The Passing of the Pope on TV

St. Peter's Cathedral at Sunset

Pope John Paul II has passed. The cable news networks have had continuous coverage, when he fell ill and even now as pilgrims pay final respects to the Vicar of Christ. For the most part, this coverage has been surprisingly positive. If I have any real criticism it is that the anchors so often get basic facts wrong. Even some of their experts could not get things right. The anchors talked about the Pope getting the Anointing of the Sick and then repeatedly referred to it as Last Rites. Actually, this sacrament was once commonly called Extreme Unction. The Last Rites are indeed "last" if the person dies, and they include Penance and Absolution, the reception of Holy Communion, and the Anointing of the Sick. Other absurdities were also voiced, like the reference to "beanies" on the heads of bishops and Cardinals. They talked about the "throne" of Peter or the Pope while it is actually his "chair". Commentators termed his ministry as the "reign" of the Pope instead of as his "pontificate". The list of errors and mistakes goes on and on, and seem to plague all the networks.

It has been my contention for some time that the newsmedia (television, radio and paper) would do well to hire full-time religion editors. Given the endless mistakes made regarding Catholic matters all year long that I know about, I suspect that they are no better regarding the other churches and synagogues, temples and faith movements. When basic mistakes are made, it weakens their credibility in the eyes of patrons. Further, some of the issues that they report from religious circles are quite complex and require more than a quick thirty second overview. Note how often they interview the religious anchor from the Catholic EWTN network. Some of them are recognizing that they are so clueless that they have to go to a competitor television station to make sense of what is going on.