”, radical feminism and thus female ordination.

The dust WILL settle in time, at least until Lent 2011. But the question is - how is the Church to respond to similar attacks in future?



She is not like other organisations; she cannot and will not be able to approach Public Relations with the same cynical attitude as the mass media. Nevertheless she will need to become more highly professional in handling and in anticipating media issues. A great deal more can be done to present and represent the Truth effectively and in a timely fashion.
TONY DIXON


(This item appears as the Title piece in a Supplement to the APRIL 2010 Issue of "FOUNDATION")