Thoughts from
San Diego on Law, Politics, and Culture

 
It's Anti-Cathlic Sunday at the New York Times!
By Tom Smith

The Gray Lady is in rare form this Sunday. In the national edition anyway (available at my local Starbuck's) there are four above the fold stories. From left to right, we learn that Bush's popularity is falling with older voters (according to a NY Times / CBS poll); Bush thinks Iraq is like the Phillipines; The wise heads at the State Department forsaw current troubles in Iraq, but were ignored, and the creation of new jobs is being stalled by overcapacity. In my edition, there is a full-color picture of President Bush looking dorky in one of those Philippino light cotton shirts (with his T-shirt showing through -- at least it's not a tank-top), next to a demure looking President Arroyo. Below the fold we learn that life sucks in Zimbabwe, as it does for the poor of New York, and in the bottom right hand corner, that the beatification of Mother Theresa is really just an excuse to sell religious kitch of the sort we simple-minded but pious Catholics are so fond.

With such an appetizing menu, it's hard to know what to choose first. More out of duty than curiosity, I turn to page 10 to read the rest of the Bush in the Philippines story, and am greeted by a picture of Philippinos burning American flags in protest over Bush's visit. Of course, whether this is typical of his reception, we have no way of learning in this newspaper. We are reminded, however, that the Philippines was yet another victim of American imperialism, which dumb old Bush apparently did not appreciate to the Time's satisfaction. Of all the Americans who died rescuing that nation from the Japanese, we hear little.

Flipping back to page 8, I look at the Mother Theresa story. This a hard one for the Times. A life of heroic virtue and sacrifice, helping the poorest of the poor. But we musn't like Mother Theresa, no, no, no. She was also an arch-conservative, against abortion, and not really very keen on sex of any sort. So what to do? Cover all the commerce around the event, that's an angle! So we get some nice photos of Mother Theresa statues for sale. I guess helping all those dying Indians was just an elaborate marketing device for rosaries.

But this is just one of several Catholic-themed stories this Sunday. The next I noticed was a profoundly clueness reflection in the Week in Review section about the pope growing old in public. How remarkable it is, muses Frank Bruni, that the pope appears in public even though he is so old. I mean, he actually looks old. He looks sick! He drools sometimes! He nods! But, he's a celebrity! Why is he letting us see him in this very un-photogenic state? Oh, I know, we are informed, it is to put before us all those issues that come from technologies that extend life! Look, the pope is saying, look at my quality of life issues! In fact, clever readers may infer this is probably not what this religious leader is doing. Try this, Frank. He is showing people that he is dying, that thing we do before we are dead. That thing we are all going to do, even the fetching model on page 11 in the Allen Schwarts champagne satin gown. And before we do, if we are lucky, we drool, nod, have trouble standing up and all the rest. It's called being old and sick, and it's part of being human. Then we die, and the religious part kicks in. Momento mori. Don't these people read books?

Finally, we are treated to an update on Andrew Sullivan's conscience as a gay man in the Catholic Church. I wonder what the odds would be of getting one's struggles of conscience published on the op-ed page of the times if the chase was, "you know, I should go back to the Church," or "I guess conventional morality was right about X after all." Remote, I should think. We find out Mr. Sullivan was unable to bring himself to go to Mass this Sunday because a gay couple he knows was kicked out of their parish choir for getting civilly unionized in Canada. (I should disclose that I was unable to bring myself to go to Mass this morning because of a combination of 2 Stone Pale Ales, half a bottle of some decent cabernet, being awakened at 2 am by our 2 day old, then again at 8 am by my wife who said 'I need to leave for William's first communion meeting in 12 minutes. I need 2 fried eggs and a copy of his Baptisimal Certificate.' In a clear act of divine grace, I was able to find the certificate in the garage file cabinet.) I guess the gist is that Mr. Sullivan is threatening to quit the Church if it doesn't shape up on gay issues. But he's not quite fed up yet, I guess. Maybe the Church can have one last chance. Me, I think the corruption at Vatican I than Acton complained about is embarassing, the whole Spanish Inquistion thing was bad, persecuting Protestants generally no better, priests taking part in recent genocides in Africa even worse, pedophile priests awful, etc., etc. Being a Catholic is like being an American. There is a lot you have to put up with. But the best of it is pretty good, and we have good enemies.
posted by thomas at 10/19/2003 04:46:00 PM