AmericanPapist Comments
Well the dark night of the soul is not exactly in the MSM's competency.
Anybody who has read Saint Therese's letters in the year before she died know that this type of dark night is not exactly rare and that it only forces heroic sanctity in their acts of faith in those who respond.
Here is my question (without having read the Time article yet):
Who is the telegenic, articulate, and knowledgeable Catholic who will be out front in responding to the MSM spin?
In this crazy era of 24-hour cable news, if both sides don't "spin," then the "spin" offered by one side gets to be the received wisdom.
"Our side" really needs such a figure to deal with stories like this.
Our side does not need to play the spin game. We are to be above that sort of thing. We don't deal in news cycles of a few hours but in historical cycles of a few centuries.
Sorry, but I disagree.
A vast number of people are influenced by the electronic media, and it is important that those folks hear the truth.
Papist: Then, it is to bloggers to help spread the truth as you are doing here!
St. Margaret Mary Alacoque also wanted her writings destroyed. Thank God they weren't and now they are a devotional classic. Mother Teresa's will be too to those who are spiritually open to it.
Brassband is right. It's my opinion that the Church's lack of media savvy really hurts our image. We can't just sit back and let people take shots at our Church, and with all due respect to William Donohue, he's not up to the task of being our spokesperson. He comes across as a curmudgeon most of the time. If she weren't married to the Chief Justice, Jane Sullivan Roberts would be my ideal spokesperson. If not her, then I propose finding a really good-looking woman in her late-20s, early-30s. ;-)
Well, Nathan, good luck finding that woman . . . but seriously I think we are singing from the same sheet of music.
In my view the Church would do very well to have a stable of articulate, telegenic and knowledgeable lay persons who could perform this task. Above all other things, TV newsgatherers are lazy and would certainly be willing to put such persons on if they were fed to them.
Ray Flynn used to do some of this on some issues, but he's not exactly what I have in mind.
Laura Ingraham . . . are you there?
We don't need "spinners", we need the truth of what the Church teaches presented - THIS is exactly what the MSM does not want. With the major news manufacturers here in New York, do you think that Father Neuhaus or Father Rutler are turning down offers to explain the faith or do you think the MSM prefer to go via satelite to Fr. Reese or Rev. Billy Joe Jim Bob to perpetuate stereotypes about Christians?
As I had hoped, Laura Ingraham was all over this story on her show this morning.
JVT --
You may be right that Fr. Neuhaus and Fr. Rulter are not "turning down" invitations . . . but I'm talking about crashing the party, so to speak, by making them affirmatively available to the media.
This is how it works with politicians and academicians. I'm guessing that there are plenty of outlets in the MSM that would jump at the chance of having either one of them on, but they might not want to participate in the type of "short burst" debates that occur.
Also, I think we would be better served by lay persons performing this function.
And although I might use the term "spin," that's not what I would want our side to be putting out, obviously.
On the Mother T. story, by the way, I heard a local talk host this AM in Northern Rhode Island (where I live) who was quite awed by Mother Teresa's persistence and steadfastness in her work during her dark periods, and who seemed to recognize it as a marvel of faith.
I nominate Colleen Carrol Campbell as spokesperson.
http://www.colleen-campbell.com/
I nominate Jeff Miller for spin doctor. The reality is we have to suit up and play ball. Playing media spin is one of today's ways of following today's Psalm response's imperative: Go out to all the world and tell the good news.
This story is a prime example of a moment in which we can tell our story. Here is a woman, widely admired, who bore the Cross. In the life of Pope John Paul II, the cross and fidelity were evident. This is a little more mysterious and will take some 'splaining--which ought to be done while the spotlight is on.
It's about time the world knew that it doesn't have to abandon Christianity to live a mystical life.
Considering the scandalous images going through my head, that the good Mother's life was more the mad whirl with Princess Diana and the like, this comes off as very mild stuff, at least to a Protestant.
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