Thinking About Realities Facing Pope Leo XIV
(ANALYSIS) There’s a good chance that you may have heard that the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics have a new shepherd.
You may have heard this news because, to skilled religion writers (and wise editors who hire them) a papal election is the Godbeat Olympics. At the same time, the rest of the world views these transitions as political elections in which candidates wear spectacular vestments and talk too much about God.
Now, there are doctrinal issues in Catholic life in which ancient truths collide with modern (and I would say postmodern) trends. Catholics disagree on how to deal with that. Catholics in different parts of the world — think fading, but rich, Germany vs. growing, but poor, nations in Africa — are frequently divided.
Thus, there are “camps” inside Catholicism that clash on debates about ancient doctrines — such as the sanctity of human life, from conception to natural death, and the importance of marriage, gender and sexuality. Way too many mainstream editors view these conflicts through the lens of politics.
Can you say “Fiducia Supplicans”? I knew that you could. As it turns out, Catholic shepherds in Germany had a different reaction to that Vatican document that sort-of approved the blessing of same-sex couples than did the Catholic shepherds in Africa. (Hold that thought, because I may go there in this coming week’s national “On Religion” column).
Now, when you are a WEEKLY columnist like me, the clock and the calendar are everything and they are frequently not on your side.
I had already chosen a topic, one linked to global Catholicism, for the week that Pope Francis died. It was too late for me to do anything other than insert a quick reference to the pope’s death.
Also, I knew that reporters for DAILY publications and digital outlets that operate 24/7 would be doing wall-to-wall coverage on the loss of Francis and the start of the process to select his successor.
The key term here is “lead time,” as in the gap between reporting and writing and when the finished product will be available for readers.
To read the rest of Terry Mattingly’s post, visit his Substack at Rational Sheep.
Terry Mattingly is Senior Fellow on Communications and Culture at Saint Constantine College in Houston. He lives in Elizabethton, Tennessee, and writes Rational Sheep, a Substack newsletter on faith and mass media.