Backward Newspaper Mocks Catholics for Being Backward

“Since the same God who reveals mysteries and infuses faith has bestowed the light of reason on the human mind, God cannot deny himself, nor can truth ever contradict truth.” (CCC 159)

Msgr. Georges Lemaître (left) is known to the world as “the Father of the Big Bang”. Albert Einstein (right) is known to The Independent as “that science guy whose face we recognize”.
Msgr. Georges Lemaître (left) is known to the world as “the Father of the Big Bang”. Albert Einstein (right) is known to The Independent as “that science guy whose face we recognize”. (photo: Register Files)

A newspaper headline from The UK Independent is laughable, inaccurate, and misleading, and here's the thing — they know it. The headline snarkily screams: “Pope Francis invites scientists to the Vatican after Catholic Church realises the Big Bang is real.” Tee-hee. You get it? It's because the Church is like so totally behind the times and they're just like realizing NOW that the Big Bang is like science or something. #21stcentury!

But the truth is that the Big Bang Theory itself was a theory created by a Jesuit priest (#20thcentury!) and the Independent knows it. In the same story, they report:

The conference honours Jesuit priest, Monsignor George Lemaitre, and is being held at the Vatican Observatory. The observatory was founded by Pope Leo XIII in 1891 to help correct the notion that the Roman Catholic Church was hostile to science. In 1927, Lemaitre was the first to explain that the receding of distant galaxies was the result of the expansion of the universe, a result he obtained by solving equations of Einstein's theory of general relativity.  Lemaitre's theory was known as the "primeval atom," but it is more commonly known today as the big-bang theory. 

So how do you write that headline and follow it up with this in the story?

But then you get these precious little asides:

The conference – which runs through the week – is part of an increasing admission by the church that scientific theories were real and not necessarily in contradiction with theological doctrine.

Ah yes, science, that ancient domain of atheists and freethinkers, not kneeling Neanderthals like Copernicus, who created the heliocentric theory; Gregor Mendel, who was an Augustinian Friar and the founder of the modern study of genetics; or André Marie Ampere, whose experiments in electrical current and magnetic fields led to the "amp" being named after him.

But how do the measly advances of these men compare with the works of giants like Richard Dawkins, who invented the Flying Spaghetti Monster?

Also not mentioned in this “news” piece are all the modern scientific advances coming out of research laboratories at Catholic universities across the globe. But to be fair, it's sooooo much easier to just deliver a snarky headline than actually study science and help people.

But you see, it's only because the fashion of the day is to mock the relevance of the Church. And unlike the Church, The Independent is unable to withstand the whims and fashions of the day but must succumb to them. It's actually kind of sad.

I would wonder how a newspaper that was created just a few decades ago and had to cease its print publication and become exclusively an online website would mock the relevance of an organization that has existed for 2,000 years (#1stcentury!) and shows no signs of slowing down in the future.

I mean, the Catholic Church has been promised that the Gates of Hell would not prevail against it. The Independent couldn't even survive competition from The Telegraph! I'll tell you what: when The Independent even ceases to be an online publication, we'll say a prayer for them. A quick one anyway.