Just in case some of you are wondering, many articles on the upcoming papal trip are slated to soon start pouring into the pages of this esteemed newspaper and, no doubt, lots of other media as well.
Media organizations have been given their assignments as to which papal venues they get to cover. There's been a lot of gnashing of teeth from those who didn't get the spots they wanted. Although we here at the Times got dealt a pretty generous hand, I know of various other outlets that are scrambling for ways to get closer to Pope Benedict XVI than the TV screen at the media center.
However, therein lies a hazard for reporters or little or no faith. One reporter — I will call her "Infidel," as that's the name she selected — wrote me recently about something she finds troublesome. She was chagrined to find that in order to acces confidential media information for the upcoming papal visit, she would have to type "ChristOurHope" on the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' website.
"And it's the username!" she wrote me. "It feels a bit like a forced conversion. At the very least it's tone deaf. I wonder if the Vatican believes that only Catholic reporters will be covering his visit? I've talked to Episcopalians, Catholics, Muslims and plenty of Christians and pretty much every one of them, reporter or layperson, is absolutely incredulous."
Well, hmmmm. This Episcopalian isn't offended but then again, would I be if, were I covering an Islamic event somewhere, want to type in "ProphetMohammed" as a username? Or "VishnuShiva" were I at a world Hindu congress?
When you cover religion fulltime, you become a real chameleon at blending into different faiths, so devotional usernames don't bother me. But I do have limits. Back in 2000, I was at a convention for religion writers where we were taken to a Buddhist shrine. They compelled attendees to bow toward one of the Buddha statues.
That I wouldn't do.
— Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times
Comments (8)
A reporter should most certainly have limits in covering religious events. The issue regarding the bow toward Buddha, mentioned at the end of the story, is a perfect example. So would requiring reporters to recite Islamic prayers or participate in a Christian baptism. These are all acts of explicit worship within a given faith and it should not be required or expected of a reporter to engage in these actions for them to report on the news.
That said, "infidel" is both reading far too much into the use of what amounts to a generic user name and is unreasonably expecting the Catholic Church to suppress religious references of our faith on the chance that someone will find Christ's name offensive. The Vatican isn't the US government, it's the leadership of a religion - quite literally a private organization. They aren't publicly funded and people interact with them or don't according to their own will. The Vatican is not required to sanitize their words or deeds of religious meaning in order to have people who don't espouse Catholic beliefs feel good about things - which "infidel" pretty clearly thinks they should.
If "infidel" can't abide it, don't go to the web site. I think she's letting her offendedness (is that a word?) get in the way of her professionalism but that's her call.
Posted by Ric James | April 2, 2008 4:08 PM
"Christ Our Hope" is the theme the Vatican decided on for the papal visit. That is abundantly apparent when you visit the papal visit website (url below). What is so inappropriate about using the visit's official theme for the media username? And what do you want the Catholic Church to proclaim, "Science Our Hope"? "Big Government Our Hope"? "Humanism Our Hope"?
Apparently, the Vatican chose a theme they thought would appeal to all Christians. For all the warm friendliness that invoked from non-Catholics, the Vatican would have done better with a more exclusive theme, such as "Mother of Mercy".
http://www.uspapalvisit.org/
Posted by me | April 3, 2008 1:39 AM
That's the theme name of the event. It's even on the Build-a-Bear, for goodness' sake. Does she expect to get Olympics news without ever typing "olympics"?
Posted by Maureen | April 3, 2008 9:04 AM
It's also funny that she blames "The Vatican" when the site is run by American bishops. But I suppose it's less conspiracy-friendly to blame it on albino assassin-monks... ;)
Posted by MissJean | April 3, 2008 4:34 PM
Obliviously assuming the Vatican is behind the decision of some sysadmin workin for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops reveals such a degree of ignorance about the issue that you wonder how one could even then go and report on it.
Go for getting a better story by assigning someone to it with a bit more background knowledge.
Posted by Richard | April 4, 2008 2:19 AM
That reporter is no reporter, she's a dunce. End of story. In fact, throw the story away before you bash the Vatican for something so trival as that.
I'd expect any such case be from any religious organization worth its two cents. Period.
Lady, change your job if you get so easily offended. At least provide your name so the rest of us can pray for your soul. That's unless you'd find that offensive. Maybe we can work something out in any case so no one is offended.
Maybe a new username just for you and like-minded ones: "unbeliever." Somebody get this to the sysadmin quick! We don't want another story on the evilness of Catholics. Oy vey! What's this crazy world coming to? Thicker skins and cooler heads SHOULD prevail.
Posted by John Book | April 5, 2008 10:37 PM
I'm also a religion reporter and will be covering the pope's visit in New York City. I don't have a problem with the username, since it's the name of the event. I'm also not Catholic but have studied the faith, respect it and am eager to report on it!
Posted by Tracy | April 7, 2008 2:45 PM
What a flaky anti-conversion argument. If you were a sports reporter and a die-hard New York Yankees fan and were required to type in "Go Dodgers" to visit the LA web site, would you feel put upon? How about a more professional stance by some of these so called "reporters".
Posted by aalex1 | April 13, 2008 2:45 AM