Sometimes the court gets it right on religious rights

It’s interesting how often the media picks up on bad news about religion — in particular, news about Catholic schools — and judiciously avoids some of the positive news from around the country.  

Although I recognize that statement is a generalization that doesn’t cover all media, the recent Supreme Court decision in favour of Jesuit-run Loyola College in Montreal provides a case in point. While The Catholic Register covered the event, the story received minimal coverage elsewhere even though it was a significant decision, not only for Catholic education, but for religious freedom in Canada.  

There is an ongoing trend to ignore religious events unless they are bad news or represent excess or misunderstandings of religious truths. As an example, how many media outlets significantly covered the celebration of Easter across the Christian community? There are an estimated  2.2 billion Christians in the world. So you would think that such a large event would gather more acknowledgement.  

Instead, often what is presented is an Easter egg hunt rather than stories on how busy churches become during Holy Week and through Easter. There is a general decline in reporting on religious events by the media. Just look at how many news organizations no longer maintain regular sections in the newspaper to report on religion. That’s why many people, feeling unrepresented in the national media, turn to specialty newspapers such as The Catholic Register or Catholic web sites.