BALTIMORE (MD)
Baltimore Sun [Baltimore MD]
July 8, 2023
Since April 4, The Baltimore Sun has continued its hyper-focus on Catholic Church abuses in the Archdiocese of Baltimore (”Gallagher family lawsuit against Baltimore archdiocese aims to shift burden from abuse onto Catholic Church,” July 5). The Sun clearly doesn’t know many active Roman Catholics. If it did, it would know that their own disgust with the abuses has driven many to the point of leaving the church entirely.
The Sun would know that the scandal has made Catholic youth retreats or children’s gospel readings ancient history virtually overnight. The Sun would know about priest shortages, shrinking congregations and church closures. Worst of all, The Sun would know about the gathering schism in the church — that arch-conservative Catholics (and certainly non-Catholic evangelical Christians) are using the child abuses to bolster their more generalized homophobia and taking it straight to the voting booth.
Let us not be so innocent as to ignore that conservative America still associates homosexuality with pedophilia. If Roe v. Wade can fall, Obergefell v. Hodges and the right for same-sex couples to marry is next. And make no mistake: It, too, will be done in the name of “the children.”
The multiplicity of accusations has been common knowledge for years now, complete with a documentary well known to Roman Catholics. Mistrust and disgust with the Catholic Church is no longer the exception societally, but the rule. In that climate, The Sun’s incessant coverage is overkill — as if every story it finds is tantamount to breaking the story. I believe that no further coverage will actually help the victims. If anything, it may hobble jury selection in cases where someone has an otherwise strong case. Americans are all too familiar with what tabloid level publicity can do to a victim’s case in court.
If it has not already, the relentless coverage is about to open the door to opportunists making false reports in an effort to get money from the archdiocese. There are now numerous ambulance chasing legal ads on social media promising compensation. Every false report is a direct attack on the dignity of the real victims of Catholic Church sexual abuse. And whether or not The Sun acknowledges it, journalistic overkill will have played a part in that miscarriage of justice.
— Mathew Lane, Baltimore