The New York Times presents Catholics with a pleasant surprise today: an article on Pope Benedict XVI and the future of the Church Militant that doesn't paint the Pontiff as a cerebral killjoy and doesn't present liberal Catholic nostrums as reality (free registration required).
It is always a good thing when an article like this appears in the Gray Lady, the bible of the MSM. Perhaps it will serve as a coded message to the residents of Mediaville to put the "archconservative Ratzinger is a meanie" storyline back on the shelf -- that it is now OK to portray him as he really is: a brilliant man of faith, a priest of steadfast orthodoxy and a man of culture, sophistication, and theological and historical knoweldge.
The reporter was generally successful in resisting the powerful, pervasive assumption that a more orthodox Roman Catholic Church is necessarily a smaller one. Such is the conventional wisdom among the MSM, despite all evidence to the contrary.
The Church’s mission is to save souls, not to pack the pews. As it works out, however, if the Church is unstinting in its defense of truth while seeking the save souls, the pews will fill of their own accord. Ironically, the focus of some in the Church in filling the pews by making Church and the Mass more “fun” and “relevant” generally has the opposite effect.
The MSM just fell asleep at the wheel and let this story pass. They will be back bashing every real Catholic that tries to make a difference.
Posted by: Martha | Sunday, May 29, 2005 at 11:34 PM