Some Reporters Will Do Anything for a Story
Reading about a reporter in Italy who faked confessions at a variety of churches to see if his confessions were treated equally. As you can imagine, the Catholic Church is none too pleased with him, considering it a violation of confession.
Personally, in a lot of ways I’m surprised this hasn’t happened more often. There are certainly enough reporters without a sense of limits in the world.
I don’t understand why it should be such a shock to him that he received different reactions from different priests. They’re still human, after all, even if he is asking questions on topics that the Catholic Church has strong opinions on, such as homosexuality, divorce, stem-cell research, euthanasia and prostitution.
He did at least get consistent answers on abortion.
On the other topics, while the Pope may have specific opinions on such matters, and they may be a matter of doctrine, but priests have to deal with real people in situations that are not ideal. It just doesn’t surprise me to see them drifting from exactly what the Vatican considers to be ideal.
Yes, I’m Catholic, but far from what the Vatican would consider a perfect one, and as such I understand that priests having to deal with individuals are going to try to be very compassionate rather than condemning everything they’re supposed to condemn.
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