Last week I raised the fact that The Southern
Cross, the only Catholic newspaper for South Africans, has repeatedly failed to
report on the Obama Healthcare Bill, which is threatening religious freedom in
the USA. My post was titled, “Is Our Catholic
Newspaper Meeting Expectations”.
Again this week, The Southern Cross has failed to
publish any direct articles, about this situation in the USA and the struggle
to get this healthcare bill changed. This despite the fact that about 170 US Catholic
bishops have expressed their outrage at the bill and the fact that organisations,
like EWTN and Priests for Life, have actually initiated legal action to sue the
government in this regard. Religious freedom is at risk and this is not just
about the issue of contraception.
The editorial of The Southern Cross newspaper for this week is titled, “The Catholic Conscience”. It only makes mention of the issue, briefly. Here are my comments, which I made online regarding the editorial:
This editorial speaks volumes.
Again this newspaper has failed to carry any significant report about the
important struggle going on in the USA right now, where fellow Catholics, led
by about 170 Catholic Bishops, are fighting to defend their religious freedom.
(THIS HAS BEEN GOING ON FOR A NUMBER OF WEEKS IN FACT, AND YET THIS NEWSPAPER
HAS REPEATEDLY FAILED TO REPORT ON THIS!)
Despite the above, this
newspaper deemed it fit last week to publish a report from the Catholic News
Service regarding allegations – ONLY ALLEGATIONS – of corruption in the
Vatican, which, INCIDENTALLY, had already been fiercely denied by the Vatican
BEFORE THIS NEWSPAPER PUBLISHED. In addition, the editor chose to dedicate an
entire editorial specifically to the subject of the alleged corruption. (I SAY
AGAIN ALLEGED!)
The fact that the editor this
week has chosen to slip the religious freedom struggle in the USA into an
editorial, devoted to the subject of individual conscience, and has not devoted
either a separate article or an entire editorial to the matter, even though he
was prepared to do so about merely allegations against the Vatican, is unconscionable.
It discloses much about the editor and the newspapers personal views on the
subject.
Last week a writer of the
Southern Cross was quick to defend the newspaper against my criticism with a
comment about the support the newspaper gave to the anti-abortion Mass in Cape
Town. This issue in the USA is about much more than just contraception and
pro-life views. There can be no denying it. The Southern Cross has again failed
Catholics in South Africa, and our brothers and sisters in the USA, because of
its silence on this important subject.
I will address separately the
contents of this editorial and another article in this newspaper, about the
supremacy of individual conscience. They both contain views that are erroneous
and that are likely to lead Catholics who read this newspaper astray.
