Whenever the secular media report something that the Holy Father says, I always take it with a significant grain of salt.
As Archbishop Charles J. Chaput
said last August:
We make a very serious mistake if we rely on media like the New York Times, Newsweek, CNN, or MSNBC for reliable news about religion. These news media simply don’t provide trustworthy information about religious faith—and sometimes they can’t provide it, either because of limited resources or because of their own editorial prejudices. These are secular operations focused on making a profit. They have very little sympathy for the Catholic faith, and quite a lot of aggressive skepticism toward any religious community that claims to preach and teach God’s truth.
So what’s wrong with the AP report cited in the OP?
First, it did not report what the Holy Father actually said. What he actually said was,
I greet the distinguished Delegations from Various Countries taking part in the meetings Promoted by the Community of Sant’Egidio on the theme: No Justice without Life . I express my hope That Encourage your deliberations will the political and legislative INITIATIVES Being Promoted in a growing number of Countries to eliminate the death penalty and to continue the progress made in substantive penal law conforming to the Human Dignity Both of prisoners
and the maintenance of effective public order. Upon all the English-speaking pilgrims present, Including Those from the United States, I invoke God’s blessings of joy and peace!
Why did they not report the last six words of that sentence? Would it have caused the report to exceed the word count for the article?
Curious. I mean,
Zenit reported the statement accurately.
Vatican Radio reported it accurately.
CNA managed to report it accurately, as well. Why not the AP?
Secondly, why could the AP not bother to mention the fact that this statement was made as part of a set of greetings at the end of the primary purpose of the weekly audience: catechesis. If you actually take a look at the
text of the audience, you will find that this is one of several greetings being passed out after a teaching on prayer through the whole life of Jesus. He also greeted French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Polish, Croatian, Slovenian, and Italian speaking members of the audience, including appropriate comments for each of the pilgrim groups (including special notice to the Italian bakers:
In particular, I greet the representatives of the "Italian Federation of Bakers and Confectioners’ and express their deep gratitude for the welcome gift of panettone for the charity of the Pope greet the volunteers of the “Red Cross of Puglia” and urge them to continue their activities to the brethren in need.)
It’s not news that the Holy Father is opposed to the death penalty. And I’m not trying to make it appear that he does.
But this was not some major pronouncement. The Holy Father did not dedicate his weekly audience to the topic, nor was this a major speech of his. It was just a two sentence greeting that was a very small part of a whole litany of greetings given at the end of his weekly general audience. But you wouldn’t know that based upon the AP report.
