South Bend Journal Distorts Bishop's Statement

http://www.southbendtribune.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20090414/News01/904140347/0/FRONTPAGE
This South Bend Journal article included the following information:
Bishop John D'Arcy, whose diocese includes the university, is urging people to stay away from demonstrations against the school or Obama

The blogs lit up over this statement. My first reaction when I heard about it was to feel discouraged. But I wanted to find the actual quote first. It took a while to dig up the statement on the Diocesan web site.

I smelled a rat when I read this story. Sure enough the Bishops direct quote (below) was significantly different than the reporter's mis-characterization of the same.

It seemed odd to me that the reporter used direct quotes in the sentence afterwards "peaceful graduation" but did not do so about the whole demonstrators stay away thing.

The reporter could have easily included the two words the Bishop inserted before "demonstrations" ("unseemly and unhelpful") but chose to leave them out. He could have easily included those words. At the very least it was sloppy reporting. At it's worst it was deceptive editorializing on the news page.

The Bishop's exact words were to stay away from "unseemly and unhelpful demonstrations..." He made a distinction about the kind of demonstrations he wanted people to stay away from.

I think we can agree from his original letter about the scandal, the Bishop is a straight talker. Indeed his comments in this letter were very brief as well. If he didn't want people to come to the campus at all he would have said so. There is a reason he instead referred to "unseemly and unhelpful demonstrations". I share that concern. The students of NDResponse have engaged in no such activity and I think the Bishop is distinguishing their behavior from others.

His advice in this regard is good. I hope and pray that those who might be considering such demonstrations heed his words of advice. By keeping a prayerful peaceful presence we will keep the focus on the scandal and the victims of abortionists who cannot speak for themselves.

Please pray that massive numbers of Catholics will join us in South Bend that weekend.