Continued: media debate beatification of John Paul II

April 28, 2011

The media debate on the beatification of Pope John Paul II continues.

• Time magazine quotes representatives of sex-abuse victims, who see the ceremony as an additional insult, charging that the late Pope did nothing to address the scandal. The Time story also quotes CWN editor Phil Lawler in defense of the Pontiff and of his beatification.
• Jason Berry, whose reporting helped to unveil the scandal and to expose the double life of the late Father Marcial Maciel, makes a similar charge in an essay for The Nation. Berry reminds readers that in the 1980s, Father Tom Doyle sought to warn the Vatican about the crisis--to no avail.
• Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne takes an entirely different approach. He argues that if Pope John Paul II merited a "fast-track" beatification, the same urgency should be given to the cause of Pope John XXIII, who was beatified in 2000 and now is a candidate for canonization.

 

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Further information:

• Pope John Paul's Path to Sainthood: A Rush to Judgment? (Time)
• The Shame of John Paul II: How the Sex Abuse Scandal Stained His Papacy (Nation)
• It’s time to fast-track sainthood for Pope John XXIII (Washington Post)