|
|
|
|
|
|
Resources |
|
|
|
Archbishop Hunthausen and the Media
| Article
# : |
12207 |
|
|
Section : |
CURRENT ISSUES
|
| Issue
Date : |
2 / 1987 |
2,295 Words |
| Author
: |
Timothy Goodman
Timothy Goodman works at the council for Inter-American
Security and writes occasionally on Catholic church issues. |
Last year's meeting of the national conference of Catholic Bishops, held in November in Washington, D.C., was supposed to have focused on the bishops' pastoral letter on economic justice. The meeting dwelt, instead, on the predicament of Seattle Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen. This focus resulted principally from the secular news media's presentation of the Hunthausen affair, a relatively minor disciplinary matter, as a full-blown crisis.
The presentation successfully framed the issue in alien terms that most Catholics and even many bishops accepted. In distorting this case, the media showed once again that they simply do not understand the Catholic Church.
Hunthausen is no stranger to controversy. An outspoken advocate of nuclear disarmament, he won headlines in 1982 by announcing that thenceforth he would withhold half of his federal income taxes, the amount that he judged went to maintain the nation's nuclear arsenal. He has regularly participated in demonstrations supporting a nuclear freeze and protesting Reagan administration policies.
On internal church matters, he has been no less controversial. Since arriving in Seattle in 1975, Hunthausen has provoked a steady flow of complaints to Rome from Catholics unhappy with his alleged laxity in enforcing church teaching. Critics accused him, among other things, of sanctioning sterilizations in a Catholic hospital, unacceptably altering the liturgy, and allowing the local chapter of Dignity, a militant homosexual Catholic group, to celebrate Mass in his cathedral.
Complaints became so
... (1997 of 14349 Characters)
Read Full Article
|
|
