Reporters Bare Their Souls at Vatican Media Conference

FORT WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM, July 24—Time, Newsweek, and U.S. News and World Report say their cover stories on religious topics are among their best-selling issues, John Dart of the Los Angeles Times said. But religion is still rarely covered, representatives of newspapers, ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, and National Public Radio told Vatican officials at a recent Religion and Media 2000 conference in Rome.

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram asked journalists why.

“Too many people in my business simply cannot see, before their very eyes, just how big this story of faith is,” said David Lawrence, publisher of the Miami Herald.

Lynn Neary, religion correspondent for National Public Radio, said that “We still are the only ones covering religion on a national basis.” One reason: it is misunderstood as politics.

The Houston Chronicle's Cecile Holmes demonstrated the misunderstanding, telling the paper: “At the beginning of the millennium we find that religion is both a powerful force of peace and justice, and also a relentless weapon for war, rape, torture, and genocide.”

Lawrence said his paper thinks of politics when it sees religion, too.

“We have one of the best religion writers in the country in April Witt,” he said. “But in our planning and brainstorming about how to cover [the Pope's Cuba visit], her advice simply was not sought. The editors managing the Cuban coverage thought this was a political story, not a religion story. We think obviously it was both.”

Larry Register of CNN, said “We covered the Pope in Cuba extensively, but it was not covered specifically as religion.”

Reporters said that the meeting left issues unresolved, but was the “beginning of a dialogue.”