When Catholic news breaks, cable pundits seek divine analysis
by Michael O'Loughlin
National reporter October 31, 2014
Earlier this month, news that the Archdiocese of New York and the Diocese of Peoria were engaged in an unusual public battle about the fate of a long-deceased archbishop’s bones brought to light one of the Catholic Church’s more misunderstood customs: the veneration of saintly relics.
But for Catholics of a certain age, seeing the name Archbishop Fulton Sheen back in the news may have conjured images not of bone fragments, but of a priest on television interpreting the world. Back then, a half century ago, Sheen was an anomaly, but today, when Catholic news breaks, viewers of cable news will often find a man in a Roman collar giving his perspective.
For seven years, Sheen hosted a primetime television show that at its height lured 30 million viewers per episode. Even during a time when Protestant America still harbored some suspicion of their “papist” neighbors, Sheen went head-to-head with Milton Berle and Frank Sinatra, winning an Emmy Award in 1952.
The media landscape nowadays, of course, would be unfathomable to Sheen, with the slicing and dicing of viewer demographics creating hundreds of networks and channels all available anytime. But Catholic priests still play a role in making sense of the day’s headlines.
http://www.cruxnow.com/life/2014/10/31/when-catholic-news-breaks-cable-pundits-seek-divine-analysis/