WYD Madrid the real Catholic deal

LOL, as the young people say. Around 1.5 million people assembled in Madrid for World Youth Day to greet and support the Holy Father, Pope Benedict, the direct descendant of St. Peter, given the keys of the kingdom and the authority to lead and guide the Church by Christ Jesus, while He was present on Earth, here among us. Not a bad number of people, that; from all corners of the world, all races, all backgrounds. The poor as well as the privileged were there, because being Christian it was arranged that wealth would be redistributed so as to allow everybody to attend.

There was no violence, no stealing, no mayhem. That’s a minor miracle usually when a few dozen young people go on vacation together, let alone more than a million of them! They also brought a small fortune into the Spanish economy, at a time when it needs it more than ever. Oh, and unlike the absurd propaganda surrounding gay pride day in Toronto, these numbers were genuine. That claim of a magic million, croaked by the mainstream media every year, is pure nonsense.

Still, the point is that Madrid, as with every World Youth Day, is the real thing. But just hold on one little secular humanist moment. There I was driving along in my RAV 4 with the BBC on my satellite radio, when I heard the journalist mention that there was some sort of crowd assembled in Spain, and then spend the rest of the report on the 150 protesters who were there. They were complaining, the reporter insisted, that the government should not be spending money on such an event, and that — here we go — the Church is homophobic, misogynistic, abusive, nasty, smelly and all the rest.

It obviously escaped the attention of the demonstrators, and the BBC reporter, that the Spanish government did not pay anything for World Youth Day and that more than a million tourists in a single week inject hundreds of millions of dollars into a financially cringing Madrid. But what about the actual reality and proportions of all this? A million-and-a-half people on one side, around 100 on the other. It should also be said that many if not most of those 100 used foul language, threatened violence and tried to provoke the pilgrims with taunts, nudity and obscene antics and gestures.

But those of us who know media are not surprised at all. This has happened before, and will happen again. Often it’s malice, sometimes pure ignorance. In a Toronto Star article last month it was explained that Orthodox Christians were different from Roman Catholics, because Catholics believe that the Pope is divine, while the Orthodox regard him as an ordinary human being. I think the newspaper was confusing Catholicism with pre-war Japanese emperor worship, but so be it.

In July The New York Times blasted the archbishop of that city because he had failed to condemn a local case of alleged abuse until the police were involved. It was pointed out that he couldn’t have condemned it, or said anything about it, because he had only been informed of the incident when the police told him about it, and he then acted immediately and relentlessly! Mind you, this case looks extremely unsure, but it’s open season on the Church of course, and those who demand innocence before guilt for the vilest of criminals tend to argue for the contrary when Catholic clergy are accused.

It’s all good for the soul I suppose, but it’s severely anti-intellectual and makes an informed and productive debate about Catholicism extremely difficult in the public square. Honest reporting, balanced reporting, informed reporting, should be required for everybody and every issue. Once we allow exceptions, we encourage bigotry and prejudice. The truth is paramount and as Catholics we have a duty to stand up and respond when we are lied about. Not because we are special, but precisely because we’re not. We’re just like everybody else and should be treated accordingly. Now wouldn’t that be a divine thing — just like the Toronto Star’s version of the Pope.

(Coren’s new book is Why Catholics Are Right. His web site is www.michaelcoren.com.)