Another reality check on WomenPriests news coverage

By Phil Lawler ( bio - articles - email ) | May 01, 2017

Quiz for careful readers: Where’s the giveaway in this lede from a Charlotte Observer story?

An international group defiantly opposed to the Roman Catholic Church’s ban on women priests Sunday ordained its first woman Catholic priest in the 46 counties that make up the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte.

Did you catch it? By referring to “the 46 counties that make up the Catholic Diocese of Charlotte,” the reporter is carefully not saying that this is the first woman Catholic priest in the Diocese of Charlotte. But wait: If she’s located somewhere within the Catholic diocese, but she’s not part of that diocese, how can it be accurate to call her a “Catholic” priest?

It isn’t, of course. The ceremony at “Jubilee! —a nondenominational faith community” was not a Catholic ceremony, and Bridget Mary Meehan is not a Catholic bishop, and Abigail Elztroth is not a Catholic priest. Which, unfortunately, means that this really is not a news story.

Try this headline:

Small group of women ordains new minister for sect

See what I mean? It’s accurate, but if that’s the real story, it’s not even going to merit a headline.

It could be a blog post, though—and sure enough it is. Yet even for that I have an editorial question: Why didn’t the photographer take a few steps back, and use a wide-angle lens, so that we could all see the throng of joyous young people packed wall-to wall and singing their full-throated praise?