'New York Times' tries to Keep Flame Alive

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'New York Times' tries to Keep Flame Alive

Contact: Jeff Field, Director of Communications, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights, 212-371-3191, catalyst@catholicleague.org

MEDIA ADVISORY, March 26 /Standard Newswire/ -- Catholic League president Bill Donohue addresses today's New York Times news story on the pope:

"Pope Was Told Pedophile Priest Would Get Transfer." That's the headline in today's New York Times piece on the pope. Yet the Times offers absolutely no evidence to support this charge. All it says is that his office "was copied on a memo" about the transfer of Peter Hullermann. According to Church officials, the story says the memo was routine and was "unlikely to have landed on the archbishop's desk."

Let's say Archbishop Joseph Ratzinger, now the pope, did in fact learn of the transfer. So what? Wasn't that what he expected to happen? After all, we know from a March 16 Times story that when Ratzinger's subordinates recommended therapy for Hullermann, he approved it. That was the drill of the day: after being treated, the patient (I prefer the term offender) returns to work. It's still the drill of the day in many secular quarters today, particularly in the public schools. A more hard-line approach, obviously, makes more sense, but the therapeutic industry is very powerful.

In other words, there is no real news in today's news story. So why print it? To keep the flame alive. Look for the Times to run another story saying they have proof Ratzinger knew of the transfer. Did they think that after he approved the therapy that Hullermann would be sent to the Gulag?

Yesterday's Times story on the half-century old case concerning Father Lawrence Murphy will be the subject of an op-ed page ad in Tuesday's New York Times. Meanwhile, I am taking advantage of every TV opportunity to set the record straight. The pope is a great man, and the Catholic League is proud to stand by him.