When covering complex, controversial subjects, the journalism educators at the Poynter Institute have long stressed the importance of paying attention to criticisms made by “stakeholders” linked to a story.
What’s a “stakeholder”? Basically, it is a person or group directly linked to the core issues and information included in a news story, people whose lives and work will be directly affected by this coverage.
That’s the first thing I thought about when I saw the ambitious Associated Press feature that ran with this headline: “US Catholic priests describe turmoil amid sex abuse crisis.” It’s an important article addressing a topic — waves of change sweeping over a declining number of priests — that would be hard to cover in a book-length report, let alone a newspaper feature.
What do the ultimate “stakeholders” — Catholic priests — think of this story?
As you would expect, the story had to find a way to focus — paying special attention to the work of one priest who symbolizes larger trends. Thus, readers are introduced to the Rev. Mark Stelzer, a 62-year-old professor and chaplain at a Catholic college in Western Massachusetts who is also a recovering alcoholic who helps others wrestling with that demon. Now, he has been asked to serve as administrator at a nearby parish with 500 families. This brings us to the heart of this report:
Weighing on the entire Catholic clergy in the U.S. is the ripple effect of their church’s long-running crisis arising from sex abuse committed by priests. It’s caused many honorable priests to sense an erosion of public support and to question the leadership of some of their bishops. That dismay is often compounded by increased workloads due to the priest shortage, and increased isolation as multi-priest parishes grow scarce. They see trauma firsthand. Some priests minister in parishes wracked by gun violence; others preside frequently over funerals of drug-overdose victims.
One such victim was a 31-year-old woman whose family was among Stelzer’s closest friends. “This is one of the few times I actually felt my voice quivering,” he said of the funeral service he led last year.
Burnout has been a perennial problem for clergy of many faiths. But Thomas Plante, a psychology professor at California’s Santa Clara University who has screened or treated hundreds of Catholic clerics, sees new forms of it as the sex abuse crisis persists and many parishioners lose trust in Catholic leadership.
“You’re just trying to be a good priest and now everyone thinks you’re a sex offender,” he said. “If you walk in a park with your collar on, people think you’re on the lookout for children. ... Some have been spat upon.”
The article left me pondering several questions.
The entire piece is framed with material about the sexual-abuse crisis — which is totally understandable. Yet, over and over, readers are told about trends and changes that are linked to the rapidly declining number of men serving in the priesthood. I was left wondering: Which issue is, in practical terms, having the greater impact?
I understand that some would say the issues are connected. If that is the case, then reporters will need to find voices and evidence to help make that case.
Also, this AP report focuses on a specific region in the North American church. I understand the practical nature of that decision. Still, the report centers on one of America’s most rapidly declining regions, in terms of basic Catholic demographics. The Northeast still contains LOTS of Catholics, but the church’s momentum — in terms of growth — has shifted to the South and the West.
I totally understand that many of the changes affecting the priesthood are universal. But I was left wondering if the pressures were different in, let’s say, Georgia or California, as opposed to New York and Michigan.
Are there, for examples, regions in which vocations to the priesthood are steady or rising? If so, why is that? Also, would Catholics and progressives disagree — when discussing these trends — about the importance of issues linked to doctrine and worship?
You can see hints of these complex realities in another crucial chunk of the AP report. You knew that, in the current atmosphere in American culture, politics had to enter into this discussion. A key voice here is the Rev. William Tourigny, whose parish is not that far from that of Stelzer.
Stress, burnout, depression and addictions are among the conditions treated at St. Luke Institute, a residential treatment center for Catholic clergy and lay leaders, in Silver Spring, Maryland. …
Other stressful changes relate to ideological differences. Tourigny considers himself a progressive and has welcomed lesbian couples into Ste. Rita. He says many young priests now emerging from seminary are less tolerant of LGBTQ congregants and eager to revive the tradition of celebrating Mass in Latin.
Another change noted by several priests: Some parishioners, rather than showing deference to their pastors, openly challenge them.
“In the past they might have disagreed, but they’d be courteous. Now it’s different,” said Fichter. “They think you are not Republican enough or Democratic enough depending on which end of the political spectrum they occupy. ... They want you to preach what they want to hear, and they will confront you.”
Journalists working in the social-media age will totally “get” that last paragraph.
The bottom line: This Associated Press feature touched on many valid subjects, but there was no way to cover — in depth — the complex nature of this subject in the American church as a whole. This reported needed to be part one of a series. Part II: The lives of priests trying to handle the rapid growth of churches in the Sunbelt.