ABC’s Hungry Beast Program Misrepresents the Catholic Church
I was unsure as to whether I should post a response to a set of claims made in a program called ‘Hungry Beast’ that aired on ABC. Even though hardly anyone watches it I thought I’d respond non-the-less as a tiny fraction of my taxes paid for this crap. The offending piece is “THE BEAST FILE: THE HISTORY CATHOLIC CHURCH SEX SCANDAL.”
There are a number of claims made in it, and the most important all seem to stem from a few books written by either dissident pseudo-Catholics like Tom Doyle, or pathological critics like David Yallop. Doyle’s book in particular is utter trash, written with Patrick Wall, neither of whom have a shred of credibility on these issues and been shown to have seriously misrepresented Catholic matters in the past. And even if they hadn’t, neither has recognised skill in historiography and thus would be unwise to trust on such matters. So I guess we learn that the best way to understand something is to uncritically accept what its critics claim is true of it and not look for disconfirming evidence.
The piece misrepresents the 2001 letter from Ratzinger and of course, the 1962 and 1917 documents known as Crimen sollicitationis, enough that it brought everything else into disrepute. It feels great to know my taxes are going to perpetuate anti-Catholic conspiracy theories that I’ve done as much as I can with my meagre resources to destroy.
Related Posts
- Christopher Hitchens on Papal Fallibility
- Emotion and Argument
- Barney Zwartz and Catholic Issues
- The Intelligence of Film Critics
- The Pope’s Visit to Australia
Comments
Leave a Reply