ATLANTA (GA)
Washington Post
By David Gibson| Religion News Service, Published: June 14
The nation’s Catholic bishops, gathered in Atlanta this week for their annual spring meeting, have discussed various issues of great import for the church, from their policies against sexual abuse to their campaign on behalf of religious freedom.
But the suggestion on Thursday (June 14) that the hierarchy consider hiring a chief spokesperson for the first time ever prompted the most intense soul-searching so far. The debate reflected a tension between the historic reluctance of individual bishops to cede their own pulpits and the recognition that the bishops have been losing the media war in recent high-profile controversies.
“We need more help and more sophistication in our messaging,” said Boston Cardinal Sean O’Malley. O’Malley strongly endorsed the proposal to hire a chief spokesperson for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which is the hierarchy’s Washington-based organizational and public policy arm.
The cardinal noted in particular the public relations “debacle” resulting from the Vatican crackdown on a leadership group of American nuns, Rome’s censoring of another nun’s theological writings, the USCCB’s investigation of the Girl Scouts for alleged ties to Planned Parenthood, and the bishops’ fight against the Obama administration’s contraception mandate.
All those things played into the narrative that the church is waging a “war on women” — a meme that clearly leaves many bishops frustrated given the high stakes of the controversies and their desire to improve their public standing after a decade of playing defense in the clergy abuse scandal.
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