Ahead of Pope Francis visiting Ireland in the coming days, NBC’s Today show offered a nasty hit piece on the Catholic Church that cheered the nation moving left on issues like gay marriage and abortion. The segment also highlighted liberal critics of the Church rooting for the religious institution’s demise.
After co-host Hoda Kotb warned that “one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in the world may not be the most welcoming place for the Pontiff,” correspondent Anne Thompson began her hostile report by featuring footage of church ruins and proclaiming: “This may be the best metaphor for the Catholic Church in Ireland – a church in ruin. Brought to its knees by an inside job of abuse, secrecy, and intolerance.”
Very little of the story actually focused on the horrific child sexual abuse crisis facing the Church. Instead, Thompson decided to focus on advancing liberal social issues, happily declaring: “The Church’s once ironclad grip on Irish society is all but gone, along with the ideas it drilled into people’s heads.”
A soundbite followed of Mary McAuliffe, Professor of Gender Studies at University College Dublin, who ranted: “The respectably Irish woman was married, reproductive, and domestic. If you were outside of that, you were to be punished.”
Thompson expressed satisfaction at Ireland’s recent leftward political shift:
Ever-faithful Ireland now increasingly secular. The world’s first nation to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote, along with overturning bans on contraception, divorce, and just this year, abortion. Leaving the Church behind politically and spiritually.
A clip then ran of liberal Irish priest Tony Flannery, who was simply identified as a “priest suspended for advocating reform,” who lectured: “For two centuries in Ireland we’ve had a Church authority that controlled people with the total emphasis on laws and rules. Now we need to get free of all of that and get back to the Gospel of love.”
In reality, Flannery’s suspension was the result of him contradicting Church doctrine on homosexuality and contraception.
Thompson followed: “Today’s Ireland is not the nation Pope John Paul II saw when he visited in 1979. Then, more than 90% of Catholics went to weekly mass. Pope Francis comes to a country where it’s closer to 35%.”
Talking to Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the end of the report, Thompson pressed: “Is this a church that must die to be resurrected?”
Thursday’s CBS This Morning also provided a full report on the upcoming papal visit to Ireland. However, unlike NBC, that segment rightfully kept the focus on the abuse scandal and largely left out the liberal politics.
Despite that, there was one moment where correspondent Jonathan Vigliotti spoke with Sister Liz Murphy, a prominent Irish nun, who harshly denounced the Church and seemed to even wish for its destruction: “It is a very male, masculine, institutional, top-down, dictatorial body. Who wouldn’t want, as a woman, to see that collapse?”
Following the report, co-host Norah O’Donnell hailed: “Sister Liz Murphy, can we hear more from her?” Fill-in co-host Bianna Golodryga advocated that the nun “Needs to be the spokesperson for the Church, is what she needs to do right now.” O’Donnell agreed: “Yeah, and instituting the reform. She’s terrific.” Co-host John Dickerson chimed in: “I’m praying for Sister Liz Murphy.” O’Donnell replied: “Me, too.”
It’s one thing for the media to provide responsible coverage of major scandals in the Catholic Church, it’s another to gloat over the religious institution’s supposed downfall and celebrate left-wing policy goals being achieved as a result.
Here is a full transcript of the August 23 report:
8:34 AM ET
HODA KOTB: Now turning to a highly anticipated trip for Pope Francis. He is heading to Ireland later this week. But one of the most devoutly Catholic nations in the world may not be the most welcoming place for the Pontiff.
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: That’s right, it’s because he’s arriving, of course, in the wake of that bombshell grand jury report out of Pennsylvania which accused priests of abusing thousands of children over seven decades.
CRAIG MELVIN: It’s only the second time the Pope has ever visited Ireland and the world will be closely watching for his message and how that message is received. NBC’s Anne Thompson has a preview.
ANNE THOMPSON: This may be the best metaphor for the Catholic Church in Ireland – a church in ruin. Brought to its knees by an inside job of abuse, secrecy, and intolerance.
BRIAN DARCY: Trust broken is trust finished. And you never restore the trust.
THOMPSON: Brian Darcy is a priest and a survivor of clerical sexual abuse.
DARCY: People had to make up their own mind about their own moral status. And they discovered that the roof didn’t fall in when they did.
THOMPSON: The Church’s once ironclad grip on Irish society is all but gone, along with the ideas it drilled into people’s heads.
MARY MCAULIFFE [PROFESSOR OF GENDER STUDIES AT UNIVERSITY COLLEGE DUBLIN]: The respectably Irish woman was married, reproductive, and domestic. If you were outside of that, you were to be punished.
THOMPSON: Here on this site once stood a home for unwed mothers run by the Church. Underneath, a horrifying discovery, a mass grave of human remains ranging in age from 35 weeks to 3 years. Revelations provoking visceral anger.
Ever-faithful Ireland now increasingly secular. The world’s first nation to legalize same-sex marriage by popular vote, along with overturning bans on contraception, divorce, and just this year, abortion. Leaving the Church behind politically and spiritually.
TONY FLANNERY [PRIEST SUSPENDED FOR ADVOCATING REFORM]: For two centuries in Ireland we’ve had a Church authority that controlled people with the total emphasis on laws and rules. Now we need to get free of all of that and get back to the Gospel of love.
THOMPSON: Today’s Ireland is not the nation Pope John Paul II saw when he visited in 1979. Then, more than 90% of Catholics went to weekly mass. Pope Francis comes to a country where it’s closer to 35%. In Dublin, as low as single digits. Bernard Burns sees it all from his souvenir store in Knock, Ireland’s most sacred shrine.
BERNARD BURNS: They still have the faith, but it’s – I think their faith is directly to God now.
THOMPSON: Not the priests?
BURNS: Not the priests.
THOMPSON: The faithful still exist, but they are an aging flock.
NICOLA MITCHELL [KNOCK SHRINE YOUTH MINISTRY]: What we need to do as a church is to open our arms to young people, show them that we care about them, and show them that we love them exactly the way they are.
THOMPSON: To become relevant again is the challenge facing Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.
Is this a church that must die to be resurrected?
DIARMUID MARTIN: You know, that is a basic Christian theology. The Church is Ireland will prosper, but it will be a very different Church.
THOMPSON: And not just another relic of Ireland’s past. For Today, Anne Thompson, NBC News, Dublin.
GUTHRIE: Just the generations of heartbreak and sadness. It’s just – and when you see it’s happening in – it’s a global problem.
MELVIN: Not just Ireland. It would seem as if the Catholic Church is at a crossroads.
KOTB: Absolutely. We should mention, we’re going to have live coverage of the Pope’s trip to Ireland. That starts tomorrow, right here on Today.
