a star is born

By Diogenes ( articles ) | Nov 23, 2010

Slate magazine has discovered L’Osservatore Romano.

The Vatican newspaper has never been daily reading for the staff of the slick online ‘zine. But on November 22, the Slate “Explainer,” which provides “answers to your questions about the news,” saw fit to give a highly favorable profile of L’Osservatore Romano, stressing the changes under the direction of new editor Giovanni Maria Vian, which have made the paper more “relevant.”

Now what do you suppose L’Osservatore did to catch the approving eye of Slate on November 22? Could it be? Yes, it could. Slate began paying careful attention when the Vatican newspaper published an out-of-context excerpt from the Pope’s new book.

The pope's comments, which were published Saturday in the Vatican's newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, represent a break from the 42-year-old Catholic ban on artificial contraception.

If you investigate the matter at all carefully (which most Slate readers won’t do), you’ll learn that the Pope’s comments did not change anything about Church teaching. And the condemnation on artificial contraception was not something arbitrarily imposed by the Catholic Church 42 years ago; it dates back to the Book of Genesis. Still, you can draw this lesson from the otherwise unreliable report: When an authoritative Catholic publication seems to leave the door ajar for acceptance of contraception, Slate takes notice.