In this post by Get Religion, the author discusses whether or not a news article on a recent sex scandal within the Catholic clergy went too far in its attachment of religion to the crimes that were committed.
In the news article, the opening paragraph describes pictures that were found on the Bishop Raymond Lahey's computer- one mentioned being "a naked naked boy wearing only rosary beads."
Got Religion is questioning whether or not this aspect of the child pornography should have been included. A crime is a crime- why include the part about the rosary? Got Religion concludes that the journalist involved was partially motivated by a negative feeling toward the Catholic Church, and wanted to emphasize the linkage between the religion and the crime.
I think that the coverage of the story, including the addition of the rosary beads worn by the naked boy, was not only acceptable but commendable. Got Religion is run by religious believers, and so they naturally shy away from the media portraying religion in negative terms.
However, the truth of the matter is that the Catholic Clergy, taken as a whole, have an extremely large number of sex scandals involving underage children- in fact, if you look at it in terms of percentage, I'd say that they probably have the highest percentage of this type of crime than any other group.
That makes the rosary on the boy an important part of the story. The Catholic Church NEEDS to be criticized for the large number of scandals, and especially the cover-ups by people who knew exactly what was going on. If the media is associating the Catholic Church with sexual crimes against minors, it is not because of a media bias but rather because of a large propensity of reported cases of child sexual abuse among Catholic Priests. If Catholics want to remove this stigma, they need to work harder at it.
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