Bishops Prefer PR to Prayer and Orthodoxy

Claims against 70 Boston priests under the charge of Cardinal Law who paid out less than $157 Million was eclipsed by the $660 Million figure being paid out to victims in the Los Angeles Archdiocese headed by Cardinal Mahony at the same time; but Mahony is still fighting with the crimes of his youth. The numbers of victims and priestly predators involved are comparable, the only difference being that Cardinal Mahony was more friendly to homosexuals and dissidents in his See where Cardinal Law was perceived as a "conservative".

Perhaps it was Cardinal Mahony's mob connections through film moughul Lew Wasserman who engineered the box office failure, "Last Temptation of Christ", or perhaps it was the luxuriant high-profile Sitrick PR man he was able to pay for that tipped the scales? It's always seemed incredibly unfair to us elsewhere, but Cardinal Mahony, who was just as much a problem in protecting homosexual priests, never had to resign his office and go back to Rome.

The unequal treatment meted out between conservatives and liberals will no doubt continue, but even a few evil Bishops in Ireland are now being forced into retirement; one wonders if they are the only ones who deserve to be thrown out considering the lack of religious education in their country as demonstrated by three priests interviewed recently on Irish Television who either didn't seem to know their Faith, or were eager to subvert it out of malice.

Still, even if you don't know the Faith, there's still a lot of real-estate out there and it's a nice gig. So in order to protect this valuable spiritual benefice, the Bankrupt Diocese of Wilmington, like Cardinal Mahony in LA, has ordered up its own http://PR company to enable it to blunt the ire of the public in the face of the scandal caused by homosexuals and exploited by the Marxist media and government.

Perhaps PR saves the day and will save the day this Christmas as the Chicago Archdiocese shells out almost a $1 Million dollars to lure fallen away Catholics, most of whom "just drifted off" over the years, to return back to their places on Sunday, praying. If they just drifted off, perhaps it is thanks to the poor catechesis by area Lavender Dons like Cardinal Bernardine and Archbishop Weakland?
Well, if you can't get them by praying, at least you can lure them by snazzy marketing gags and hiring expensive PR firms.

We think Bishops would have better PR if they actually gave some demonstrable proof that they believed in what they taught, rather than hiring spin-doctors to make them look believeable. Unfortunately, it's hard to justify the process of PR, encouraging people to mechanical compliance to your point of view through emotional appeals is going to get anyone to heaven. We don't know, but it seems unlikely that anyone will learn the fundamentals of Catholic doctrine, and judging from recent Pew polls on Catholics who view Catholicism as a spiritual smorgasboard, it seems unlikely to change.

We also think things would change if Cardinal George were to be publicly whipped by traditional Saxon monks on public television like Peter O'Toole in his portrayal of Henry II in Beckett.


Sun Times

ELGIN -- Carrie Rauch has been active in the Catholic Church since she was a child. Her devotion continues to this day as director of evangelism at St. Thomas More Catholic Church.

Yet she understands how someone can become a lapsed Catholic. It could be due to anger, personal difficulties or a struggle with the church's teachings, she said.

Parishioners at St. Charles Borromeo Catholic Church in Hampshire hold a candlelight vigil in 2007. A new initiative is encouraging Catholics to reconnect with their local parish.

What Rauch hopes is her fellow Catholics will come back to the church and sort out those issues.

"It's in God's hands to move people. We will provide the hospitality and warmth to come back," she said.

Rauch is at the forefront of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Rockford's new campaign, Catholics Come Home, an initiative to draw lapsed Catholics back to the church.

This week saw the launch of the initiative in northern Illinois. A series of TV commercials, which began airing last week, will run throughout the Rockford and Joliet dioceses and the Chicago archdiocese until Jan. 24.

Catholics Come Home is an invitation to people who once filled the pews but now stay home on Sunday morning. It encourages them to reconnect with their local parish and participate in a program that will re-orient them to the church and its teachings.

The number of those Catholics is high, according to a recent study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life. One in 10 American adults is a former Catholic, the study found. There are more lapsed Catholics in America than there are affiliated Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Orthodox Christians, Mormons, Jehovah's Witnesses and Presbyterians combined, according to Pew's breakdown of religions in America.

Local churches are hoping the marketing blitz will help them fix a problem that prayer hasn't [who says anyone's actually praying? Fasting might not hurt either.]

"It's scheduled to be on every cable system that serves northern Illinois, and it will even bleed into southern Wisconsin and the Quad Cities," Rockford Diocese Communications Director Penny Wiegert said. "We figure that the average person will see the spots 12 times."

Exposure like that costs money. The Rockford and Joliet dioceses each are paying $250,000 for the commercials. The Chicago archdiocese is paying $850,000.

Link to Chicago Sun Times article...