VATICAN CITY (VATICAN CITY)
The Tablet [Market Harborough, England]
July 8, 2025
By Bess Twiston Davies
The Catholic Church ranked second in a survey of the most common themes of UK news reports on Christianity
A survey of 5,000 articles found that 1,247 concerned the Catholic Church.
The Christianity in the News Media Report said personal faith was the leading theme of all reports on Christianity published between December 2023 and November 2024.
It featured in 1,635 articles on Christianity, according to the report commissioned by the Christian media group, Jersey Road. The Church of England was mentioned in 846 reports.
Although the Catholic Church is only the second largest denomination in England and Wales (with 31 per cent of church attendance), it received 1.5 times more media coverage than the Church of England, “despite the latter being both the established church and the largest in England and Wales (34 per cent of attendance).”
Most coverage of Catholicism focused on “the controversy around the Catholic Church’s traditional views on contraception, sexuality and female ordination”.
Other coverage was inspired by the film Conclave, the re-opening of the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris, and the appointment of new cardinals.
Abuse was “also a key topic” of reporting on the Catholic Church. This “peaked” last September and October “when Pope Francis faced strong criticism from abuse survivors in Belgium, and the Irish Government set up a statutory commission of inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by Catholic religious orders.”
The report said the “fast growing” Pentecostal Church was neglected in UK news coverage of Christianity.
“It was mentioned in less than one per cent of stories, even though it represents 10 per cent of Church attendance in England and Wales, according to the Bible Society’s The Quiet Revival report, published this year,” said the report.
The growth in recent years of the Orthodox Church had also been ignored by mainstream media.
Only two per cent of overall UK media coverage reported on the persecution of millions of Christians worldwide. “Horrific abuse and mass loss of life caused by an individual’s Christian belief in countries such as Nigeria, India and North Korea have largely gone unreported.”