VOL. 35, NO. 14
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Friday, April 5, 1991
FALL RIVER, MASS.
Southeastern Massachusetts' Largest Weekly
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Media depict "oppressive" church WASHINGTON(CNS)- u.s. an issue "supported by all people secular news media portray the of good will," it said. church as "conservative, oppresIn overall reporting, "sources sive, and out of touch with the supporting the church were in the modern world," says a study of minority on the broad range of television and print coverage of debates involving sexual morality the church over the last three and church authority that domidecades. nated the coverage," the study The study, "Media Coverage of said. the Catholic Church," was released Coverage grew increasingly negin Washington March 26 and was ative over the decades as "official commissioned by the Knights of . church teachings were promoted Columbus and the Catholic League less frequently and were challenged for Religious and Civil Rights. more often when they did appear," It was' conducted by S. Robert the study said. Lichter, Daniel Amundson and The study found the church Linda Lichter of the Washington- depicted as "a beleaguered authorbased Center for Media and Pub- ity struggling to enforce its tradilic Affairs, a nonpartisan, non- tions and decrees on a reluctant profit organization. The center constituency." analyzes scientifically how the The 93-page study said repormedia treat social and political ters often covered religion as if it ' issues. were politics and. treated controvThe study found news media ersies "as conflicts between the have emphasized criticism more church hierarchy, on one side, and than support of church teaching lower-level clergy, lay Catholics when reporting on Catholic issues. and non-Catholics on the other." Findings were based on a samSex was the leading controverpling of "CBS Evening News," sial topic in every time period stuTime magazine, The New York died and in coverage by every Times and The Washington Post. outlet except The Washington Post, Analysts studied coverage in thrtee where sex came in second to power five-year blocks, 1964-68, 1974-78 struggles. . and 1984-88. Time magazine was the "most "On most controversies," in- preoccupied" with sex, it said. cluding birth control, priestly celiTime and The Washington Post bacy, role of women and minori- gave significantly heavier emphaties, and dissent, "the church came sis to pe.ople opposed to church out on 'the losing side of the issue teachings on sexuality than did debate," the study said. The New York Times and CBS. The exception was ecumenism, The effect overall was "to present the debate over sexual morality as which the news media treated as
a split between the church hierarchy and everyone else," the study said. The'study found a shift in treatment of abortion. In the 1970s when the coverage centered on _the U.S. Catholic bishops' response to the 1973 Roe vs. Wade Supreme Court decision legalizing abortion, most "published statements supported the church," the study said. By the 1980s, "t he amount of debate had nearly doubled; opinion was now slightly opposed to the church," it said. It attributed the change to secular groups campaigning for abortion rights and coverage of the controversy surrounding a 1984 New York Times advertisement seeking a change in church abortion policy. News media gave "heavy cover-_ age" to power and authority issues too, and "opinions in news stories consistently favored decentralizing power," the. study said. Such coverage increased in the 1980s, "largely due to discussions of academic freedom and dissent connected to such high-profile figures as Father Charles Curran and Archbishop Raymond Hunthausen" of Seattle, and "the push for greater theological orthodoxy" by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, it said. "Church decisions were rejected Turn to Page II
DOMESTIC HUNGER: Some 2,500 people line the sidewalk outside a Chicago church awaiting a food giveaway. (CNS/UPI photo)
Hunger stalks land ~ays new report
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O:ne child in 8 -goes hungry to bed
PARTICIPANTS IN A recent conference held at Stonehill College, North Easton, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Rerum Novarum, papal encyclical on the condition of the working classes, were, from left, Dorothy Shields, director Department of Education AFL-CIO; Rev. J. Bryan Hehir, professor of ethics and international relations at Georgetown University; Bishop Daniel A. Cronin; Rev. James Hennesey, S.J., professor of history of Christianity at Canisius College; Msgr. Daniel F. Hoye, pastor of St. John the Evangelist parish, Attleboro; and Rev. Bartley MacPhaidin, C.S.C., president of Stonehill College. The diocese of Fall River'and the Joseph W. Martin, Jr. Institute for Law and Society at Stonehill College cosponsored the conference. (Bauman photo)
WASHINGTON (CNS) - Fifty years after Franklin Roosevelt was elected president in part of the promise to solve the nation's hunger problem, the United States has 20 millio~: people unable to feed themselves regularly, according to a recen" congressional committee report. ~l Othe~istatistics. part of the results . of a tnree-year survey released March 26, show that one in everyeight of the nation's children goes to bed hungry. Proposals for tackling such domestic hunger issues are part of a far-reaching bill soon to be introduced in Congress. It would borrow from Roosevelt's vision with recommendations seeking to eliminate many of the barriers to self-support for the nation's poor, as well as revise how U.S. poverty funds are-spent abroad. Its domestic price tag is estimated at $1 billion. The Freedom From Want Act, sche'duled for introduction in the House after lawmakers return from their two-week Easter recess, includes: - Sweeping changes to existing
programs such as eligibility restrictions for food stamps; - New incentives to encourage communities to work on eliminating hunger; - Projects to make it easier for poor people to save money and to start small businesses; - Programs to study and reduce infant mortality, according to a fact sheet on the proposal being prepared by the House Select Committee on Hunger. Much broader in scope than recent anti-hunger bills, the Freedom from Want Act also addresses how the United States spends its assistance money abroad. according to committee spokesman Neal Flieger. It would initiate new human rights policies as a requirement for receiving U.S. food and medical aid; increase funding for child survival programs and for the Migration and Refugee Assistance Account; and develop environmental sustainability standards for agricultural programs. Many of the measure's proposals echo efforts by such groups as Turn to Page II