Lazy Journalism

Lazy Journalism

As my husband drives our car across Ohio to join my extended family for Thanksgiving, I read the USA Today that was outside our hotel door this morning. I enjoy reading about the new Muppet Movie. I am a true Muppet fan, so much so that as a recent college grad I wouldn‘t go out on Saturday night until I watched, the Muppet Show. I also have a small Beeker on my dresser that my husband gave me one Christmas!. The article was a delightful interview between the actor and Kermit. We hope to go see this movie as a family this weekend.

I peruse the front section of the newspaper and am interested to see that they have an article on the Third Edition of the Roman Missal that will be used beginning this Sunday. I am dismayed to find that two-thirds of the article focuses on those who are not happy about the revisions in the Mass. According to the article, a lay person claims that “the liturgy is the prayer of the people and we had had no say in the change”. A priest doesn’t like the change. Some Irish priests asked the Vatican to slow down the process.

USA Today and this journalist decides to use this article to criticize the changes in the Catholic mass. The article does not include any statistics, only anecdotal comments on the changes. The revised Missal will mean a change for the laity and the priests. I am looking forward to the changes. Those who have taken the time to learn about the new words and what they mean  understand that English speaking Catholics will now worship with the same words as the rest of the world. Isn’t that exciting?

I, for one am excited about praising God by saying, “We praise you, we bless you, we adore you, we glorify you…”.during the Gloria. My parish has been singing parts of the new mass for several weeks. On Monday, during the daily mass, when we said the Sanctus, my brain twinged a little when repeating the current words. The change is small, but my brain is learning the new way, little by little.

It is a change and change is never easy for anyone. Our world is filled with change and you would think that we would realize that the norm for our lives is change. It is easy to find examples of people who want to criticize any type of change and easy to find people who want to criticize the church. In recent years, the media seems to excel in both areas.

Instead of considering the wonderful opportunities in front of the millions of Catholic Christians who will worship in a slightly different way beginning on Sunday, USA Today chose to editorialize with this article about the Church. Perhaps their message is that they do a great job writing feature articles on movies - but that is where their expertise ends. This article is simply an example of lazy journalism. I’ll find something else to read tomorrow morning.