Tom Giffels, who handles news for Akron’s Serra Club, sent this email to club members:
“Last night Channel Eight News aired a piece containing a private conversation held in Bishop Lennon's office between a St. Patrick parishoner (Name I don't recall) and the Bishop. Many of you probably saw it. The conversation was recorded without Bishop Lennon's knowledge and was then fed to Channel Eight. They touted it for days as some kind of a sensational revelation, which it turned out not to be.
"My opinion is that this was an unpleasant circumstance at the minumum and a lousy attempt at discrediting the Bishop at the maximum. Recording my Bishop without his knowledge or consent for public exposure is a low-handed piece of trickery that brings nothing but ridicule from those outside of the congregation of Practicing Catholics. We all harbor our opinions of the handling of the church closings and the tales of woe are rampant. But many fallen aways and others outside of our congregation love to feed on this stuff. This was a big mistake."
Blog comment:
The bishop took part in a conversation back in May with Pat Schulte Singleton. She was a member of St. Patrick's -- a church on Cleveland's west side that has since been closed.
It was not untll 2001 that the American Bar Asspociation reversed its opinion that
recording without consent is conduct involving fraud, dishonesty or misrepresentation.
The 2001 opinion holds that "the mere act of secretly but lawfully recording a conversation inherently is not deceitful." But, it goes on to say that many states have substantive law making it a crime to record without consent of all parties, and, many states disagree with the ABA's opinion.
Twelve states require the consent of every party to a conversation in order to make the recording lawful. Federal law permits recording in-person conversations with the consent of at least one of the parties. Even though Ohio is not one of the 12 there might be a basis for a civil suit in this case.
Editors we know say they would never instruct a reporter to record an interview without consent. Fox 8 News I-Team’s Bill Schiel is not one of them.
Closing of parishes has been painful, so we should consider one observation of the Bishop::
In 1970, the diocese had 950,000 Catholics, and about 513,000 went to Sunday Mass. In 2008, he says, there were 740,000 Catholics in the diocese, and only 207,000 were going to Sunday mass.
We reiterate a statement from the diocese:
"It is sadly, very disappointing that someone would resort to a tactic such as secretly taping a meeting. We continue to pray that the individual involved will grow in understanding the Catholic Faith and the mission of the Church."
Friday, November 19, 2010
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3 comments:
Tom,
Many of us felt the same way, and I’m embarrassed for Channel 8, carrier of the Mass for Shut-Ins. It was obviously a desperate and cheap attempt to boost ratings during this “Sweeps Week.” I would suggest you and all your friends forward their opinions to Fox 8 News in Cleveland. You may be one small voice, but I was told one letter represents a significant number of people.
And I repeat...BRAVO TOM!!! This is exactly how we felt, also. What a low and dirty trick. And, actually, the bishop didn’t say anything offensive. He just explained the reason the closings were necessary. True, you may feel bad about the closing of a particular church; but nothing was said that could have offended anyone. I fault Fox News for advertising and playing this up as a big expose’. Also, that woman said he was calling her a bad Catholic. He never said that. He only said she didn’t understand the whole picture. But I am willing to say that she’s a bad Catholic, and, as Tom said, holds the whole congregation of Practicing Catholics up to ridicule.
Going into the bishop’s office with a hidden tape recorder, perhaps hoping to get the bishop to make harsh statements, is called entrapment which even legitimate law enforcement officers are prohibited from doing.
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